Bangkok - School Report Question and Answers
How is the overall communication between teachers and parents, and the administration and parents? How is communication facilitated?
Overall the communication is good. If I email the teachers or the Family Support Team, I receive timely responses. My only critique is that they don't give us enough advance notice on events to plan for them. I found myself scrambling to get costumes for the Christmas holiday show or for the themed character book parade. Communication is facilitated through email, Seesaw, and Moodle. They also lack in telling people when event comes with additional fees. - Aug 2023
This is the single biggest source of dissatisfaction for the following reasons, in my opinion: 1. There is no effective communication between administration and parents and it can feel that parents are left in the dark. Although there is a lot of information directed to parents via email (3-5 emails per week with plenty of announcements), there is no feedback loop to parents that would ensure effective communication. 2. This year we were frankly surprised by the school when we were made aware of the "progressive" view the school holds on topics which are increasingly controversial worldwide (Gender Identity etc.). In my opinion, we were misled when the topics of "health and wellbeing" (Sexuality & Gender Identity) were discussed during a meeting in which the school attempted to gain our trust by assuring us that all topics for 10 year olds would be based on a scientific approach. We were dismayed when there was a joint middle and high school session on GSA (Gender and Sexualities Alliance - an activist group that promotes trans ideology and political subjects - cancel the police, etc.) in which the students talked about their "gender experience." We find the school to be highly activist on many controversial topics. This is not something we had expected at one of the most expensive private schools in Thailand. - Mar 2023
We found ISB was not transparent in some of the things it teaches students. ISB is a very progressive school that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in everything it does. This includes teaching gender identity starting in 5th grade, promoting LGBTQ issues and their Gay/Straight Alliance Club during school hours. If you are conservative, a person of faith or value traditional family values, then this school will not be a good fit for you. ISB does not let parents know in advance about the controversial issues they teach and parents have to find out on their own, unfortunately. We had several meetings with school officials asking for changes but nothing was ever done. We ended up communicating directly with the teachers and had our children opt out of several of the lessons. In retrospect, we wish we had not chosen ISB and had chosen a school in Bangkok with more traditional values and teachings. - Jan 2023
Communication through newsletters, emails, website, and phone calls on occasion were great. They left messages/emails, if they needed you to call back. - Apr 2019
Communication is great. In nursery the teacher communicates daily through a hand written note in a book that gets sent home at the end of each day. For K1 the teacher communicates once a week by email and for K2 the teacher communicates every 2 weeks by email. There are parent teacher meetings each semester and a parent coffee morning each semester. - Jun 2018
There is an over-abundance of communications. I wish they combined some of them so I didn't get so many messages from the school in a week. I've made the mistake of ignoring them only to miss notifications about school closures not listed on the school calendar. Read all the darn emails! - Jun 2018
A - Teachers and parents on a first name basis. Email and classroom blogs are used very frequently to convey any and all information. - Sep 2013
