希望學校做好

ANNIEYY

毫無疑問維幼真係做到開心上學而又學到知識,VSA完全兩回事可能十年八年後會做得好,Year1,2都可能未發覺吾好,Year3,4就開始會間点解?Year5就開始覺得要轉,我估有一半以上家長會有這感覺,只不過吾係話轉就轉得到,想清楚知道入嚟讀過就知........好後悔

khashley

thx, ANNIEYY. I m still in a dilemma at this moment

cherubic

My son is now Y3.  Can you explain in what aspects you consider it unsatisfactory? I mean between Y3-4.  Thanks.

ANNIEYY

頭三年Y1,2,3,小朋友好開心好喜歡返學又學到好多新奇事物,交功課做一行又得做五行又得有D老師吾交又得,重係低年級通常家長都冇所謂,但到Y4都係一樣冇改變過,默書就默幾個字有時默有時冇默,做家長就會想可能Y5會好D多返D啦!点知Y5一樣多左課外活動囉!的確UOI就學到嘢但用左太多課堂,本身五年級要學既中文math係冇教到,而英文一路冇書係吾知佢教到邊想跟都吾得,可能你個小朋友Y3未考ISA,到高年級一考出來同出面國際學校一相比就知高低,最後就有兩頭唔到岸既感覺,都係個句有小朋友好好成積不過吾多囉!!!今年Y6最差一年有D班成本精練冇做過,吾知教過乜連原本冇出聲既家長都講,有D家長話可能學校就係想D學生轉吾到出去讀.以上都係個人意見.....

slamai

I am usually a silent reader of this forum. However, with children now studying in the primary and secondary (both MYP and DP) programmes of this school, I want to share some of my thoughts here.
While there is no perfect school for everyone, it is very much a matter of finding a 'perfect' match between the student and the school concerned. The elimination of examinations from the primary school is to follow the PYP requirements of IBO. If any primary parents of VSA have attended the briefing conducted by the Principal early last year, they should know about it. It is not the objective of IB PYP to feed the child with as much information as s/he can digest. The whole philosophy of IB is to educate (I purposely avoid using the word 'teach') the child how to learn and develop his/her mind to think critically. The brain is undergoing development even beyond adolescence stage. Boosting the knowledge of the child by feeding him/her information as much as possible may be able to harvest quick results but whether this can sustain is highly questionable with due consideration in respect of the development of the child's mind in this process as compared with enquiry-based learning which takes up more time and sometimes goes through a seemingly chaotic process if not properly guided. Bearing in mind the knowledge acquired in the primary years is comparatively little and can be easily made up for in the early secondary years, parents should not be overly worried about the absence of examination in the primary school of VSA which is in fact quite common among the international schools, like ESF. Although there is no examination, the students have taken the international ISA test as an assessment of their achievements. A briefing will be given by the primary school next week to explain the results recently obtained. As parents, we can, and need to, monitor our children's progress, e.g. what level of books they are reading, what mathematical problems they can answer and what level of their writing skills is, etc. by keeping track of their homework and what they are reading, etc. I also observe there are variations in the level of homework between different classes of the same year. Given that the school have guidelines and policy to govern it, uniformity is not necessary though parents do need to check against any irregularities and reflect the same to the head of year and/or other senior member(s) of the school as required.
Of course, there are many discrepancies in VSA and it doesn't have any track record as well. You need to have a lot of faith in this school to put your child(ren) in it. It will not suit everyone, nor it needs to. It is a school which faithfully follows the IB philosophy (re: the MYP programme has received a lot of praise from the IBO visiting team recently who compared the school to the top ranking MYP schools in the region). VSA should be distinguished from local schools which need to harvest quickly to prepare their P6 students for competing a place in their dream secondary school. With a through-train policy from primary to secondary, VSA parents need not be too concerned with the seemingly slow harvesting scenario their children are facing in the primary school and can afford to let them have more time to read (with enjoyment) and to spend with other family members before they concentrate in their study from secondary years onwards.

cherubic

Thanks for your detailed answer.  I don't know the situation above Y4, but I always keep track of what is going on in my son's class.  Like most of you, I am a working mom, so I communicate with the teachers by emails.  I also buy some supplementary exercise (English, Chinese and Maths) and check if my son knows how to do it.  Hope he will meet another pair of good teachers next year.

原帖由 ANNIEYY 於 11-6-3 17:25 發表
頭三年Y1,2,3,小朋友好開心好喜歡返學又學到好多新奇事物,交功課做一行又得做五行又得有D老師吾交又得,重係低年級通常家長都冇所謂,但到Y4都係一樣冇改變過,默書就默幾個字有時默有時冇默,做家長就會想可能Y5會好D多 ...

ktpleung

To: slamai

我覺得你全完站在學校的立場, 100%是校長說的話!!

To: ANNIEYY

"有D家長話可能學校就係想D學生轉吾到出去讀" 我也覺得是這樣 ( 個人意見 )

khashley

should I turn down the offer?

ktpleung

１．如果接受到讀 VSA 後要自己再比$同時間再教小朋友中英數，可以繼續留在VSA!!

２．如果一直讀到中學又唔介意學校年年加學費，可以繼續留在VSA!!（如果有這樣的資源，不如讀ＩＳ）

３．如果一直不與其他朋友或其他小朋友比較學到什麼，慢過人多少，可以繼續留在VSA!!

４．如果打算一定要出國讀書，可以繼續留在VSA!!

但我接受不到，面對自己的表妹的女讀Ｐ１，學Ｄ嘢仲多個自己那個Ｙ３，仲要比很多＄，真是接受不到！！

以上是個人意見！！

khashley

thx ktpleung

slamai

My intention has always been to give a more balanced view because the above posts are mostly pointing out the discrepancies of VSA by some parents from their personal views though I think, with due respect, are not totally familiar with the philosophy of IBO. I would consider that I was explaining the rationale of IB education rather than defending VSA. It is true that VSA Y6 students will not be able to participate in the Central Allocation of secondary places as the school is no longer joining the SSPA. However, speculating that it is because the school does not want its students to leave the school is another matter. The change was in fact triggered nearly two years ago by the IBO PYP visiting team who asked the primary school to abolish examinations, thus disqualifying the school from joining the SSPA. In fact, none of the other IB PYP World Schools in Hong Kong join the SSPA.
I always respect others to give their personal views while I would give my own views to let everyone have a more balanced picture.
I remember once a primary parent gave a view at a briefing session on Chinese teaching at VSA that the school should consider switching back to use Cantonese in teaching Chinese. This parent should probably have better put her child in a school following the local curriculum instead if that is what she actually has intended for her child.

hoboy

slamai,

    問題唔係有冇考試. 其實早幾年, 我既唸法同你一樣, 我之前其他forum既post都係support VSA既. 我有兩個小朋友都係讀VSA, 唔知係我細既小朋友資質差, 定係其他原因. 比起大果個, 學習技巧, 甚至學習態度, 都差好多. 語文基礎對IB黎講係好重要, 打唔穩, 到左中學就會好麻煩. 我本身唔係一個要求高既家長, 亦唔會把VSA同local school 學到幾多黎比較, 但都開始膽心. 我記得校長曾經講過, VSA係no pressure, happy school life, but HIGH STANDARD. no pressure 同 happy school life 一向都係. 但HIGH STANDARD, 我暫時未見到. 希望VSA有一日可以做到啦.

hoboy

原帖由 khashley 於 11-6-7 13:10 發表
should I turn down the offer?

其實要睇下小朋友既性格同埋自己既要求, 先可以下決定.
如果經濟能力負擔到年年加10% 學費, 平日再幫小朋友補下, 又唔會到左中學想轉local school. 係值得試既. 小朋友真係返學返得好開心既, 完全冇嘢學就一定唔會. 如果覺得唔適合, P1/P2都可以轉返出去. 未試過真係唔知適唔合適小朋友. 有d真係會讀得好好既. 唔好因為呢度少少既comment而影響自己既決定.  呢d純粹個人意見:)

khashley

Frankly Speaking, I concern the outcome only, invest such an amount and wait for the unknown outcome, it is a very very big problem.

Of coz, I wanna my daughter study with NOT MUCH pressure, that's y i apply for the school. But maybe Singapore int'l school seems much better than VSA

khashley

anyway, thx for all comments from this forum

hoboy

今日收到書單. 學校終於都用番啟思做中文教科書, 數學書都用番Longman

carna

我個仔經過一年半的補習, 依加中文同數學都已經回復到一般小五的程度啦, 如果連一般的程度或基礎都無, 點樣可以有批判性思考呢?, 我相信探究能力和思考能力是建基於已有的知識基礎上突破而成的．在沒有基礎的情況下思考，只是天馬行空，內容也是空洞而無意思的．

　　學好中文，正如現在很多大學教授，中學教師和文學家都認為適量的背誦古文是非常重要的，因為這些是文化的精萃所在，而小學生的時候是吸收力最強的時候，適量的背誦一些古典文學如詩詞到他們讀到中學甚至大學時是很有用的，正如外國的學校學習文學也是要背誦著名詩人如莎士比亞等的詩句的．文學的基礎便是這樣打出來的，一篇好的文章若能在適當的地方引用幾句詩句，便會起畫龍點睛的效果，使文章生色不少，如果吾係，即使寫上幾頁紙也沒有那麼好的效果．
　　　數學方面，在外國，高中的數學是分開basic, standard and advanced level的，學生是根據能力入讀這三個level的，basic for高中畢業，standardfor apply college, 只有advanced才可以入大學. 所有香港過去讀書的學生對advanced
level都能應付自如，而外國學生能選讀advanced
level的只有２至３成，由此可見數學還是中國人的教法好．

　　　回想當年我地幫個仔選擇入VSA而不入IS,是因為希望VSA的英文水平比local school好，中文水平比IS高，加上當時的校長是一位數學專家，這真是我們夢未以求的學校，我地連這是一間ＩＢ學校都忘記了，只知道是一間好學校，我個仔返學除左好開心，好鍾意返學，仲學到好多野，家長又吾使找補習，省返吾少錢，無論昇本地中學大學或國際學校都無問題，點同依家錢使多佐好多錢，但卻兩頭不到岸，你地話係咪好慘呀！

carna

我地都收到呀！真係好消息，終於有書跟，不過數學歌本好似剩係得作業無書wor! 點解吾Longman 書同作業一齊用呀！

slamai

VSA develops its own (traditional) Chinese textbooks based on (or simplified from) those used in Shanghai for IB PYP programme upto Y3. The use of local Chinese textbooks starts from Y4. As a corollary, it is a good move for VSA to shorten PYP to 5 years and lengthen MYP to 5 years to get the students better prepared for their DP programme. For those parents who are not too familiar with the secondary programmes of IB, there are definitely summative assessments (i.e. tests/examinations) in MYP and DP (the final examination is an external/public one) though primarily formative assessments are adopted in PYP. I agree that memorising the multiplication table is necessary in learning mathematics.  Other than that, genuine language proficiency and knowledge come from extensive reading and nothing else can suffice. ESF primary schools don't have textbooks but many students have cultivated a habit of reading (a.k.a. bookworms) and become strong readers when they graduate.

[ 本帖最後由 slamai 於 11-6-9 23:51 編輯 ]

Yau_Cheung

絕對同意 "未學行，先學走" 既方法係唔 work。相信 VSA 本身 expect 家長在家教小朋友 "學行" (基礎知識)，在校老師則教小朋友 "學走" (探究思考)，所以 VSA 喜歡收有 "全職媽咪" 照顧教導既小朋友。

VSA 小朋友要讀得好，課餘補習 (either 媽咪教 or 補習老師教) 似乎在所難免，但問題係若有部份學生有補習，部份學生沒有補習，程度唔同，老師又會否為遷就程度較低的學生在校只教一些淺易的基礎知識呢？

希望 VSA 可以越做越好。

原帖由 carna 於 11-6-9 00:43 發表
我個仔經過一年半的補習, 依加中文同數學都已經回復到一般小五的程度啦, 如果連一般的程度或基礎都無, 點樣可以有批判性思考呢?, 我相信探究能力和思考能力是建基於已有的知識基礎上突破而成的．在沒有基礎的情況下思 ...

[ 本帖最後由 Yau_Cheung 於 11-6-10 11:04 編輯 ]