Bibinogs - My bad experience with them

[dewdew]

Hi All,

I would like to share the awful experience I had with Bibinogs. For those who are signing up for their toddlers programmes, do look through their clauses carefully and be sure that you understand them. Once you signed the contract, they do not do any follow ups with you and if anything happened, you are the one who have overlooked the matters. dont't be taken in by the teachers' beautiful promises, always check with the centre directly if you are unsure about anything instead of just buying the teachers' words (as suggested by the Director herself) and be sure that all these are captured in emails.

My son attended their weekend Bubbly Babes Programme at Serene Centre and out of the 12 lessons he attended, there was only once that the number of students in the class is above 4. Average number of students in each lesson is about 2-3 and that's so pathetic! I dont't expect too much for such a young class, but I was hoping that my son could gain more interactive and social skills by attending these lessons. To my disappointment, I was always the one interacting with him in the class! Because their class does not have the requirement on the minimum number of students, each week I bring my son to lesson with fear that he may end up being the only student in class (which happened to other student!) Toddlers on trial lessons come and go and there is no fixed classmates for him. I really regretted signing up this course because I've paid so much and yet I've gained nothing but wasted my precious weekend time. And at the end of the day, I didn't even manage to get my deposit back!

 

[janmii]

Hi dew dew, I actually just attended a Bubbly Babes weekend class yesterday at Bibinogs Serene Centre! Not sure if it is the same class as the one you are talking about. Not that small a class though, we had 5 babies today and my baby was the only trial student, and we did signed up for the class eventually too. Actually when I called them 3 weeks ago to arrange a trial, they did tell me that the class was small at that time, but said that this week is the beginning of the new term and they have more students joining from this week, which was why I arranged for my trial to be this week. I think if you had stayed on, we may have met then. I actually found the class to be very enjoyable, the class was well run and the teachers are very engaging. Maybe because I prefer smaller setting, I think at Bibinogs they only take up to 8 students each time, which is a big plus for me. My second son was at Bibinogs for 3 terms for the baby class last time before I moved him to JG for a change of envrionment, but we had a culture shock at JG because the weekend class there is soooo big. I found big classes a bit messy and my son gets distracted very easily. In fact I want to switch him back to the 2.5 years old at Bibinogs when his term finishes at JG next month.

Actually, if you prefer bigger classes, you can try out JG at Forum, it is pretty nice too if you don't mind having 15 babies with the occassional chaos.

Sometimes I think class size is very hard for school to control. When my eldest son attended the Mandarin class at JG, they had 6 students. But as the week goes by, on many occassions he only has 2 students in his class and was the only 1 on one occassion too, the kids in his class just take turns to be absent, nothing the teachers could do with that. But I really don't mind as I think my son gets more attention from his Mandarin teacher, which he badly needs it...

Good luck to your search for the next school for your baby! :tlaugh:

 

[dewdew]

Hi Janmii,
I do agree that the class is enjoyable and teachers are engaging. When we were on trial lesson, there were about 4 or 5 students and I think it is a gd number too. The teacher has also told me that there will be about 5 students the next term. Before I signed up the course, I actually asked the teacher if make-up lesson can be done on weekend as we are not able to make it on weekdays. She explained to me the rules but also said that the centre is able to make some arrangement for parents who can't make it on weekdays. Eventually I signed up for the rest of the terms as well as for the next term.

Everthing is fine only when our boy fell sick and couldn't make it on one lesson. I called the centre up and checked on the make-up lesson. The Owner of the centre rejected our request straight away and we had quite a heaty conversation with her. We were also trapped by the clause indicating that we have to have a written notice to the centre if we want to discontinue to the next term. We were upset that we have overlooked that clause and that the centre did not highlight or follow up with us on week 5. We chose to forfeit the deposit as we really didn't want to continue to the next term due to the points that I have mentioned before.

All in all, i feel that the teachers are fine and I actually quite like them. The only part which I kind of don't appreciate in the class is when the teachers are switching over to the mandarin part. Their pronounciation in mandarin (1-10) isn't right. And of course, I also don't like the way the owner handle things which makes me feel very lousy at the end of the term. Its good for you that the class size now is about 5 this term. I should have postponed my boy's lessons to this term and certainly be great if I'm able to meet you!

 

[janmii]

Hi dew dew,

I guess if you had signed up your baby for this term, maybe things would indeed be better for you!

To be quite honest, I was quite surprised with your experience with Bibinogs. Being a returning parent, i actually found Bibinogs to be one of the more flexible schools around (I also read from other forums that parents want to return to them after trying out other baby classes). See, I have 3 kids, and we basically tried all types of schools and classes from my first son onwards, and as with the many rules that all schools have, I appreciated Bibinogs giving make-up classes if we cannot make it to the class. For many reputable schools that we've been to, make-up classes are a definite no-no, even if the child catches pro-longed illness like HFMD, it is just bad luck and you just have to forgo your classes. This is a first-hand experience with my first son when we practically burnt 2 weeks of classes at one of the schools in the Orchard area when he caught HFMD. I know at Bibinogs, if something like this happens, you just need to give them medical proof and you can do make-up classes to catch up on the lessons you missed, but you need to finish all classes in the same term. I thought this is rather reasonable.

Then when my second son was attending Bibinogs, I was pregnant with the No. 3 and had some complications with the pregancy. I spoke to the school to see if I can postpone my son's lessons as I would not be able to take him to classes in my condition. The owner was very understanding, she did asked for a letter from my doc to verify my condition and with that they gladingly let me postpone my son's classes for two whole terms! During the same time, my son was also taking classes with another school in Novena, given the same condition, that other school just turned me down point blank and insisted that I find my own solution to get someone else to take my son to class! Again, placing my pregnancy as priority, we stopped my son's lesson and had to just forgo the fees that we already paid in that school in Novena and also the deposit for not serving early notice!:elvis:

In any case, these are just some of my personal experiences with schools, and I am sure your experiences are just as valid given your situation. On the part of your deposit being forfeited, you may want to be more mindful the next time you sign your baby up for classes, as most schools that I know of have that and none that I know will remind you, we just need to be mindful on when to serve notice to withdraw. Otherwise, we just have to accept the fact that we are not going to get your money back, like what happened to me with the Novena school in the past.

I certainly hope you will find something nice for your baby soon, and I am sure you will! Most importantly, enjoy the time you spend with your baby in class, as I strongly believe that accompanied classes need to be enjoyable for the parent too as these are the memories that accompany your baby's growth! :001_302: