Before anyone starts pelting me with rotten tomatoes, I should clarify that we´re talking academic institutions and not "what I learned from life," or from the street, or from the love that so-and-so gave me. For those who feel they can impart to their children whatever is necessary so they won´t turn into spoiled brats (more on that later), and whose children can handle the rough and cruel world of a regular school, then
Saint Clare´s is in a different league among schools in Punta del Este. Warning, the English part of the website wasn't working when I checked in, although some items were available in English.
Punta del Este is a young market in terms of private education. First there were the nuns, then the IUA (Instituto Uruguayo Argentino) a solid private school with English content but not bilingual; and then, with the Argentine crisis and the migration of families in 2002-2003, an eurption in private, so-called bilingual schools, concurrently with the bankruptcy of some, (many families here couldn't pay the private school's tuitions during the economic crisis) and in March 2004, the emergence of Saint Clare's with some of the children and staff from the defunct St. Catherine's and others.
The first difference is that SC is the only
really really bilingual school in Punta del Este, where various subjects are taught in English language -- 26 hours a week of content instruction in English -- where the elementary school curriculum is organized around the Cambridge International Primary Program, and which offers the International Baccaleaureate of Geneva.
According to headmaster/principal Daniel Reta, the school at present has some 300 students, with a staff of 80, of which some 20 are foreigners. Reta is quick to mention the British Schools in Montevideo as a comparable institution, and at least we can say it's a guiding light. It should be hard to emulate what the BS has achieved in 100 years of existence, but the model is one of smart teaching, and smart learning -- rather than the Uruguayan system of rote, brain atrophing education spiced up with some English classes -- and lots of extracurricular activities.
My feeling is SC will need a few years to achieve the size, recognition and financial means that will allow them to have a large enough number of quality foreign teachers, but as Reta says, "It's not easy, you can't hire the first backpacker who stops by on his way to visit the ruins at Machu Pichu. We need the right backgrounds in education."
As an alumnus of the British Schools of Montevideo, I am well aware of the virtues and problems of the elite school. My mention above of spoiled brats is something I encountered in my own years at school, a risk my father was constantly vigilant against, what with us in school with "the children of privilege." Well, the news is that the experience is survivable. The other news is that most of the "children of privilege" later in life turn out to be normal people. And the last but most important news is that if your children turn out to be trouble like me, drop out of high-school and never really go to college, well, then you can take some comfort in the fact that they did access the best academic education they could during their elementary and secondary years.
Another aspect of SC which makes it quite unique is that it's the most international school in the country, bar none. Uruguayan students make up only 40% of the student body, with Argentines accounting for 30% and the remaining 40% divided between a host of nationalities that sounds quite exotic to my ears. Macedonian? Botswanan? Reta says the school had 55 new admissions this year, a boom for such a small school, and that they are expecting a new "Argentine invasion" for next year. He also mentions 100 new foreign families settling in Punta del Este annually, a rate which I would venture is about to increase as well.
In order to absorb such diverse new students, arriving at whatever time of the school calendar, Reta said the school has a very intense tutoring system that has children speaking either English or Spanish or both in just 6 months, coupled with summer school in the month of February. "We had German kids who arrived speaking not a word of English or Spanish" he says. "In six months they were speaking both."
Asked if the school is offering these intensive programs for adults, he said that as part of the SC University they will probably be adding English and Spanish courses for adults.
As for the fees, here it goes. There is an annual registration fee (matricula) of US$300, with up to 20% discount for advance payment.
Kinder starts at 16 months of age, with AM and PM shifts that are elective through Kinder 3, at the same cost as the full day (say, you can take your toddler only in the morning or only in the afternoon, or both morning and afternoon, it always costs the same) and starts at US$200 per month, increasing progressively up to US$380 per month for Kinder 5.
For elementary grades 1 through 6 the monthly fee is US$440, for Junior High 1 through 3 it's US$470, High-School 4 it's US$520 per month and for the International Baccalaureate, grades 5 and 6 of secondary school, the monthly cost is US$610.
There is a discount for second child of 10%, and of 20% for a third child. Other discounts may apply for advance payment of the monthly fee... but better ask the school for that. Also, they do offer some scholarships for new admissions into certain grades when they have gender imbalances...
Please note that the figures in US$ are my conversions from the peso figure as of yesterday, and that they may vary with the currency fluctuation (they should have been lower all last year) and are adjusted annually, in pesos, according to inflation.
598 42 490 200 / California corner with Los Medanos / info@stclares.edu.uy
