Is it good at ISF

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My son studied there years ago and now back to the local stream.  All I can say is, aside from the heavier homework load, my son flares better with the local as far as whole person development is concerned.  Personally I think parents nowadays stress too much on fluency in language(which to me is just a tool) than the message and content of it(which I see as an internal part of a person which in turn is more important).

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It was more of a behavioral one.  Though my son now speak weaker English and almost zero mandarin, I have my son back as his moral values stay closer to ours as a simple traditional Chinese family.  There were some unhappy incidents before with the school but years have past and both parties grow, then I am not going to mention the old story again.

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回復 kafool 的帖子

To name just a FEW not relating to my son:Students (grade 3-4) throwing food towards each other from their trays during lunch hour. I used to be lunch mom there.
School bus drivers refusing to drive and just literally stop on the shoulder just because they were too misbehave.
Grade 1 students saying the F word with anger.  And I mean quite a number of them.
Teacher punishing a wild kid with a ruler.
These are just a few I still remember.  All not related to my son's incident, which is a shame on the school side.

But to be fair, it was just an establishing school a few years back.  As I have said, maybe it grows, for better.

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That year, quite a number of us left the school, some to other IS, more back to local.  I still keep in touch with one of the Isf parents and asked what she decided to do with her kid regarding grade 7/form 1.  And she said,"唉！黎咗咁耐，重走得去邊呀！＂

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Don't mistake me, I don't believe elite LS are the only way out and i never compare.my kid is just in a 津小now studying quite happily.  He is outgoing , fearless and humorous.  I have known some IS students from my neighborhood whom behave very nicely.  We should not mistake liveliness with plain poor conduct. One can be lively, with good school work and conduct at the same time, with the effort of both attending parents and a right school.

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回復 21Ckid 的帖子

Good morning.  And YES, I agree the real problem of Isf is its parents.  It attracts dedicating parents who believe in the school and are willing to put their effort to build their kids together.  But it ALSO attracts those who think it is an easy and miraculous school which they can left behind their kids for a month with the helper and go for wine tasting across Europe and see that as norm.  One can imagine how kids grow without the love and time from their parents around.  I don't blame the kids, I feel sorry for them.  It is the parents.

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Hello Kfy, nice to meet you.  Yes I still remember the book fair and the library! I volunteered at both before as well.  First off, I want to state once again that I was a parent there years ago and I believe a school would strive for better.  

I didn't mind the noise in the canteen at all! It was just chit chat showing their enjoyment mostly.  And in LS, at least for my son's school, children got to chat and wander around groups during lunch hour as well, or even chat with the teacher. All in all, life in LS is not as robotic or strict as people think.

and yes!  If you got a difficult student in a small class, it brought tremendous effect.  It was the case for my son's incidence and my son wa NOT the only victim of it.  There were numerous others but to a lesser degree of harm.

What happened to my son was not accident.  But repeatedly inflicting multiple small
bleeding wounds (over 30)over the body.  For a period of longer than a month with us trying to communicate with the school or the difficult parents and asked for possible arrangement.  We even held meeting together(with other victim's parents) with the principal of that time.  But the school response was they cannot do anything just to protect itself from complicated administration and more from possible chaos brought about when other classes know about this.  As a result, around four or five of us left(think about the proportion out of 15)the school for this or other GENERAL CONDUCT ISSUE around the school like stealing, general bully or kids paying other kids money asking for friendship in return.

These values are not what some parents wanted their kids to learn and I much prefer spending my time doing home cooking and story reading with my kid THAN had him asking me questions like" why he brings pain to me, I am his good friend?" Or " mummy, can we buy friends?" at his age.

Regarding the curriculum , just one word, BEAUTIFUL.  I remember missing it for the first year I left the school very much.

As for native bilingual ability, I was satisfied as well. But as I said, what was said is more than how it is said. Language is just a tool but your soul and values are part of you.

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回復 Ms.M 的帖子

True. Bully happens everywhere, but it all depends on the frequency, intensity and the way schools choose to handle them.

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回復 shadeslayer 的帖子

Good morning.  I didn't say language is not important at all.  But when there is a choice to make between how or what is said, people should think about stressing more on the latter. It is a lesson I have learnt, so I urge people to not put too much stress and be a bit more relax regarding biligualism.
The parents who left but choosing the IS route did go to the school you mention above. One to CIS, the other, all three kids to KCIS and they are both very happy there.