Parent's Review of Manarat Alriyadh International School in Alriyadh, Saudi Arabia

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

Manarat Alriyadh International School

In what town or city is this school located?

Alriyadh

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

International, american/ british

What grade levels are represented at this school?

Kg- high school

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

Bus, private drivers

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

Very minimal after-school activities that I would never enroll my children in because of safety issues, and occasionally the lack of supervision.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

Absolutely nothing! They don't really care where you came from, how intelligent your child is, or how well they speak the language. The class gets filled with students and thats all they care about, the biggest number of children in each class. The smallest class in my child's third grade was 25 children per 1 teacher. Student are placed randomly in the classes, not based on back ground or grades or anything at all. So your native speaking child will be placed with children who don't really speak english very well, and most likely will be with a teacher with a really bad accent. When you ask the administration about the teachers they will say that most of them are native speakers, that is just a lie!

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

Yes there are pta meeting.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

Do not enroll your child at this school. I had 3 children in it for three years. We are Americans, the kids were bullied severely. My daughter in 4th grade was forced to sit next to a girl that kept scratching her and when she told the teacher she said I will not change your seat. I had to go talk to the girls mom myself. High school girls would push her and other lower grade girls around, and one time it resulted in her getting hurt after school and bleeding a little, when she showed the section monitor, she told her" i cant help you, i am going home now" she came home crying, luckily it was not very serious. My 2 boys last year in 3rd and 5th grade were bullied specially the 5th grader, i went to the principal and he said he is one of the few good boys in this class the other students even give the teacher a hard time, i cant change his class because of the statistics. ie: ratio of good boys to bad boys per class. And for that reason my child had to suffer! I went another couple of times to the principal about kids bulling my child, and he told me and my son that he doesn't mind if my son hits them back, he might get suspended for a couple of days but he can hit back and defend himself. Well, my child can hit back but the only reason he won't is that he was brought up in america and he knows you shouldn't hit people in school. Administration is ridiculously unorganized, they will tell you that themselves. They always seem too busy to talk to you and when they do talk to you, they will treat you as if this is a free school, you don't pay 25000 per year or anything, and they are doing you a charity. We are still trying to withdraw the boys files. Do your child a favor and do not send them to manarat alriyadh. No safety, no proper education.

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