What I am proposing are the following:
• Immediately accept up to 50 (or more?) hill tribe students age 4 or 5 as Chiangmai Starfish Home resident students for the upcoming school year. The qualifications and likely profile would be similar to those who start in Maetaeng.
• Most or all of these students would stay at the Chiangmai Starfish Home for only one year if they are five years old or two years if they enter at four years old. Ages are as of 15 May 2016.
• Most of the students would return to their parents for grade 1. They may receive some financial support like other “ex-Starfish students” if really needed but parents would be told in advance that enrollment at the Chiangmai Starfish Learning Center and living at the Chiangmai Starfish Home is only a temporary arrangement with a defined termination.
• It is possible that a few students who finish K2 at the Chiangmai Starfish Learning Center would remain at the Chiangmai Starfish Home if they come from extremely poor home circumstances. They would then attend grade 1 in a Thai school.
• If we find some really exceptional hill tribe students at the Chiangmai Starfish Learning Center who make as much progress as our students in Maetaeng, it is possible that a few may continue in grade 1 in Maetaeng or even move from K1 at the Chiangmai Starfish Learning Center to K2 in Maetaeng.
• Effective this coming May, we would NOT run a three year anubaan program at the Chiangmai Starfish Learning Center and would not accept any three year olds. Those who have already been tentatively accepted could apply again next year.