Totally disappointed with Kingston

parentsinhk

I had searched here before I let my boy joined Kingston but I couldn't find much information at that time and therefore I had made a very bad decision.  After joining there for almost half a year, we have to withdraw and the experience was very very very bad.  I want to share here to let other parents' know so that they won't repeat my mistake to put your kid to Kingston because after all we finally understand that the actual mission of Kingston is to earn money and they didn't use heart at all to teach your kids.

Here is my experiene.  My boy was originally a very good and gentle boy.  We never hit him and therefore he never learns to hit others.  A few weeks after school started, teacher told us that he hit other kids..it sounded quite strange for us....we asked a few times from teaches if he learned that from school..but the teachers just say nice words saying don't worry, etc.  

Since my boy grows bigger, he started to present himself better and better and we finally understand that he learn to hit others and shut loudly from another  naughty kid in the class.  Since we learned so well about the situation, teachers can't deny anymore...the fact is only that they are fail to control the situation.  In parents day, the teacher even told us it was bad that that naughty boy never got sick?!

Later, I recognize that my boy is not the only one like this.  I agreed with another parents in the class saying that the teachers only try to say nice words to please parents.  The school bascially has NO heart.

In the 2 weeks of Chiense New Year  holiday, my boy suddenly returned back to "normal" and became back a gentle lovely boy and stopped hitting others.  We then confirmed that it was bad to put him back to the Kingston environment where his emtion got upset (cause school was fail to teach the students...all they care is money).  

It is in fact definitely fine to have different kinds of kids in class and we tihnk it is good for our boy to learn.  However, in the whole process, the problem is how the teachers and even the school Principle deal with the matter.  Since we confirmed the environment brought damage to his growth, we had no choice but stop letting him go back to the class immediately.  We also inform school this problem and requesting either to let us go or otherwise change class for us.  

Believe it our not, they rejected us changing class so that they can charge us the $15000 deposit.  We fight back asking them to either change class or pay back the full deposit.  They still insist not to pay us back the whole deposit.  And the execuse they use to reject our request of changing class is that the School principle say there "could be" some people lining up to join the school?!  However, the truth was that a number of kids had withdraw from the schol.  

Anyway, we confrim from the whole process that Kingston is a very very money oriented school with no hearts...

Finally, I waste some deposit money and switched my boy back to another school..we asked him again if he likes Kingston or the newly joined school ... my boy answerd me the new one .. now, he sings more songs and never hit us again! back to normal.


I really hope that the information above could help.  I hope that no parents will repeat my mistake.  Send me email if you need more information.

Hos

Hi BK parents,

Please allow me share my experience.

Both of my children studying at Kingston Kinder.  For my first child, this is the third year.  For my second child, this is the first year.  From my experience, I am happy with this school.  (To be honest, if this is not a good school, I will not put my two children there, as the school fees are very expensive.)

My children learn a lot at school and they like going to school very much.  Their class teachers are very caring and they really understand the children.  (Just an instance - one time, my child had some emotional problems and I phoned the teacher.  She said she would pay extra attention to my child's emotion and see what we could do.  She called me after school on those few days to discuss what we could do at school and at home.  Soon, the problems were solved.  I really appreciated the teacher's time and extra effort.)

Hos

Best Regards,
Hos

parentsinhk

In fact, if my boy didn't encounter that partciular case, we may not discover this and he may be still studying Kingston.  I mean...in genearl, most teachers and schools won't be too bad.  It is only when some expection happens, we consistently found that the school was very money oriented and have no much heart.  In fact, I had this doubt at the beginning of the class cause they asked parents to donate money to buy plants for schools and they would put the name and photos on the plant if you donate more (no donation, no plant=no name and photo)...Imagine your kids may ask why some kids have name but not me?  How will you answer?  This is just the one of the number of examples...

Since my boy had joined another school before and after Kingston, some differences were too obvious....In Kingston, I had never received phone calls from teachers there proactively.  In other school (even join just 1 month), the teacher calls me ocassionally to tell me how is my boy in class.  If he is not feeling well, the teacher calls a few time to follow up...

Having said that, I must also say that there definitely are some good teachers even in a bad school.  Just that if the school mission is money the first and that I couldn't feel the heart of the school, principle and 主任, I selected not to take the risk to let him stay there.

[ 本帖最後由 parentsinhk 於 09-3-22 07:17 編輯 ]

girlsmama

My daughter has attended Kingston for 1.5yrs. As far as I know, she is happy at school and has learnt quite a lot.
She has a couple of instances where another boy at her class scratched her face and left with some abrasions. The teachers called us and explained the event and sent a memo on what happened. I was upset with the incidents but I guess kids don't really know what they have done and some accidents may not be avoidable completely.

Smile2R

Hi BK parents,

I just join the BK and here to support Kingston.

Both of my children studying at Kingston.  This is fourth year for my elder one and second year for my little one.   We are really happy with this school.  As Hos said if this is not a good school, I will not put my two children there, as the school fees are very expensive, especially times 2.

My kids are really enjoy their school life, especially the elder one, she enjoy doing her homeworks everyday and talks about the school all the time.

My husband and I, we both very happy with the school and what our kids have learned.  We highly recommend this school to all of our friends who is looking for a good international school.  

This is our good experience with Kingston.

Tonyhildamum

Dear parentsinhk,

Is your boy studying in kingston kindergarten or kingston international school?

parentsinhk

kingston kindergarten

parentsinhk

I am very happy to hear that you didn't encounter the unhappy experience we had...but for other parents who had not joined the school, please consider more...the reason why I wrote this out was because I found not much info about Kingston here at BK when i decided to let my boy to join ...so, i decided to share my experience with other BK parents..hope now you have more info about this school from different angles.  Do compare more.

[ 本帖最後由 parentsinhk 於 09-3-24 23:41 編輯 ]

parentsinhk

BTW, looking back, I did read this discussion thread at that time http://forum.baby-kingdom.com/viewthread.php?tid=785004&extra=&page=2 ... about the bad comments to Kingston..only that because of 1) Kingston had a good reputation and 2) Kingston had primary school...i somehow choose to hope that my son would be lucky to meet good teachers..

Now, looking back...i shouldn't rely on luck..especially when I recognized the root problem was the school.......anyway...for kids,  i should not leave the decision to rely on luck.

myjasmine

hello,

You may note my comments in the above link quoted by you.  I also had "not very good" experience with Kingston.  But i still think its programme is good but the school and the teacher itself may be too commercial.  It really depends on what you want.

parentsinhk

You are right..the IB concept is good only that it really needs some good quality teachers and school to work that out with true believe on it.

Smile2R

Totally agree with you.

No matter how good a school is, there is always something good and bad about the school and there is always good and not so good students in the school.  

We need to teach our children how to survive in the real world and try not to over protect them.  We still have a long way to go.

加油吧!!!!!!!

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 18:08 發表
What I saw here was a trivial matter but just encountering a parent who doesn't know parenting but provides over-protection for his/her little boy.

No matter how good a school is, there are always so ...

parentsinhk

wisekid2007, I totally agree parents take a major role in teaching kids and we need to use different strategy for kids in different age...anyway, I think that you have missed the point...or otherwise, you may be someone from that school...which make you suddenly make the discussion to become so personal...it is not quite necessary ...

but I definitely will tecch my kid to think more, use the mind, don't just make conclusion or judge someone if you don't know someone =)

That is also the purpose of me posting the previous message.  Give you one more opinion.  It is definitely fine to have different opinions and that is the beatuy of forum.  I just write out my experience hoping this can help someone in case somone is considering Kingston.  

Ha ha..so, I really don't bother to discuss the parenting issue with you

Wingba

Hi parentsinhk,

Don't be bother or upset by wisekid2007 lah. That's the typical response of him/her. An antagonistic attitude coupled with never-ending arguments are his/her style.

He/She has been using different alias like edexp, Christof in different threads attacking those who posted their opinion. "Stupid", "Ridiculous" and some other offensive words are the usual content in his/her response to other parents.

He/She is also fond of personal attack but would say he/she does not mind if the "discussion" is "rationa". I was very amazed to read his/her posting every time. He/She possesses a very interesting idiosyncracy which. being a "stupid' respondent I am not supposed to understand.

Now I am launching personal attack but I don't want to wrangle with him/her over this squabble just want to tell you be calm and be amused in reading his/her posting and you will find some interest.

It is very strange that the victim in your case was blamed for not being strong. I wonder if we should teach our kids to be hedgehog in order to "survive" in school. It is a very strange logic. I still remember when I took my kid to a playgroup in Anfield when she was just one and a half years old one of her classmate (a boy) took away her toy without saying anything. His mom seemed to treat it as normal. No apologies, no regret but simply let her boy play with the toy as usual. The boy always screamed at class but the mom showed no remorse for the mischevious behaviour of her boy. Perhaps this is modern parenting. I am old fashion. I still treasure being polite and reserved when dealing with others.

I might have talked too much as I have no experience with Kingston (but my friend praised the school) but I feel like I have to say something when being "amazed" by the attack you received.

Take care and happy parenting!

oooray

原帖由 Wingba 於 09-3-28 09:43 發表
Hi parentsinhk,

Don't be bother or upset by wisekid2007 lah. That's the typical response of him/her. An antagonistic attitude coupled with never-ending arguments are his/her style.

He/She has been u ...

I totally agree with you.
I always wonder why people will be so childish by using different "nickname" in a forum in a website.
I think he/she is the only one thinks nobody can see such trick.
However, I am not as brave as you to point out here (or I'm just hesitating to so) because we may have less fun.
"Subjective" is nothing wrong but Discussion is not a Religion.
"If You don't follow my way, you cannot go the the Heaven". That is the message I got from those posts/threads.
If it is the case, I'm more than happy to go to the Hell. hahaha...
If your speech is launching personal attack and will be revenged by return, I'm with you!
I will not never ever change my "nickname" in this forum!

parentsinhk

Dear oooray and Wingba,

Thanks for messages.  I am acutally new to this here and I didn't know those tricks... I always come here to search info but not posting...

Ha ha..of course, I did review my parenting on and off and there is always room for improvement but I won't be doubt on myself by just reading that message...honestly, I had been in educational sector myself for longlong time, it won't be too difficult for me to tell which school is good or not...I won't say myself as an educator but I think after all, one of the most important part is the heart.

Wingba, i quite like the way you share...yes, you need to take a balance...to protect or not to protect..at what stage to what extend..there won't be a formula and it is not a simple yes or no...but we also don't need to be so extreme to leave everything to god....and it is not necessary to experience everything "by natural" (what is "natural"?  fate itself is not so "natural" anyway)..

Anyway, right, being a parent is not easy...i would say I still have large room for improvement but I will use my heart and intelligence to learn along the way!

[ 本帖最後由 parentsinhk 於 09-3-28 23:23 編輯 ]

oooray

Dear Wingba and parentsinhk,i always feel that trick is very childish and naive so i attempted to be childish too, by searching some login information in accordance with Wingba's provided login names...and i got some "evidence" to see one name stopped logging in this forum and the other name registered on the next day....
Parentsinhk,
I do agree with you that one of the most important part in a school : The Heart. Especially, in the kindergarten stage.
From a lot of discussions / debates with parents inside or outside this forum, I notice that most parents do concern how native the engish teachers are (white skin is better than Brown/yellow skin...) rather than how much "heart" do the school have. Heart is not only from individual teacher herself but also from the philosophy of how the kinda run by the management. 

Pianokc

I read this with curiosity from the post title. After reading the post and replies, this is my personal opinion.

Kingston is one of the long time established international school in Kowloon Tong with HIGHEST fees. So that alone, we all know, signifies, the school cares for money. It's also understandable.... hence they had a lot of rich, and high powered and with status families, and screens out the "poor" clientele.

However, this does not have any affect about what was mentioned here I think.

Children in school "hitting" others... are very very common. It's not fair to say because the school has a child in a class that "hits" others, and your child is one of the "victims", and because you can't change class, you ask to withdraw.  How about if you changed class, and you have ANOTHER problem with another classmate? Is the school to change class for you AGAIN?

Solution is how you teach YOUR child. No matter what, your child shouldn't be hitting back. The class teacher is also perhaps inexperienced in this way, he/she should definitely look into the situation, and resolve it between the student who is "hitting" and others who are being affected.

You mention your child is "gentle and never hits". well, people do change, children change as they grow. At home, your child is always the one that gets priority, no one will go against him, hence he doesn't need to "fight" for his rights or for attention.

In a school environment, it might have a different effect on a child who is "gentle" at home. Ask yourself, are you the SAME person at home compared to at work ?

However, this cannot CONCLUDE that Kingston is a terrible school. I don't think that's fair at all.

I have students from all kinds of schools, locals and int'l (for piano), and in my opinion, Kingston is one of the schools (intl') that produces very polite children.

I have had students and parents who experience this sort of thing very often, the way to deal with it is to teach your child, and talk to the teacher, and principal, and even the child who is hitting and his parents.

Kingston has a policy that you cannot withdraw with no notice, or you forfeit your deposit, and changing classes is typically not entertained because, it creates chaos, and it's not the solution to the problem ultimately.

Just my two cents.
You will find that you will see this happening, in different "shape or size"... as your child grows older, going into primary school, secondary school.... you cannot "run' or "escape" each time there is a problem with peers or classmates.

Just my personal opinion.
Ultimately, I think it's not very fair to say this about Kingston when it's the student and the teacher of ONE class that is the problem. Not the ENTIRE school, and the years of reputation they have built.

[ 本帖最後由 Pianokc 於 09-3-29 23:48 編輯 ]