Mother-tongue courses at Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai F.A.Q.

Mother-tongue courses at Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai

Dear SISD Parents,

We are glad to inform you about the possibility of enrolling your child in additional Language courses at SISD.

Classes are arranged during school hours against Islamic studies slots (80 min per week) and are run by certified native-speaking teachers with more than 5 years of experience, who tailor the courses to the level of the participants.

At the moment we are running Italian, Spanish and Russian mother-tongue courses, and other languages such as German, French, Swedish, Dutch, Hindi, Portuguese, and Chinese can also be offered on demand.

Fees:

• Italian mother tongue for Primary students (Grade 1-5) is provided by SISD free of charge. Please note that students should have a certain knowledge of the language (at least speaking skills) in order to be accepted to this course.
• Italian for Secondary students, Spanish, Russian, German, French, Dutch, Hindi, Portuguese, Chinese - AED 4150 for the whole academic year (80min/week)
• Swedish course - AED 6000 for the whole academic year (80min/week)

If you are interested in signing up, kindly fill a Google form link that will be provided to you.

Assessment and grouping:

• on receiving the inquiries through the Google form we analyse the students´ age, level and programme needed
• once we reach a minimum number of interested students by level, we contact the parents and offer to register (if you haven´t been contacted it means there is no suitable class for your child yet)
• the starting date is confirmed individually on receiving all the registrations (in order to register you will need to pay half of the year´s fee through the online payment link).

Who can participate:

• Grade 1-11 students who are eligible to miss Arabic A and Islamic A classes are welcome to join

• PKG-KG2 students, as well as students who attend Arabic A and Islamic A classes, cannot participate in the course during school hours and can be offered to join Language ASAs insteadIf there is no suitable class for your child during school hours, you can opt for Language ASA.

For more information regarding the course, kindly check the F.A.Q. below.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

F.A.Q.

1. What is the price of the course? How many classes are supposed to be done in a year?

The fee is calculated and fixed for a standard academic year of 36 weeks counting from the second Monday in September - it´s 4150 AED for 80min a week. The number of classes can vary from year to year, however, the annual price remains the same.

2. When can a new batch start?

A group can start once there are 3-4 inquiries of matching age, level, convenient schedule. In case we do not get at least 2 participants at the start of semester 2, the batch is dissolved.

3.How is the payment taken?

The payment is taken by semesters (twice a year).

For students signing up at the beginning of the school year it is split into 2 equal parts (2075 AED each).

The 1st installment is to be done before the 1st session. The 2nd one - by the start of semester 2 (first class in January).

Kindly note all the fees are non-refundable.

4. Can a student join in the middle of the course?

Yes. For students who join in the middle of the course we deduct the classes they missed (57 AED per session) by the 1st session attended from the annual price.

For example, in case a student is joining a group after 5 sessions were done, the payment will be calculated and taken in the following way:

2075-57*5= 1790AED for semester 1

2075AED – for semester 2

Total price: 3865AED

If a student is joining a group from the second semester or later we check how many classes he missed. For example, it´s 25 classes, then the payment will be calculated in the following way:

Total price:

4150-57*25=2725AED for the whole year taken at once.

5. Are the classes during school holidays included in the price?

The course goes in line with the school academic calendar. The classes during school midterm, winter and spring breaks are not included in the annual price. Ramadan period is included in the fee.

For Ramadan period we negotiate with the school and arrange the classes in the school premises with a slightly different schedule, offered by school staff. In case we are not allowed to arrange the same, we are offering to run the classes in our office in Knowledge Park, choosing the best possible timing for the teacher and the students. In case you are not able to bring your child to our office, the money for the month will be credited to you for the next year.

6. Where can I make the payment?

The payment is to be done directly to us. You can either complete it online by card or through bank transfer.

7. Do you offer make-up classes for the classes missed due to the kid being sick/personal reasons/school events/ early release days/force majeure?

In such cases make-up classes are not offered and the classes are not to be refunded. The annual fee was initially calculated considering the possibility of such cancellations, therefore the price of our classes is considerably less, compared to the market prices.

In case of class cancellation from our side, we will offer a make-up session/credit to the next semester/year for you.

8. What happens if the batch gets dissolved from semester 2 due to not reaching min number of participants?

For those students who have paid for the whole year we can make a refund or offer a credit note (for the remaining classes).

For those students who have paid for semester 1 only no refunds are offered.

9. Are there siblings’ discounts?

We are offering 10% discount for families with 3 kids attending our group classes.

10. What shall a student bring to class?

All necessary materials shall be provided by us. The students are requested to bring 2 notebooks, and stationary. Sometimes a teacher asks to bring A4 folders to store print-outs, you will be advised on the same after several lessons.

11. What if my child (his class) is put on quarantine and cannot attend the offline class?

You can ask the office to connect the kid to the class online. Kindly do the same well in advance (1 day) so that the teacher could bring a laptop and arrange a Zoom meeting.

Unfortunately, no make-up sessions/credit notes can be offered. In case the whole group was quarantined we can either cancel the lesson and offer a make-up session or run the class online.

12. Are there any special offers in terms of the price in case my child will be able to attend only several classes from the course (due to clashes in the schedule/travelling, etc.)?

Yes, in this case you can pay for a certain number of lessons you are planning to attend in the term (the payment is taken termly). The price will be 100AED per session, the rest of the conditions will remain the same – please note that if your child will miss a session due to being sick/family reasons, force majeure, etc., these classes will not be compensated in any form.

Important notes

Learning process. Materials

• We are striving to keep the same teacher throughout the whole course. However, in exceptional cases we reserve the right to replace a teacher.
• We kindly ask you to make sure your child is doing homework (if any) and does not miss classes as it will affect the outcome of the course. If you haven´t received homework in WhatsApp chat/email and the kid does not have notes on the same, please contact us.
• If you wish to get some feedback on your child's performance please do not hesitate to contact us. Normally the teachers are preparing students´ reports twice a year.
• Please let us know if you wish to focus on certain things during the course, get less/more homework, etc.
• Other students can join group classes for trial sessions in the middle of the course, however only those who fit (according to the teacher) will be accepted to proceed in the same group.

Online classes

• We are using Zoom for online classes. Once you are registered for the course you will get a link, login and password.
• In case a student does not connect to the class and the teacher informs us on the same in due time we do our best to reach the parents. However kindly note we do not oblige ourselves to remind about the class and ask to connect once it’s started.
• In case the teacher is using a certain book during the lessons you can ask the office to print a copy for your child free of charge. Once ready you will need to pick up the book from our office.

Communication

• Please note our working hours Monday - Friday - 09:00-20:00, Saturday, Sunday - 10:00-19:00
• Kindly note all the messages we receive in WhatsApp are marked as Read on default (however it does not mean we actually read them). There might be a delay in getting a reply in WhatsApp due to the large number of messages, please feel free to drop a call in WhatsApp to bring attention +971521203278
• For urgent matters please call the office +97143839210

Special conditions

• In case your child has special medical conditions/allergies, etc. we kindly ask you to inform us about the same before the start of the course.
• If you are strongly opposed to your child being photographed/recorded in class please let us know in advance (kindly note that we always ask for prior parents’ permission before posting any materials in social media, websites, etc).