本地人入ESF

FattyDaddy

happymama2007 發表於 14-8-3 19:33
另外邊間ESF KG會冇咁大競爭易入d?  ...

ESF will be opening a new kindergarten in Tung Chung in August 2015, which will definitely offload some demand on the Tsing Yi kindergarten. From my anecdotal observation, around 15% to 20% of the current Tsing Yi pupils live on Lantau (mostly Discovery Bay and Tung Chung), so one can expect the new Tung Chung kindergarten to lessen the load on Tsing Yi by that amount. However, given that you live in TKO, you will need to move should you consider Tsing Yi or even Tung Chung.

FattyDaddy

happymama2007 發表於 14-8-4 16:44
What about Abacus? Is the competition very keen?

I'm not familiar with Abacus, but I think their situation next year should be the same as previous years, no major changes, i.e. won't be any less competitive.

Actually this year has been a bit of an odd year because ESF was planning to remove their kindergarten's interview priority to their primary schools, this had made their kindergartens less attractive and put off many prospective applicants, so those who had faith in ESF kindergartens and applied despite the lack of priority had a relatively easy time, but now that ESF has backtracked and dropped their plan to remove the priority, things are back to what they were before.

FattyDaddy

The actual wording is this ...

"Priority for interview is subject to having attended kindergarten for a minimum of two terms prior to the applicable January Year 1 interview period"
http://www.esfkindergartens.org. ... hool-interview.html

So the child needs to be enrolled by the 3rd term (April to June) of K1 in order to enjoy the priority.

FattyDaddy

Sonaming 發表於 14-8-6 10:30
去interview (P1) 嗰陣，見到真係個個家長都幾本passport , 但我地冇外國passport 都收左

I wonder if BNO and HKSAR makes a difference, perhaps not, but just wondering :)

FattyDaddy

Birkin 發表於 14-8-6 12:32
You need to bring your passports with you to the interview??

Yes you do, they need to verify the nationality claimed in the application form, and for non-residents the visa in the passport.

FattyDaddy

Birkin 發表於 14-8-6 15:16
Thanks, FattyDaddy. Just the applicant's passport and not the parents' as well I hope. Otherwise, pe ...

They need to see the passport of both parents as well as the child's.

When you apply, you are supposed to send in photocopies of the passports to support the application, so on the day of the interview they check the originals :)

FattyDaddy

ramen 發表於 14-8-6 15:48
Think ESF is getting serious here...they didn't do that when I took my elder one to the interview b ...

I guess so.

I think we both know that more and more people are opting for international schools so the demand has been increasing much faster than available places, so it is not surprising that ESF is getting more serious now.

FattyDaddy

happymama2007 發表於 14-8-6 17:12
回覆 FattyDaddy 的帖子

聽講ESF遲D會開始冇政府資助...知唔知到時學費會調整幾多呢?

The current government subvention makes up for around 20% of ESF's costs, so one could expect school fees to rise by at least 20% when the subvention is phased out, beginning with students starting Year 1 in 2016.

The above applies to ESF Foundation schools only, the two PIS colleges, i.e. Discovery and Renaissance, do not benefit from the current subvention so its removal should not affect them as much as the Foundation schools.

FattyDaddy

sweetheartb 發表於 14-8-6 18:25
Think it depends on which ESF foundation school, eg SJS/KJS/BHS - quite a lot of Hksar passport hold ...

Given that expats tend to reside on the island side, the phenomenon you described could be a matter of demographics rather than an actual difference in admission preferences with regards to nationality for different ESF schools.

I say this because Discovery College (in Discovery Bay) is arguably the "most foreign" among all schools under the ESF umbrella, yet it is a PIS like Renaissance, where 70% of the students should be local residents. This goes to show that in a cosmopolitan city like Hongkong, appearance is no longer indicative of nationality, there are many locals with foreign citizenship and there are many foreigners who are local residents.

At the end of the day, for a local without foreign passport, it goes without saying that their chances are better with the two PIS colleges.

FattyDaddy

CapricornO 發表於 14-9-23 23:43
I read from the website that their selection basis for interview is "working through the list".  Do  ...

All Year 1 applications are placed initially on the waiting list, and then they will send out interview invitations by working through the list according to the priority categories, i.e. staff children, sibling, nomination right, alumni children, ESF kindergarten children etc, and within each category they will go by the random number drawn against each application. The interview itself is not difficult since they only verify English verbal skills, so it is true that if a child is invited to interview then the chances are high.