Somtawin School. 80,000baht year. scabies. no toilets filth.

[Willow]

wow, i have not been on this site for awhile. my daughter attended the school last year as a 6th grader. it was terrible then, but, now, a crisis.

she did not learn much, but her social life was a blast. most of her time was taken up rehearsing for the talent show, dancing and applying tons of make up so the girls could all look and gyrate like bar girls.

her phillipino math teacher called her "useless american." he would not answer any questions and most of his classes failed every exam.

we are back in the u.s. now and i am homeschooling to try to bring her up to a 7th grade math level.

while there, i attended a meeting of concerned parents. we made a list of topics to be discussed with khun wanna and another meeting was scheduled. as far as i know, she stonewalled all questions and not much was done.

i am so sad for all the students who have suffered at this school. you are right about it all being for the money and yes, they are not an "international school".

by the way, i could not get any documents stating she had completed 6th grade. can anyone supply me with an email or regular address for the school??

good luck to all you parents. i hope you find a solution to this very serious situation.

[gj]

Reading this information about Somtawin school is really is putting me off from moving to Hua Hin from Bangkok but has any parent or teacher information on Samroiyod school.
I understand it has a bi-lingual section but I have no other information

[mil_dos]

For a real English language education with a recognisable curriculum then it's Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket or Chang Mai.

If there was a decent alternative in Hua Hin or nearby then we'd be living here full time.

There are encouraging rumours of a real international school opening but I first heard them over 2 years ago and nothing seems to have developed.

[JWS]

After 18months we removed our daughter from the school before the start of the this year. I thought about jumping on the band wagon and describing our experience but during my school rehab I am emotionally over Somtawin. For anyone committed in finding an alternative, it is possible to legally have a homeschool, naturally there are conditions, but I would advise speaking to a well established lawyer, we took advice from Sunbelt Asia in Bangkok and they could give the details required. There is also another link from someone researching starting an international school in Hua Hin, if you are serious about your child's future, start a campaign, it will not change by itself. Why accept the only school available?

[Thaiclan]

You can legally homeschool your own children, and you can set up a homeschool for a max of 8 kids without needing a school license. BUT, you cannot teach in a homeschool until you have a teachers license, and this is only obtainable if you work for a school recognised by the Education Ministry. Its a catch 22!!
Further to the Somtawin saga, since the initial post 5 native English teachers have quit, and a further 2 are leaving at the end of this semester. Thats from a total of 12 English "native" teachers.
The "Head" was dismissed (for airing his concerns about the quality of schooling) and has been replaced by a native English woman who is neither a teacher, or had any experience with teaching before arriving in Thailand. The farce just goes from strength to strength!

[alleykat]

The toilets were usually blocked up every day after lunch over 2years ago. They were actually in the classrooms. There were no other toilets for students on the English Program to use.
And also no air-con. Some days the teachers shirts were covered in sweat stains after being at work for 30 minutes.

[James61]

What a disgrace to Hua Hin and Thailand that fake school is. Amazing Thailand that the owners are still getting away with fraud like that and that they have such little respect for children. I hope the extra money they are stealing of us brings them some comfort and love because they need to feel some love to get over their selfishness.

The current rumour is an international school in bangkok called yamsaad (clean yam?) has raised a site and is currently building a wide entrance road to it to build the school. Bottom of viewpoint hill.
I will check it out latter as it's the cleaner who is saying it and in the past has being full of empty talk. She insists there is a big sign up confirming what she says.

[Governor]

There certainly is a sign up where you say, I pass it daily when I'm in Hua Hin, but I certainly have not seen any signs of building.

Not confident that it will be built before our kids get married, they are 4 & 5 already.

[lomuamart]

I'm just asking a question here, so don't jump down my throat. However,
I don't have any children and I'm semi-retired in Thailand. I'm 48 years old. Peers of my age, from university, who I've known for 30 years have started families, but only a few years ago. The ladies in these equations were inspirational. Very powerful people, I kid you not.
So, I suppose my question is:
Why do people of an age bring their children over here in the first place? Is it for them? Or is it for you?

[lomuamart]

I will emphasise that I'm not talking about ex-pats who get moved over here on the whole package. I'm not talking about people who have lived here for years and have kids.
I'm talking about education.
Why would any parent want to move from farangland and bring their kids over here as well?

[exman]

Hi everybody

Im not happy about the situation in Somthawin school.
I have a chilld who have been in this school more than 2 years and from the beginning mostly was ok and they have a very good teacher let call him Mr B, but after about a year he left the school because of the salary and the way they run the school.NOT FUNNY but we have not so many choice if we dont want to move to Bangkok.......Next good teacher to leave was the hard but populair teacher...let call him Dr A....and this is so sad that they not keep the strong and good ones.
We parents dont have any choice if we dont like to move...CRAZY..we live here because we work here but Hua Hin dont have good enough school to offer...and this is so sad and frstated..We love Hua Hin but we are not satisfieid
with some school.........
My son will left this school next year but why can we not have a good choice today....I hope somebode from this school will take this seriously and make some positive changes but...I dont believe in santa claus either.

Exman

[Big Boy]

lomuamart wrote:

Why would any parent want to move from farangland and bring their kids over here as well?

I look around and see what's happening around me. Farangland isn't all that its made out to be - huge inflation (petrol, gas, electricity, council tax, house prices etc etc), although the government seems think it is successfully hiding the increase in inflation.

For the average youngster, I see opportunities getting less and less ie:

1. Today's kids are almost forced into some form of higher education because there are so few jobs available to them. I've seen so many kids work their way through university, getting themselves and their parents in to so much debt on the way, only to find the best job they can get is stacking shelves at Asda or Tesco, after obtaining their treasured degree. My son has some ambition for life in Thailand ie he intends finishing his A-level schooling, and then attending university. At the end of it, he intends getting a teaching position somewhere in Thailand teaching English and/or PE. Additionally, I've mentioned several times before that he is quite proficient at Karate, currently in the England squad training for the European Championships in Norway next year, and the World Championships in Japan the following year. He intends starting his own karate school - more as a hobby than a full time business.

2. These kids who are forced to start their adult lives in debt have virtually no chance of getting in to the housing market without guaranteeing themselves debt for what will be almost the entirety of their working lives. If we move to Thailand, I will be able to buy him his own house. Any money he earns, can then be spent on life rather than constantly having to pay back the bank.

3. The NHS post code lottery. You pay your National Insurance all of your life only to find that when you're ill, you can't have the medication to make you feel better because your post code is not on the approved list. Thailand may not have a NHS, but at least you're not forced to pay for something that turns out to be a post code lottery.

4. Finally (there are many other reasons, but I think I've made point), I look around, and wonder what nationality England is these days. There are so many Eastern Europeans now living in the UK taking UK jobs etc. It is going to get worse next year when 2 more countries join. In addition to the EEC problems, we seem to be importing from countries such as Somalia, and the Philipines at a high rate of knots.

I really have had enough of the UK, and I can't see much future for so many youngsters. My son is not daft, he can see the writing on the wall as well. His spoken Thai is fair, although he will have some work to do on his written Thai - he has a vision, and I'm sure he has the determination to see it through.

Maybe one advantage my son has over some is that he is entitled to Thai Nationality, so working etc will not be a problem.

If any of the above sounds racist, then I can assure you, it is not, with the exception of French people, I have not got a racist bone in my body. I have just said it how I see it walking around the UK.

[DawnHRD]

Think I know who Mr B was, Exman. If I'm right, I agree he was a good caring teacher. He tried to educate the kids socially as well & get them involved in charity work & the community. You're right - that's exactly the sort of teacher they need to keep!

[PeteC]

If we move to Thailand, I will be able to buy him his own house. Any money he earns, can then be spent on life rather than constantly having to pay back the bank.

This may really be getting off thread but I think needs to be said. Not just concerning your specific circumstances BB, regarding your son and family. But....what character does it build if we give our kids the kind of things you suggest that we had to work damn hard for?

Yes, of course, we all think we know our childrens mentality but many times as time goes on, we all get surprised that one day things are taken for granted and BIG SHOCK when we say...no more!

I still think being a safety net in the background and first seeing our kids initiative to achieve what they want is a better route. Pete

[exman]

Of cousre you are right ...I ment Mr Br.......

Most of the parents have confidence and trust for him so ....its sad BUT real life.
If we want to come here and think everything will went well...then we need to wake up but Thailand have so much lifequality to give us and so much fun so we need to stop sometimes and realize that all countries have good and bad things...but still I WANT A BETTER SCHOOL..in HH
MR Exman with somel complains.