Last week, I was invited to visit the Reedley International School located in Libis, Quezon City for a round table discussion about common issues each parent and student faces in  the school during this generation Z. Issues such as academic excellence and assessment, social interaction, personality development and bullying were discussed.

Along with other mommy bloggers, we met Emil Ong, Director for School Development,  Joy Laureola, Head of External Affairs, Jo Anne Bilo the Middle School Principal and Vida Bautista the Head Life Coach for Middle School.

At the beginning of the discussion, Reedley presented their unique approach to education. The measure of success for a Reedley student is if he is kind, has friends and excels academically. Reedley empowers the students to  manage healthy family and peer relationships through their Life Skills Curriculum, Study Skills, Time Management and Conflict Resolution and Anti-Bullying Campaigns.

Their anti-bullying campaigns have been successful as they implement a zero tolerance for bullying in and out of the campus. They have programs set for the whole school year. It includes contract signing and pledging of both students and teachers, the students also gets pins like the one in the photo. They also have film showing, poster making contests, essay writing contests, pirate family month, video presentations and kindness overdose. Kindness overdose is a program where students from upper school 1 were pair with students from upper school level 3, and upper school level 2 students were paired with upper school level 4 to become lunch buddies. This way, all the students are reminded to be kind to all students even if they don’t know each other very much.

During the discussion, there were 2 boys who actually shared their experience being bullied before in their previous schools and how happy they are in Reedley now. It was terrifying to hear the stories from the actual victims. I am glad that the 2 boys are now in a better school environment.

To maximize learning in the classroom setup, Reedley implements a small class size of 18 in lower school, 20 in middle school and 25 in upper school levels. They also use personalized merits and do not implement the usual top 10 academic excellence award systems. Each child can receive an award based on where he excelled during the school year. A progress chart is easily accessible so it is easy for each child to know exactly where he stands in his academic subjects. Thus, allowing him to seek help from academic teachers for free tutorial session. Each child has 16 hours of tutorial per term. They use authentic assessment method to measure the child’s learning progress.

After listening to the discussion, I can honestly say that Reedley’s system is somewhat close to the homeschool setup. The reason why one homeschools is because you want to ensure that your kids learn at their pace and do not need to compete with one another. They excel as they develop their potentials. They also grow socially and learn about life issues. I also like the small class setup. If Reedley is near where we are located and if we can afford their tuition fee, Reedley International School would definitely be one of my top choices for my children should we decide to enroll them in conventional schools again.

(photo source: MyMomFriday)