Supervision

Service “supervision” is in demand among parents who want to control the life and study of their child in any international school, to correctly understandeverything that is happening, and to be able to influence events at any time. And do it on time.

We provide a supervision service both to parents who contact us to find the right school, and to those whose children are admitted to  school without our participation.

Regardless of the country in which the children study, be it the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Georgia, UAE, China or any other country where the child is taught inEnglish.

The secondary education system of British and international schools is fundamentally different from the system in the CIS, primarily in the maximum protection of parents from the learning process. The foreign parent receives a report & assessment (report card + teacher comments), usually 3-5 times a year, and that's it. You need to be able to read between the lines of the report: there will be a lot of praise and very little criticism.

It is possible that the exam grades will be low, and parents will be unpleasantly surprised. In CIS schools, it is customary for teachers to call or write to parents during the term. This does not happen in British and international schools. Only as a last resort.

To control the situation and be aware of everything that is happening, you need an intermediary who will in the correct form convey your questions and wishes: they may not respond to a rude letter and may even ask you to pick up your child from school. Often the construction of phrases that we consider acceptable are perceived as aggression in Britain.

British boarding schools do not have a service mentality, so statements like “let the school work for the money they receive” are not only inappropriate, but may also result in school-initiated termination of a student's education.

Schools respond poorly to letters. Sometimes you can wait a week, and sometimes you don’t get a response at all.

What is written in the reports and the grading system, which is different in different classes and in different programs, must be deciphered by someone. There were situations when parents mistook grades for diligence for grades in subjects, and if diligence was excellent, then with subjects the situation was exactly the opposite... Parents sometimes discovered their mistake only after a year...

Or, for example, a sports child suddenly gets a low grade in physical education! It turns out that in England they study physical education not only “in the field,” but also at the desk: muscles, loads, nutrition, etc., because you need to play sports wisely. The child scored low at his desk, and this had an impact on the overall grade. Without clarification from the consultant, parents were perplexed and scolded the school.

Sometimes children are not very proactive, and the choice of subjects for university needs to be done two years. The school actively helps, but believes that help should not only be given, but also taken. It is necessary to research the requirements of universities yourself, and no one will do this for the student.

After choosing the wrong subjects and ignoring the advice of the tutor, panic begins, universities refuse to offer a place, attempts to change subjects in order to enter the desired department, and even attempts to change schools at the last moment.

All this can be prevented if you monitor and keep the situation under control with the help of an experienced mediator – us, Paradise company.

Our services and fees

Here is a list of the many activities that we carry out throughout the year for our clients, relieving them of the hassle:

1. We help parents communicate correctly with the school: we write polite letters for them, explain what they can ask for, and when it is better to abstain.
2. We explain school reports (reports), which often seem laudatory to our parents. We help you understand what teachers are really trying to say. We translate, if necessary.
3. We send parents a calendar for the entire school year (with translation if necessary) and give advice on purchasing tickets, as well as explanations of the time of arrival/departure from or to school, since this is done at strictly established hours.
4. In case of being late for classes at the beginning of the school year/semester for valid reasons, we request the school to meet the student with a tutor, help to obtain assignments, or join the class online, which so that the student does not miss the material.
5. We make sure that the student signs up for clubs and activities and attends them. We introduce parents to the school’s opportunities, which, from experience, they are not always aware of. We recommend which clubs are worth signing up for and why (for speedy adaptation, for making friends and for strengthening your position for admission to a top university).
6. We provide «clinic schedules» - special free classes with a teacher in each subject, which students are recommended to attend if they do not understand something in the lesson. Often parents have no idea about the existence of clinics, and children do not go to them.
7. If necessary, we organize individual lessons both at school and outside of it. For example, in Russian, Ukrainian and other native languages. Or piano lessons if the student is studying at a college in London where such opportunities are not available. (these are just examples).
8. We monitor letters from the school, which often arrive in large numbers, regarding the learning process, and help you figure out what will be relevant and useful for you, and what is not so important.
9. We order and deliver certificates from an English school to present them to the child’s school in the CIS or another country in the world, provided that the child continues to study there. We agree on the opportunity for the child to take exams in his home country.
10. We request a letter from the school for parents in case of applying for a visa.
11. We remind you about payment of invoices for training and provide explanations for invoices if questions arise.
12. We provide the student's schedule indicating lesson times.
13. Register parents on the school portal and activate the portal (technical difficulties often arise).
14. We inform/remind about events at school, which it is advisable for parents to attend
15. We remind you about parent meetings and translate them if necessary (if the lesson is online)
16. If there is any misunderstanding by parents of a particular situation at school (and this happens all the time), we recommend organizing an online meeting with the house teacher or other necessary person: the head teacher, coach, assistance department for those entering the university, etc., we translate this meeting, if necessary.
17. If necessary, we schedule an online meeting with a tutor to discuss academic issues. For example, if grades cause concern
18. We will inform you about the exam schedule so that the family can adjust their plans for the summer.
19. We help with choosing subjects for GCSE, A-levels, and IB. We advise which program is better to choose - A-levels or IB, and tell their differences. We explain which subjects are reputablefrom a university perspective, and what you need to do to choose the right set of subjects for your future major.
20. We explain which extracurricular programs are necessary for entry to university, and which provide more advantages.
21. We discuss with the tutor the possibility of changing the set of subjects, if such a need arises.
22. We provide a school menu (there are situations when a student says that there is nothing to eat at school or the food is bad), and we also organize communication between parents and the director of the canteen or provide his answer. We organize a lunch for parents at school so that they can evaluate for themselves.
23. We find out the situation and convey to parents the real picture if the student is punished (children often give incomplete information). If necessary, we will organize an online or offline meeting with the school. Communication with the school is key in these situations.
24. We advise what to do if a student shows signs of dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, etc.
25. We help in situations where a child complains about bullying.
26. We explain to the parent any decisions or actions of the school that seem strange. We Advise what to do in each specific case. (There are many such cases, and parents often live in complete darkness, not understanding what is happening or giving school events a negative connotation)
27. We explain what needs to be done during the holidays (in academic terms, and you need to do it even when the child is in preparatory school).
28. We provide a reading list for age-appropriate literature. What is especially important for those who do not have the highest score in English

Examples from life when parents turned to us for help:

1. Finance

• The school sent an invoice that included incomprehensible numbers. Parent and, even knowing English, they couldn’t figure it out themselves.
• The school has not answered to your question for a week, and the deadline for payment is – tomorrow.
• Parents received an invoice from the school on December 30, they need to pay before January 6, and they need to fly abroad before the 20th. Banks are closed, and the school may not accept a child without payment.
• The parents had a misunderstanding why the child bought so many uniforms, we received a response from the school and explained everything.
• The child was supposed to go on a trip to Paris with his art class, but did not receive a visa on time. The school said it would charge £200 for the tour. We got £200 back to the parents.
• Parents did not like that the child studied English 9 hours a week for an additional fee, they wanted to reduce the number of hours, and we agreed for the boy to attend German lessons together with the English, which was part of the main program and was included in the cost of training, 4 hours per week, and 5 hours were left for additional. English
• Parents always want to receive a deposit as soon as possible after completing their studies, but schools, as a rule, are slow. We help you get this money in the shortest possible time.
• Parents want to remove the cost of insurance from the bill. We understand the situation.
• We explain to parents the issue about fines if a child leaves school.

2. Household issues

• A professional photographer was supposed to come to school the next day for portrait photography, but the boy turned out to have no haircut. We asked the house mom to quickly take him for a haircut
• The school often sends news and invitations: to a reception for foreign parents, to a school-wide performance, to an IB and career guidance conference, to a school-wide Christmas service, to educational tours, for example, a geography class goes to Iceland , and the history class - to Greece. The school also notifies about victories in sports competitions and various competitions, about new clubs and invites you to sign up for developmental programs. We convey all this news to parents in Russian.
• We call the tutor and we sort out the situation. If a child complained that “the math teacher hates him.” Or something similar.
• Parents want to communicate with the tutor to keep their finger on the pulse. They don’t understand whether they should scold their child for grades or the adaptation period. We arrange to meet them.

3. Study

Grades are given in letters from A* to F or numbers from 1 to 9. Sometimes marks are given and characteristics are written, and sometimes – characteristics only. Sometimes special badges are attached to grades, which mean that the student can receive a higher grade at the end of the year.

You also need to find out if you can go to the parent portal and see your child’s progress on the site (not available in all schools). As practice shows, often parents do not understandhow to read grades and comments from teachers (they need to be able to read between the lines).

We help solve the following difficult situations:

• The child did not submit documents to the university, and the deadlines were already running out, the parents contacted us, and we managed to resolve this issue with the tutor, head teacher and head of the year.
• A student who studied IB in his senior year did not pass until the last CAS, which is mandatory for obtaining a diploma, and we helped to resolve this situation.
• The schoolgirl’s mother wanted her to take the Unified State Exam at a Moscow school while studying in the UK. We agreed with the British school on the possibility of traveling to Moscow for exams.
• One family, who believed that they needed to study at the same time in a Russian and an English school, eventually decided to take the girl to Russia: as a result, she could not cope with either one or the other. We resolved the issue by discussing with the head teacher of a British school the possibility of canceling a number of subjects and exams. The girl's workload was reduced by halfand she remained to study in England.
• Results of 12th grade exams (penultimate) – crucial for applying to universities. If the results are low, then the student can choose only universities with low requirements, i.e. not prestigious. In some cases, we manage to agree on a retake.
• A girl studying fine arts could not understand why her teacher was asking her to enroll in the Foundation. She believed that this was a program for underachievers. We explained to the family the uniqueness of this program specifically for those entering art colleges. 
• In touch and with the changed financial situation, parents would like to transfer a child finishing Year 12 in an expensive school to Year 13 in a more affordable school (the price difference between the most expensive and cheapest British school is 36%). Years 12 and 13, or Form 6, are a continuous two-year program and the exam boards schools use vary. You need to find a school that offers a match in all the subjects the student is studying and that has free places. We help to replace the school.
• A 15-year-old child entered the 11th year; at the end of the first semester, the parents received a report with grades that seemed illogical to them: A (excellent) in chemistry, and D (unsatisfactory) in mathematics. It seemed to them that everything should be the other way around. As a result, the parents thought that they needed to take the child out of this school… What we managed to prevent by explaining that in British schools they evaluate differently.
• Boy  I completed a math textbook on my own by the end of the first semester. What to do, the parent asks. We raise the issue of participation in olympiads and competitions so that the child continues to develop at his own pace. 
• The boy is writing a book, his parents would like to support his writing  talent We raise the issue and the school offers him the choice of entering a number of national British literary competitions, including the BBC.
• The child says that he needs additional help in a number of subjects, but he does not understand when and where they are. We call the school and agree on additional classes. 
• Parents do not understand whether their child needs to take any assessments after the 12th grade before moving to the 13th grade if he has taken BTEC subjects. We are clarifying the situation.
• Due to the child’s low level of English, it was recommended that the course of study in the A-level program be increased to 3 years (instead of 2). We explain to parents how the program will be structured in this case and what to do with the visa.
• The child wants more swimming activities. We agree on this with the school. 
• The child wants to replace a standard physical education lesson with individual training with a squash coach. We help organize training sessions. 
• Parents believed that their son definitely needed higher mathematics, which he did not do very well. In fact, it turned out that for the specialties and universities he had chosen, he just needed mathematics, and the higher one could be discarded. They were also skeptical about the tutor’s recommendation to take music as the 4th subject. We explained to them why this is an informed choice.     In addition, several conversations with parents showed that they rely only on their own assumptions when advising their son in choosing subjects. These assumptions were wrong

Please look at an example of our correspondence with the child’s parents during only 20 days.
And appreciate how many questions arise even in such a short period.

The cost of the service is:

• per academic year – £2,490,
• for the FIRST SEMESTER (the most intense) – £990,
• for the second or third semester – for £800,
• for 1 consultation (lasting 1-1.5 hours) – £290. We recommend taking consultations once or twice a semester for those who have not purchased the supervision service to discuss the report and all the minor issues that have accumulated.

Reviews about us

Evgenia Briman
Regular client of the Paradise company, Barcelona, Spain, evgbriman@gmail.com

I can completely sincerely thank the founder of the company, Natalya Shtrain, and her employees for the wonderful and impeccable organization of my child’s trip. I once worked with Moscow agencies, I worked here with only Spanish, and I can say with confidence that only Paradise employees can react so quickly and clearly, they are ready help at any time and answer sometimes the most stupid parental questions! I thank you with all my heart for your professionalism and attention. In 1996, I myself went to England through the Paradise company as a student. This summer, my 15-year-old daughter Ira went to Belgium, school Ceran improving French. 

Larissa Moore
Client of the Paradise company, Los Angeles, USA

I thought: I am a British citizen, and lived in Britain for more than 15 years, and it seemed to me that I could do all this (the process of choosing and entering a school) myself, since I knew England... But after working with you and Having received your advice and analysis of different schools, I realized how wrong I was and how invaluable your advice and expertise turned out to be in choosing schools. And especially priceless – the process of organizing interviews, advice, organizing rehearsals, etc. You help at every step, are attentive, professional and polite.

Anna Marus
Client of the Paradise company, Croatia, anna_marus@mail.ru

Based on the experience of our work with the Paradise company, we can responsibly declare that we have never met a more competent, systematic agency that clearly understands the goals and objectives of the client. Together we chose an educational institution suitable for our children, prepared, passed entrance tests and, as a result, received an invitation to study at two leading English schools - Malvern College and Clifton College. We express our gratitude to the employees for their high professionalism and wonderful human qualities.

Tatyana Ignatova
Client of the Paradise company, Abakan, Russia

I want to say a big thank you to the staff of Paradise. for your attentive attitude. During our cooperation, they became like family to me. Anna Nikolaeva – She’s just smart, she never refuses advice. By nature, I am a bit of a hectic person, always worrying and worrying about everything. Anna always treats this with great understanding. I give a solid A for preparation of documents, consultations and just normal human attitude. Thank you very much.

Andrej Potekhin
Founder of a construction company, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

I contacted the Paradise company in 2018 in order to send our daughter Vera to a boarding school, and we chose the school Strathallan. I am a very scrupulous person and I like the service to be ideal or as close to ideal as possible, without rough edges. At Paradise everything is so smooth, There is absolutely nothing to complain about! The employees of this company are of the highest level. I recommend it!

Anna Curious
Psychologist, Moscow, Russia

We met Paradise less than a year ago and were skeptical. They trusted the most important thing that we have – our son Philip. The company's employees helped us decide on school. During the year they fully accompany their son in England. I would like to thank Natalya Shtrein, the founder of the company, and all the employees for their amazing professionalism. There are no unresolved issues. There are no unattainable goals. Paradise staff are available almost at any time and resolve any issues related to your child’s education.

The most important thing is that the relationship is informal. Each child is given recommendations for further admission. We are just planning to visit schools in order to enter high school in time, and the choice was the best possible. Thank you for your care and guardianship, for accompanying and sharing joy with us. Let's move on with Paradise!

Olga Chekhova
Client of the Paradise company, Moscow, olga-712@yandex.ru

When we were faced with the question of sending our son to study in England, we began to look for companies that help find the school that best suits the child. We are faced with the same problem: companies in Moscow do not have complete information about schools in England, only general information.

After searching for reviews on the Internet, I saw advice to contact Natalya Shtrein, her company "Paradise", which we did and have never regretted! Natalya talked with her son, understood his main wishes and recommended several schools to choose from, from which her son immediately chose a school on the Isle of Man, King Williams college. I would like to express my gratitude for the great work done by Natalya and her company in selecting the school and preparing the interview and collecting documents. Everything was done quickly, clearly and as conveniently as possible for us! Read full review

Anna Prikhodko
Development Director of Resonance Techno LLC, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Prices come firstu "Paradise" for the courage to take on such a difficult topic. After all, in fact, all the most painful things are piled up here: children, money, homeland and plans for the future, serious business. I can evaluate the professionalism, level of management and employees, the quality of experience and knowledge about teaching children in the UK not only from our work experience. But also from the fact that I have simply been observing for at least 10-12 years, since interest in teaching children abroad was born almost simultaneously with the birth of these same children.

I see with my own eyes that the employees and director of Paradise They travel to schools a lot, understand everything well, and keep their finger on the pulse. They communicate with representatives of schools and even bring real school principals to Russia (I was at one of these, it was, of course, wonderful), share knowledge, maintain contact with parents and receive feedback. This is very important and speaks of due responsibility. 

In addition to personal sympathy and trust in the company and its employees, I turn to Paradise for expert opinion for the correct selection of schools. My daughter has been studying in England since she was 12. There are a lot of schools, ratings, deadlines for submitting documents and other nuances, and if you are not oriented in any way, you simply cannot choose. And this is not even taking into account any characteristics of your child, for example. And I cannot help but thank and note the service provided by the Paradise company. on our own initiative, helping to send our daughter from the UK in the spring of 2020 due to COVID-19. This was truly a very important moment, which I really appreciate in our relationship.

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