Charlene Yeap
Sg Ara Centre, Penang

Dear Teacher Maggie,

First and foremost, I would like to apologise for this long overdue email.
Hope this email is finding all of you at VITAL YEARS well.

The main reason for this email is we would like to express our highest
gratitude to all the teachers at VITAL YEARS for teaching Charlene at a
very young age of 20 months old. In the 2 years that she was there, we
were very impressed by her improvement in the English Language. As you
know, we moved over to Australia in August 2013. Charlene started at
Kindergarten here for the last term of year. She adapted very well and
fast at Kindergarten due to her ability to speak fluent English, once
again a very big thank you to all the teachers at VITAL YEARS. She then
started her Reception Year at St Joseph Catholic School in January 2014.

A month later when I went to pick her up from school, her Reception
teacher, Ms Kate Mensforth, told me that they had given an English test
for Charlene. Honestly, I was really taken aback by this. I then asked her
teacher why this was done and was it normal procedure for them to do it.
She said it was not normal for them to do it. She then told me that
Charlene was at level 14 in her test. I asked her to explain what does level
14 mean? Does it mean that level 14 was the poorest a child can get in a
test or how do the levels work. She laughed and say no. When children in
Australia start school at Reception Year, they start off at level 1. Level
14 is where most children are in year 2. That was the reason why they
gave Charlene an English test to see how far ahead she was. The teacher
congratulated and praised us for teaching her so well in her English. I
told her that the credit should not go towards me, but the learning centre
that we sent her to since she was 20 months old.

All children in her class would be doing sight words. Charlene’s teacher
says that she does not need to do sight words as she has already passed
that stage. She is now being given a separate syllabus to do for English
which is spelling.

We sincerely would like to thank all the teachers in VITAL YEARS (Sg Ara)
for all their teaching. It really meant heaps to us, it really helped
Charlene in adapting to a new country and place. Once again we can’t
thank all the teachers in Vitals Years enough. Especially Teacher Annie
and yourself. I would definitely recommend it to all my friends and
relatives.

Always grateful,
Raymond Yeap
Father