Class room size for 4yr olds

I have just found out through another parent my daughter's bi-lingual kindie will be merging with the other class. Currently she is in a class of 14 students and this will increase to 26. I am upset that the school never notified us of this change when they asked us to advise them whether we intended to stay at the school for the following school year. No one at home is a mandarin speaker and feel this could have a huge impact on her learning.


We pay $4,500 a month for this school which is not cheap and as a family who are not on an expat package, we chose this school for its classroom size in K1. We also have to pay an extra $2,000 for school stationery etc.


I am meeting with the Head on Monday to convey my and other parents concerns over these changes that we were NOT informed about.


Any thoughts anyone that I am justified in my concern of my daughter's learning with such a large class size?

I think that 26 in a class is quite the norm for Hong Kong, actually some have more. It's crowded, but that is Hong Kong, my child in nursery has about 30 in his class, but there are 4 staff per class (2 teachers, 2 assistants) so I actually think it's kind of good that there is someone watching all the time albeit in a small learning environment. In a western country my experience of daycare was much more casual with kids between 2-7 all in free play with the staff mostly being very young girls supervising, resulting is playground "tiffs" and little kids getting hurt by older kids often, and as the premises are large staff can't watch them all all the time, but in HK they can! Regarding the fact your weren't told the class size was changing is totally crap. Re the $4,500 per month, if it is for language reasons you can put you child in a local kindy for under $1000 a month if you are entitled to the government rebate and are happy for them to speak Cantonese over Mandarin. Which school is your child at if you don't mind me asking?

There will only be 2 teachers, one speaking English and the other English/Mandarin.

Esf Kindies have up to 24 in a class, with 1 teacher and 1 assistant. The pre school I'm at will have a max of 20 kids with 3 teachers/assistants. So schools vary.

That said I do think they should have told you the classes were merging, and let you decide if you wanted your child to continue.

And have never heard of paying a stationery fee. The first time we had to buy 'books, etc' was in secondary, and the yr 7 book pack is around $300. Although in primary 3 upwards, the kids have to take their own pencils, dictionarys etc, no way does it amount to more than a couple of hundred dollars.