ICS Parents

lenglengma

lenglengma

tommyzoe,
Very useful indeed!   
lenglengma

tommyzoe

Dear Lenglengma,

I just want public to know the fact that ICS is as good as HKIS. Choosing of university is based on many factors!

lenglengma 寫道:
tommyzoe,
Very useful indeed!   
lenglengma

lenglengma

tommyzoe,
I got what you mean.  Also, we have to bear in mind that many parents are not too familiar with U.S. universities.  Of course they know that Stanford or Harvard are good...but there are many good/famous U.S. universities out there who are also very famous to local Americans:

Such as:
Parson School of Design
MIT
Cal Tech
All University of California including:
Berkeley
Los Angles
Irvine
Santa Barbara
Riverside
San Francisco
San Diego
Santa Cruz
Davis
Pomona College (very famous but private)
Pepperdine University (famous but also private)
USC (private also)
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon
University of Pennsylvania
Boston University
NYU
Santa Clara University
University of Michigan

Basically...all of the state universities are good...for example: University of California, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia etc.

Also bear in mind that all ivy leagues are private, plus USC, Boston U, MIT, Brown etc...many of the parents simply can't afford their kids to study there.
HKIS students can afford to go most likey, but may be not ICS students...so there may be a possibility that ICS students tend to go to Public Universities instead, such as University of California, University of Virginia etc...

I am impressed by their ICS/HKIS scores and their acceptance rates.

Kids who are in HKIS / ICS are basically enjoying same education which provided in the U.S.

They also have the same opportunities as local U.S. kids getting into U.S./Canadian Universities.

HKIS has a very good reputation and academic standards...and I am relieved to find out that ICS can actually compare with it.
lenglengma

tommyzoe

Lenglengma,

Yes, I agreed to your points of view. Also, choosing university may also base on subject you go to study. If you want to study performing art, will you go to MIT?

lenglengma 寫道:
tommyzoe,
I got what you mean.  Also, we have to bear in mind that many parents are not too familiar with U.S. universities.  Of course they know that Stanford or Harvard are good...but there are many good/famous U.S. universities out there who are also very famous to local Americans:

Such as:
Parson School of Design
MIT
Cal Tech
All University of California including:
Berkeley
Los Angles
Irvine
Santa Barbara
Riverside
San Francisco
San Diego
Santa Cruz
Davis
Pomona College (very famous but private)
Pepperdine University (famous but also private)
USC (private also)
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon
University of Pennsylvania
Boston University
NYU
Santa Clara University
University of Michigan

Basically...all of the state universities are good...for example: University of California, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia etc.

Also bear in mind that all ivy leagues are private, plus USC, Boston U, MIT, Brown etc...many of the parents simply can't afford their kids to study there.
HKIS students can afford to go most likey, but may be not ICS students...so there may be a possibility that ICS students tend to go to Public Universities instead, such as University of California, University of Virginia etc...

I am impressed by their ICS/HKIS scores and their acceptance rates.

Kids who are in HKIS / ICS are basically enjoying same education which provided in the U.S.

They also have the same opportunities as local U.S. kids getting into U.S./Canadian Universities.

HKIS has a very good reputation and academic standards...and I am relieved to find out that ICS can actually compare with it.
lenglengma

lenglengma

Yes...money is a major issue...
plus most of the H.K. students simply can't apply for financial aids unless they are Americans.
I would prefer my kids to go to one of thos public universities in the future...they are more affordable and are also good.
I studied at one of those UC universities in California and during these couple of years, many professors at my school won nobel prices (almost every year for the last couple of years).  So...public universities can be good too.

HKIS students usually can afford to go into those ivy leagues because they are rich.

Well..anyways, as long as their SAT scores and AP test scores are similar, we know we are in good hands.

Since we can't compare ICS with ESF or any other different system IS, then we should just compare ICS with HKIS then.

Good SAT and AP scores are also one of the most important factors of whether or not you will be accepted in US universities anyways, so by looking at SAT scores or AP scores...chances are...our kids will be okay.

Lenglengma

lenglengma

Hello parents,
Just want to post it, so that everyone can see that I have received personal PM from leehoma. Although I told him/her how I felt, and also asked to stop talking about this, he/she still sent us PM in order to convince that the school that my child currently attending is not reaching his/her standard.
I feel extremly uncomfortable about this, she/he seems quite obsessed.
Please read the following conversations:
btw, I don't know tommyzoe personally and I never tried to make any parents biased here in BK. I just tried to offer my advise or comments when parents asked about ICS. At the end, parents have to make their decisions for their own children. ESF is a good school but I don't understand why leehoma has to force us into believing that ICS has a low standard.

By the way, what do you guys think about HKIS?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hi lenglengma,

As tommyzoe sent me a PM and I think you and tommyzoe seems to be good friend and therefore I sent you my communciation with tommyzoe as below for your reference.

regards

leehoma001


***********************************


leehoma001 寫道:
Hi tommyzoe

What is the relationship between "loving Jesus Christ" and "Choosing a school for our kid" ?

I don't think loving Jesus Christ MUST choose a christian school for our kid.

By the way, face the reality. ICS is a good IS but not around the top class in academic performance. I post other information and my view in the BK because I don't want other readers will be biased in reading the information supplied by you and lenglengma. The best way is to let the readers judged by themselves the fact and data.

From the statistics in the universities attended by ICS, I don't regret that I haven't choosen this for my boy as it doen't meet my high expectation on my boy's academic performance.

Not only the results of the high school, from the case between my boy and my friends' boy, the academic standards of ESF and ICS primary schools are in fact totally belonged to two different classes.

I have a little bit conservative in giving the information opening. My boy's current assessment was not in the average or a little bit below average but in fact around the few bottom. It is ok for me as my boy is almost the youngest in his class and also had been studying in a local Chinese kindergarten for almost two years before.

On the other hand, my friends really considered my boy's English standard is better than any one in their boy's class (their boy is around the top few students in his class) and they couldn't believe that we have received compliants from my boy's teacher that my boy found difficulty in catching up with others and ranked so low in his class.

Before my friends realised my boy's English standard is much higher than their boy. I have realised it a month earlier when I took care of their boy. But I didn't raise this topic to discuss with my friends because you know how odd it would be to tell your friends that their boy's English ability is much lower than my boy even though their boy is much older than my boy and has been studying in ICS starting from the lowest kindergarten.

I wrote this information not for boasting my boy as he is still lagging behind among his colleagues. I really want others to re-think deeply on the way of teaching in the junior school of ICS as well as the importance of having a systematic approach of teaching if we want to achieve academic excellence.

Regards

leehoma001


----------------------------------------------------
leehoma001,
I personally do not know tommyzoe and I don't understand why we have to care so much about other people's schools.
By looking at the statistics, we can see that ICS have the same SAT score as HKIS's. These are just figures for us to consider what kind of school ICS is.
The incident that you told us provides a chance for us to think, but the figures that we found also provide some useful information for us to consider if ICS reaches the standard.
You said that you don't want the readers to be biased because they read our posts...that was a bit unfair. We can pretty much say the same thing about you too. The parent who started the message thread just asked if it is a good idea to swich from ICS to ESF and we were just trying to offer our commends.
And I don't agree on this also: "ICS is a good IS but not around the top class in academic performance"
HKIS is well known for good academic performance, and it is one of the best in all IS in H.K., I was impressed to find out that ICS's score can be compared with HKIS.
ICS may not be as famous for now, but I have confidence that ICS will be one of those rising stars (IS) in the future.
Let's stop talking about this.
lenglengma

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hi lenglengma,

Let's us calm down!

The academic performance of ICS is improving but still not the same as as HKIS. Although they have the same verbal score, how about the Maths score? How about the subject scores that we didn't have the data?

Be realistic to the final results of the univerisities admission. This is the most importance. The so called small difference as you said in other scores really makes the great difference in the final outcome.

Don't use the excuse of high tuition fee as well as the favour in particular subjects regarding the choice of universitiies. It is so obvious that it just looks like sour grapes. I have already explained very details in my previous postings regarding the financial aspect. Most of those top universities are famous not only in a single or a few subject but many different subjects. The varity of different subjects offered by those top universities also receive very high reputation and ranking and much better than a univerisity or college that you never heard about. That is the main reason why those top univerisities so famous.

However, if you still love to interpre the results in your way and your own justification of explaning the obvious difference from that of HKIS, it is up to you.

Whether ICS is around the top ISs in Hong Kong in academic performance can be judged by individuals not by me. I can only say that under my analysis, it is just better than average but not among the top ones - not in the same class academically.

For your information, HKIS is famous for its high tuition fee but not for its academic performance. It is not the top IS in Hong Kong. Believe it or not is up to you. I quote HKIS because it has adopt a similar curriculum with ICS.

For AP program adopted by ICS, it is very common in US's high schools and over 60% of US's high schools including those public schools adopt it. AP is in fact very simple and easy and not used for screening university applicants if you have seen before how simple the questions are.

Instead of concerning the academic results of ICS's high school, you had better investigate the education system of ICS's junior school that lead to such a great discrepancy in the effectiveness of education as compare with ESF schools.


Regards

leehoma001

skytower52

heratang 寫道:
Skytower,

My daughter will be in R2 pm class. How's your son?

My son also will be in R2 pm class.

tingtingting

Although I agree that leehoma seems to be biased, why let private messages go public?

I know how one would feel if his or her beloved school get attacked.  But some ICS parents (who I am sure do not represent the majority) scare me.  Whatever ICS can offer is important; whatever ICS cannot deliver is unnecessary or of marginal importance.  It seems that they believe in one school as they believe in one God, and are prepared to jump on anyone who dare take an issue with ICS.

Ting

lenglengma

Ting,
Private message goes public because I found it scary.
My point is...I declared that I didn't want to argue no more and I was still being forced to accept what he/she was saying....what?  By sending me a PM instead of saying them in Public...meaning...I have to read his/her PM without any choices.
I hope you understand what I mean.
Moreover, we don't prepare to jump on anyone.  Our views have been gentle and open-minded.  I declared so many times that I wasn't saying that ICS is better than any school...
Leehoma was trying to change how I feel and to brain wash me until I agree on what he/she says.
At the end, I wasn't even talking about ESF anymore, I was only talking about HKIS and ICS.  I just simply don't understand why he/she had to make a fuss out of it.  Even if we presented that ICS has almost the same SAT scores as HKIS's, leehoma still insisted that the HKIS has higher SAT Math score than ICS.  HKIS's score was only a little bit higher than ICS...
If we don't determine the school by a public exam score such as SAT / AP...what else can we compare?
The only thing that I found uncomfortable was that even if we stopped talking about ESF, we were still being "attacked" until we surrender.
Please go back and read what was being said between us to determine who was trying to jump on who.  Thanks.  
I guess we should stop sharing in this forum for everyone's sake.
lenglengma

tommyzoe

As I am parent, I can understand that most of parents want their kid to be better than the others. I guess, parents of kids studying ISs will not be like that. I think that they don't like to do comparison and they would like to enjoy real education. If not, they should send their kids to main-streamed schools. Some parents of some ISs still bring this habit into IS family. My kid is better than yours! My kid's school is better than yours...... so & so. Why do someone need to do so?

I open this place because I want to supply useful & true information to someone who want to know more about ICS. However ICS is not a famous school. You may not know too much about it but it is really a very high potential school with good academic performance and spiritual development. It is based on the results shown to everyone. It is really no biased!

This is not a place for war. If so, I prefer to close this forum topic.    Then, if someone really want to know useful & true information about ICS, they can't get it!

Please be paceful to love others.

Cheerfulmama

Dear tommyzoe,

I appreciate you have opened this forum topic to let us undertsand more about ICS.  

tommyzoe

Dear Cheerfulmama,
Thanks for your appreciation.
Here I would like to invite more and more ICS parents to share happiness or unhappiness of life. Of course, I would like to see more and more useful and true information of ICS provided by ICS parents.
As I know, some of non-christians may think that I always associate Jesus Christ with ICS. If someone think so, I do agree with you. In fact, without Jesus Christ we can't  have ICS. The exist of ICS should be the work of Jesus Christ. For non-christian, you may feel very difficult to accept this saying. I think, I can understand this phenomenon. God can let Israel appear again! He can let ICS to be a very high standard school in future. In fact, there are many such examples in christian schools in HK.
Hope any non-christians don't think me that is biased!

ICS Newsletter:

http://www.ics.edu.hk/development/Sept2005Newsletter.pdf

http://www.ics.edu.hk/development/Apr2006Newsletter.pdf

tommyzoe

ICS Elementary will be moving into the new school building upon completion of the Elementary Wing in 2007. Places will be tight. Upon completion of the Secondary Wing, ICS will be able to enroll more students at the secondary school, with up to 25 extra students in Grades 8 to 12.

tommyzoe

2005 - 2007 Progress Report & Projected Timeline Of ICS New School Building (NSB):

Oct 05: Commencement of site work – Piling (Foundation) on Oct 6th, 2005. Execution of the Private Treaty Grant [Lease Conditions] was issued by the Shatin District Lands Office. Execution of the Service Agreement was issued by the Education & Manpower Bureau (EMB).

Nov 05: Continuous discussion on the school design and coordination of all building services provisions.

Dec 05: Ms. Aileen Cheng joined the Building Team as the Assistant Project Manager.

Jan 06: Draft Tender Document (drawings & documents) for Main Contract was prepared and submitted to the Architectural Services Department (ASD) for vetting and approval.

Feb 06: Series of design audit meetings were held to review and finalize end-users' requirements in the Tender Document for Main Contract. Further development of the Chapel is undertaken.

Mar 06: Final Tender Document for Main Contract was submitted to ASD. All piles have been driven at site and loading test is undertaken. Outsourcing of FF&E (Furniture, Fixture & Equipment) begins.

April 06: Piling works completed.

July 06: Superstructure begins.

Aug 07: Phase I Handover (Occupation Permit and Elementary Wing).

Oct 07: Phase II Handover (Secondary Wing, Gyms, Swimming Pool & all Music Rooms).

Dec 07: Phase III Handover (Theatre & Chapel).

allymcbeal

Hi there,

What an active discussion here! Greetings !

My son is accepted as a Grade 1 student. It is such a blessing. Frankly, from Tommy and lengmama's sharing, i m pretty sure i made the right move.

i am a teacher in one of the mainstream band one secondary schools for years, totally agree that students here (local schools) are a bit different  as mentioned before.

Of course, there are always 2 sides of a coin.  Anyway, i m glad that son is accepted and again i do hope he will enjoy the campus life there.

in christ,
ally