Help!ba High School /st. Max.kolbe/islands/washington/bdays

[expatriada]

Hello everybody,

I've sent this message to Women's forum but I haven´t any answer so I've decided to write another one here and maybe I could get some help about schools in Buenos Aires.
I’m spanish, I will be moving to BsAs in august 2013 with my husband, two daughters (ages 8 and 4) and one son (age 6). We are thinking to live in Belgrano as it seems a good place for families and it’s also near my husband’s office. We are seeking suggestions for English-bilingual schools in Belgrano/Colegiales. Please tell me any suggestions about English schools in Buenos Aires, I’ve read a lot in forum but I haven´t opinions of family with kids in these type of schools. We’d like a school with high level in English, not too many kids for class, a family school....better if there are foreigners students also...and we are a little frightened about fancy birthday’s parties, spoiled kids...healthy people..we’d like to have references about some schools: Buenos Aires High School /San Maximiliano Kolbe/Islands of Belgrano/Master School/Buenos Aires Day School /St. Martin in The Fields/Washington School. I would like them to go to a bilingual school and have them socialize with other expat kids.
Thank you very much for any kind of help about schools in Buenos Aires!! Also I need help to find houses or apartament furnished for a family, if you know any interesting web please tell me..we are a bit worry about security..

saludos!

 

[Gringoboy]

Some of the best bilingual schools are in Zona Norte....Olivos for example.
San Nicolas, Northlands, Lincoln, St Andrews etc.

 

[expatriada]

Thank you Gringoboy, but maybe these schools are too far away from we´d like to live, near my husband´s job..and someone has told us that traffic in Buenos Aires could be a problem..we are going to have only a car..I´d like to have pediatrician near..hospital if it´s necessary..going by walk for nearly everything..maybe it could be easy for my family the day-to-day..
saludos

 

[syngirl]

Yes but those school Gringoboy mentioned also tend to be the ones with extravagant birthdays, spoiled kids (sorry, a generalization, but does tend to be more true).

There is a mother's forum (in spanish) where the mum's do pretty good run downs of their opinions after interviewing -- planetamama.com -- go to the forums section and if you type in the name of the school that you are interested in a few threads should come up. Usually women are happy to list the cuota por mes -- but check the dates, acct for about a 20-35% increase in tuition per year.

Ours is only 2 and we started investigations into schools this year but soon realised that because of his birth date he will only be in the age 2 class next march anyway, so we have decided to leave him in daycare for at least one more year. However I do have a few notes from my initial research that I can pass on -- but we looked mostly at schools closer to us so only have a few notes on the ones' you're considering apart from Islands:

BA High School -- I haven't heard much about it, it is in a very good neighbourhood. I don't think the english level is anything WOW -- bear in mind that the schools are geared towards teaching non-english speaking kids, so what a monolingual family considers a "really great level of english" is not necessarily what a native speaker considers great.

San Max -- I haven't heard of this school actually! That is not to say it is not good, I just haven't heard of it before.

Islands -- We interviewed here, loved the idea of the programme *(note I say idea, since we haven't actually sent ours there yet). They are IB so if you move away you are in theory meant to be able to enroll your child in another IB school and they don't lose any time. The organisation of the english programme is very good, what I call properly bilingual -- ie they teach other subjects in english, not just rack up 4 hrs of grammar classes like a lot of the supposedly bilingual schools do. They also introduce Italian later, it's only a few hours a week but nonetheless a 3rd language. One of the other women on the board sends hers there, says that yes the birthdays can be kind of silly, my Argentine husband assures me to ignore all that and each family should just do what they can... great, in theory but I know a lot of parents probably feel the pressure to go over the top. And of course a lot of the women are just ridiculously overdressed for the pick-up (as a mum I'm sure you know what I'm referring to, these are not necessarily women coming from the office, but SAHMs who put on all their designer clothes just to pick up the kids from school....)

Master School -- I believe this one is supposed to have a very good level of english, but honestly have not investigated

Buenos Aires Day -- I think you probably mean Belgrano Day School? It is one of the top 10 schools, very good, but I don't know if snobbishness goes hand in hand, so not sure how the "onda" is, if it's more progressive or old boy families. I completely understand trying to find a quality school that is perhaps a little more grounded. I'm not sure how the families are here, but the quality of education is supposed to be very good.

St Martin In the Fields -- from what I've heard, and perhaps I'm mistaken, this one is not worth the money they are asking. I think it is more image than quality -- perhaps someone can contradict -- it is a very nice looking school from outside however.

Washington School -- supposed to be very good quality though I know a friend of mine got extremely frustrated with just trying to get a hold of them. She called various times, actually went to the school to talk in person, and they really treated her quite poorly. Don't be put off by that, some just seem to like putting you through a lot of rigamarole.

A lot of schools are just very difficult to get through to -- and a lot (like Islands) have ridiculous forms you have to fill out with all your professional information before you can even get the first interview! It drove me nuts -- for Islands they have the option to fill out in english so I decided to be a bit ummm... grumpy... about it and "test" them -- they say fill out in english and say they are bilingual, fine I went ahead and filled it all out in english even though I have been here 8 years and could perfectly well write it all in proper spanish!

At any of these schools, there will not be all that many expats. You will be lucky if there is one other in your child's year, however there may be local children who have lived abroad at some point, and certainly there are all sorts that will go abroad for every holiday every year. Many expats send to Lincoln, or if they are French to the french school in Nunez, or they send to Northlands/St George's etc. The tuitions at these schools really are quite high, though Belgrano Day may be in the same tuition category, I'm not sure. The french school is very nice, but if you don't speak french at home it may be difficult to get your child in there after the initial year.

For a pediatrician, we love ours, though it's driving us nuts because he seems very busy always. He is in Belgrano, Vidal y Echeverria. Dr Daniel Schachmann. He is head of neonatology at Materdei and also sees patients at the clinic beside that hospital in Palermo Chico. If when you arrive you'd like to interview with him send me a PM and I can pass on his number.

Hope that helps you a bit! Try that mum's forum, they do help with some opinions.

Suerte!

 

[Gringoboy]

Yes but those school Gringoboy mentioned also tend to be the ones with extravagant birthdays, spoiled kids (sorry, a generalization, but does tend to be more true).

Agreed, traffic is a major consideration even if it's only a few blocks.
Tell me about the extravagant birthdays. USD75k is a figure I've heard for one, but I digress....................

 

[DerAchtundzwanzig]

I second Syngirl in most of the things she said. I lived in BA when I was in high school for 4 years before I came back a few years ago, and my parents sent me, precisely, to IIS (Islands). It's a good school and the IB program really helps if you're planning to relocate in the future (some universities in the US and Europe will even give you credits based on your IB score for specific courses). And it is indeed properly bilingual (every subject is taught in Spanish and English). My native language is French and I spoke almost no English when I first got here, and although I still make a few mistakes, I don't think I would have ever improved as much if I hadn't gone through a similar program in school.

However, they do have some discipline issues and the kids can be a little spoiled... Also, the owner (Estela Martínez Pallaro, second wife to the former Italian senator for Italian expatriates) is a total asshole and she treats the teachers and the staff poorly, often screaming at them in front of the children. But I heard the school is now being managed by her daughter, who was my teacher and she's really nice, so I doubt her mother is still around.

Also, the school has become a bit more exclusive over the years and they don't accept anyone who can pay tuition anymore. Last year, I recommended it to a friend who has a 6-year-old kid and his kid got rejected after going through some interviews. I think it was due to disciplinary issues, so maybe they are trying to work on that. I don't remember going through any interviews before attending, so maybe that's new.

As for the rest of the schools you mentioned, I don't think any of them are worth it. The only one that may be comparable to Islands from the ones you listed is probably Washington School, but I don't think it's an IB school and if it is, it's only very recent. Buenos Aires English High School was the first English school in BA (founded in the 19th century) but it's only elementary school. It has close ties with Islands and most students go to Islands when they finish elementary school there.

Another good school is, as many here have mentioned, Lincoln school in La Lucila, but it's not in Belgrano. Good luck!

 

[syngirl]

Also, the school has become a bit more exclusive over the years and they don't accept anyone who can pay tuition anymore. Last year, I recommended it to a friend who has a 6-year-old kid and his kid got rejected after going through some interviews. I think it was due to disciplinary issues, so maybe they are trying to work on that. I don't remember going through any interviews before attending, so maybe that's new.

I think for early entry (ie inicial) to Islands, as long as they have a place you will be accepted (I suspect that if it comes down to 2 different families competing, they will go for the family with the "better" profile. They did say that after a certain age, I cannot remember if it was age 5, 6, or when, they do have to do an entrance exam / interview.

Yes the Buenos Aires High School is a bit of a misnomer.... it doesn't actually have a high school.

 

[Montauk_Project]

There is another route: enroll your children in a Spanish speaking school, most have half day programs. Then enroll in English activities in the afternoon. You have more less snobby options.
That being said, my sister in law sends her kid to a very middle class private school, and I still think the parties are over the top! The minimum is a few entertainers and an inflatable jumpy thing. What some parents do is share the costs with another family who has a birthday near-by.

 

[trennod]

There is another route: enroll your children in a Spanish speaking school, most have half day programs. Then enroll in English activities in the afternoon. You have more less snobby options.
That being said, my sister in law sends her kid to a very middle class private school, and I still think the parties are over the top! The minimum is a few entertainers and an inflatable jumpy thing. What some parents do is share the costs with another family who has a birthday near-by.

A jumping castle? Loved them as a kid!!!

 

[syngirl]

Actually a friend of mine got the bouncy castle for her son's birthday -- it was a total bargain compared to other entertainment, a few hundred pesos for 6 hrs -- it's just a generator and a few pieces of tarpaulin. If you have the space to put it it's a lot of amusement for a pretty low price.