In Dubai, all children must be assessed prior to an offer of placement at a school. It is such a foreign notion to us and our public school upbringing that I thought I would document part of this process.
Yesterday Magnus did his assessment at one of the three schools where we have him wait-listed. This school is ranked "Good" by the education authority in the UAE. A very quick overview:
Pros: Will allow Magnus to start KG1 in Sept 2013 (so he will be youngest in his class); We have several good friends with kids at this school
Cons: Most expensive school (tuition is almost double); Very far (20 minutes highway driving)
The assessment was the interesting part. At the appointment time, they asked us to take our children to the library. The library was set up with desks - 1 teacher per desk. Magnus was appointed to a specific teacher, and he was seated across from her. I sat next to Magnus.
I was not aware that I was supposed to leave him. Nobody briefed me about this. Halfway through the assessment the teacher whispered to me, "is there a reason why you are still here? The assessment will be better if you are not here." I was not very impressed with that, but it did give me the opportunity to watch the first half of the assessment.
- She asked Magnus his name, his age, and where he was from.
- She gave him a six-piece puzzle and asked him to construct it. The puzzle pieces were all numbered. She asked him what the numbers were randomly.
- She took out a toy with multicoloured pieces. They were little camels that connected (the mouths would snap into the tail of the camel in front). She asked him to connect the pieces, and in the process tested his knowledge of colours.
At this point she asked me to leave. Magnus had aced everything up to this point. I was a little nervous about the puzzle because he doesn't like doing puzzles at home, but he totally loved doing this elephant puzzle!
Before we left, Magnus wanted to show me what he "drawed" for me. I used this as an excuse to go back to the assessment desk to pick up the paper he was drawing on. I could see that the teacher had written some letters of the alphabet, mostly upper case. But then I also saw that she had written two lower case letters. I also saw an attempt by Magnus to write his own name. I could see the M A and G, but the rest was not really there. He had also scribbled some kind of drawing. His usual mish mash of nothing in particular.
So I think he did pretty well as the assessment. We will hear the results next week!
Yesterday Magnus did his assessment at one of the three schools where we have him wait-listed. This school is ranked "Good" by the education authority in the UAE. A very quick overview:
Pros: Will allow Magnus to start KG1 in Sept 2013 (so he will be youngest in his class); We have several good friends with kids at this school
Cons: Most expensive school (tuition is almost double); Very far (20 minutes highway driving)
The assessment was the interesting part. At the appointment time, they asked us to take our children to the library. The library was set up with desks - 1 teacher per desk. Magnus was appointed to a specific teacher, and he was seated across from her. I sat next to Magnus.
I was not aware that I was supposed to leave him. Nobody briefed me about this. Halfway through the assessment the teacher whispered to me, "is there a reason why you are still here? The assessment will be better if you are not here." I was not very impressed with that, but it did give me the opportunity to watch the first half of the assessment.
- She asked Magnus his name, his age, and where he was from.
- She gave him a six-piece puzzle and asked him to construct it. The puzzle pieces were all numbered. She asked him what the numbers were randomly.
- She took out a toy with multicoloured pieces. They were little camels that connected (the mouths would snap into the tail of the camel in front). She asked him to connect the pieces, and in the process tested his knowledge of colours.
At this point she asked me to leave. Magnus had aced everything up to this point. I was a little nervous about the puzzle because he doesn't like doing puzzles at home, but he totally loved doing this elephant puzzle!
Before we left, Magnus wanted to show me what he "drawed" for me. I used this as an excuse to go back to the assessment desk to pick up the paper he was drawing on. I could see that the teacher had written some letters of the alphabet, mostly upper case. But then I also saw that she had written two lower case letters. I also saw an attempt by Magnus to write his own name. I could see the M A and G, but the rest was not really there. He had also scribbled some kind of drawing. His usual mish mash of nothing in particular.
So I think he did pretty well as the assessment. We will hear the results next week!
I would like to add the drawing part,entitled "Mommy is missing",he drew a patch of greens,no mommy!!!! Isnt that clever,LOL!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, but he drew that at school, not at the assessment.
ReplyDelete