GSIS vs KCIS

eaymom

Is your daughter accepted to GSIS?  What year will she be in? My daughter will be joining this coming August as well.

On your questions, I can't comment on all aspects as I don't have any personal experience.  But if Chinese is the subject matters, then I would say KCIS will definitely give you an edge on Mandarin in Primary School as GSIS won't start until Year 4.  

Having said that, almost all, if not all, IS students get private Chinese tutoring.  So if I were you, I wouldn't worry that much as HK has a lot of resources for children to learn Chinese.

原帖由 Pianokc 於 09-6-30 01:02 發表
I thought this game was over and done with for my daughter and I.

Ok, like to hear from parents of both schools.

GSIS and KCIS- which one would you choose for your child?

Factors important to me:

...

[ 本帖最後由 eaymom 於 09-7-1 09:17 編輯 ]

eaymom

GSIS is very clear that they won't teach Chinese until Year 4.  So parents need to seek private tutoring for Chinese separately.

For children in IS, it's unrealistic to expect that they can achieve the same level of Chinese as local school.  However, if the parents are committed and persistent through private tutoring, the children will be able to achieve an acceptable level of Chinese.  I have seen many of these cases with children from IS.

This is an issue with all international schools.  But if IS is the route we choose, this is the compromise we need to accept.

eaymom

Thankful and Ruby1219,

My daughter is in Year 1.  She's getting extra lesson on Chinese outside of school.  By the time she gets to year 4, I think her chinese proficiency should be quite good.

What I thinking is whether the school can let choose either French or Chinese when they get to Year 4.  Since we are already getting private tutoring in Chinese long before my daughter gets to year 4, I prefer for her to starting taking French, if possible, instead of Chinese.  That will give her more years of French study.  When she gets to secondary school, we will add Chinese back.

My point is if they are going to pick up another language in primary school, they should have a choice of the languages.  I don't see there is a need to start Chinese in Year 4 since they are already proficient to a certain extent

Chinese would probably be more useful for foreginers who have not had exposure to the language.

Just my 2cents.

原帖由 thankful 於 09-11-11 10:04 發表
Yes, Chinese standard is low in the Primary.  But once you go to the Secondary, the kids will be split into different groups.  The highest group's Chinese is far from being a breeze.  Even pupils from ...

eaymom

Really?  You can only do Chinese or French in Secondary?  I thought Chinese is standard for all children starting year 4 and then they can add French when they get to Secondary.  Not true?

原帖由 thankful 於 09-11-11 10:55 發表
eaymom,

Sorry, I don't know if the school would allow the kids to choose either French or Chinese when they get to Year 4.  Perhaps Ruby1219 and others could help you on this.  

But there is one thi ...

eaymom

So if we decide to take French in secondary then pretty much the 3 years spent in Chinese (year 4, 5,6) will not be continued.  Is that correct?

原帖由 thankful 於 09-11-11 11:20 發表
I remember asking this question when we were asked to make the choice and the answer was "no" - you can't take both.  Perhaps other parents can verify my understanding or correct me if I am wrong.

eaymom

If that is the case, it warrants the change to offer French as one of the choices in Year 4, in addition to Chinese.  Since if the goal is to select French in secondary, there is no point to take Chinese in primary school.  Parents will just have to supplement Chinese via private tutoring.

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-11-11 11:28 發表
So far as I know that starting from Year 4, you can choose either "Chinese language" or "Chinese culture" but not French.

For Chinese language, even starting from year 4, it will also be divided int ...

[ 本帖最後由 eaymom 於 09-11-11 11:33 編輯 ]

eaymom

Thankful,

Do you know what PRC chinese textbook they use?  Do you have the publisher and the book name?

thanks a lot!

原帖由 thankful 於 09-11-11 15:19 發表
Ruby,

In Year 7, the kids who are doing Chinese are split into 4 groups.  But for French, there is only one group.

The kids in the highest group of Chinese are using PRC Primary 4 textbook.  My unde ...

eaymom

Cari,

There is not much you can do when it comes to personality.  My little girl was extremely shy too.  She's not the active nor the outspoken type which we all believed what GSIS was looking for.  When we went for the assessment, we treated it more or less an experience.  We didn't expect to get in.

As for whether we prepared her for the interview, no, we didn't at all.  We are the lazy parents type who send their child to international school just to avoid heavy homeworks

The only thing I would say is that she speaks english at native level and she was a confident reader and writer(age appropriate) by the time she was assessed.  And she learned most of that from her preschool (Woodland).  We didn't hire a private tutor nor teach her anything at home.

Don't worry too much about the admission.  Try not to put too much pressure on your little one.  I think that was the best thing we have done with ours.  

eaymom

[ 本帖最後由 eaymom 於 09-11-15 23:45 編輯 ]

eaymom

We didn't apply for Kindergarten because they only had one K2 class and all of the spaces were occupied by students promoted from K1 (we were latecomers and we missed K1).  They didn't have any spaces for new students.   So we applied for Year 1 and my daughter was assessed when she was nearly 5 years old earlier this year.  She's now in Year 1.

原帖由 cari 於 09-11-16 16:04 發表
Eaymom,

Thank you for your reply.  You are so lucky that your daughter was accepted by GSIS.  My daughter is going to Woodland too so that mean she is under good hands.  We have applied for the 3 yea ...

eaymom

I wasn't sure what questions they ask because my daughter wasn't able to retell what exactly she did in the assessment.

It was somewhere along the line of reading a book, finding out what was wrong in the sentences, describe what's happened in a picture and what she thinks will happen next, counting from 1 to 100 by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc.,

Based on what I heard, it's basically something a 5yr should be able to do.  If the child had gone through preschool or kindergarten, these would be something they already learned.

原帖由 tamm 於 09-11-26 11:07 發表
Hi

Can you share with me what questions they will ask during the GSIS P1 interview?  What's the format?  My child is scheduled to have the interview early next year.  In terms of writing, what will  ...