RC or SJS 究竟哪間較好

zhumama

mableku
Thank you very much for your sharing. I agree with you.

I think RC is a good school since my son is studying in it. Iam sure about it and my son fit into it smoothly. That's why it is so difficult for us to make the decision to take the offer of the SJS vacancy.

We've visit SJ and we've gotten more details about their teaching and leaning. Threre are 30 students in one class. However there are only around 23 students each class in RC. As I saw there were one teacher assistance each class in SJS but there was teacher assistance available for the classes in RE. So I think they are quiet similar in the proportion of teachers and students.

Anyone knows more about the P2 students' teaching and learning in SJS?

Any mom from RC or SC secondary school here to share with us?

原文章由 mabelku 於 07-9-14 12:55 硐表
1.SC好似不是直升的,RC就是,如不對,請指正!
2.現時,你的小朋友只到P.1,真的好難講那間好D,RC就比較新,但你又不能保証他數年後差過SC.另外,如果SC不是直升,到時你又要找ESF其他學校.
3.我女兒同學同你一樣,讀讀吓RC,S ...

zhumama

WYmom,I agree with you.
Thank you very much for your sharing.

原文章由 WYmom 於 07-9-14 14:15 硐表


As you know,SC takes in students within their zone, so their students come from different ESF primary schools, majority from SJS, some from BHS and a few from other ESF schools.  RC is through train ...

WYmom

原文章由 christf 於 07-9-14 16:16 硐表
Don't be mislead!

If your kid is studying in any ESF primary (except joining the ESF primary at year 6), your kid will be guaranteed an ESF secondary place, i.e. the learning from ESF primary to seco ...

Christf,

I have not misled anyone, I did not say that there is no guaranteed to ESF secondary, I only said that SC accepts students based on zone, zone of SJS is different from SC.  So SJS is not through train to SC, but of course they have guarantee to ESF secondary based on residential zones.

On Chinese standard, it is not so simple to just compare the no. of classes per week.  It all depends on the standard of students, a lot of SJS students have extra Chinese classes after school, so some of them have higher standard.  RC seems to have a better Chinese program for primary students, which may meet the needs of local parents.

[ 本文章最後由 WYmom 於 07-9-14 17:04 編輯 ]

hjm

A friend of mine told me today his son has been in ESF from P1 up to now Year 9.  He thinks when his son was just finishing primary his Chinese was at local equivalent of roughly P2 or P3.

My son left after P5 into RC at Yr 7.  He's still studying P5 Chinese (because Chinese isn't really his cup of tea and he didn't do very well before anyway, way behind his English) now but there is another class doing P6 Chinese.  Probably because there are quite a few outsiders from local school, the Chinese standard is better than students from purely IS environment.

Of course now even at P5 Chinese it will all be in Mandarin, so I think it's hard enough for my son.  He said he has 5 periods spread over 3 days in a week.  But again since he already has some Chinese (at least P5 local), he can read fictions and write and read.  He's learning Kumon so hopefully that will help his pin yin.  I dunno yet, but the IS environment is really what we chose.  And because RC did have a better chance to get in, so why not!  OTherwise, we would be crazily doing exercises and exercises for P6 exams now!

zhumama

Dear hjm,

Thank you very much for your information.
Would you mind telling me their math level which compare with the local schools?
And what are their daily writing in Eng and Chin?
Is there any test for  Yr 7 students?

Thank you.

xenonlit

原文章由 zhumama 於 07-9-15 00:15 硐表
Dear hjm,

Thank you very much for your information.
Would you mind telling me their math level which compare with the local schools?
And what are their daily writing in Eng and Chin?
Is there any tes ...

It is not appropriate to compare directly the level of most of the subjects between IS and local school, especially at primary level. The curriculum and requirements of say, maths, between local schools and IS (or schools abroad) are very different. Of course local schools’ requirement and achievement are much high. But what about university level? I don’t think the maths level at MIT is worse than any of the HK universities. The main gist of the education in IS is to provide the environment for children to build a good foundation. Children at IS is taught to learn by themselves rather to learn what is taught by teachers. The pace at IS is likely to be slower, but the ultimate goal can still be achieved with happy lifelong learning.

kathiema

原文章由 xenonlit 於 07-9-15 10:03 硐表



It is not appropriate to compare directly the level of most of the subjects between IS and local school, especially at primary level. The curriculum and requirements of say, maths, between local sc ...

Agree!

xenonlit

原文章由 christf 於 07-9-14 16:12 硐表
SJS/SC over RC:

1.  Well-proven and excellence track records
2.  Well-established education system and structure
3.  Better resoruces available because of government
     funding
4.  A strong alumni ...

Thank you for your observations/analyst. But:

1. If it is true that SJS/SC have better track records than RC, then “Well-proven and excellence track records” is a point to consider whether to choose SJS/SC or RC. But this has not been proved since there is no such records of RC. The students starting Year 1/Year 7 at RC may or may not be more brilliant than students of SJS/SC. So it is unfair to say SJS/SC over RC because “Well-proven and excellence track records” at this moment. But time will tell.

2.  I don’t know much about the education system in SJS/SC, but as far as I know SJS has shifted to IB starting from this year which is new to the school. I am not sure if the shift has any impact to the education system and the structure of the school.

3. Can you name some of the better resources with SJS/SC so more info to consider?

4.  It is a good point that SC has a strong alumni and connections with overseas universities because of the track records of old students

5.  I found from the relevant websites that school fees at SJS/SC/RC are:
SJS - $54,300 p.a.; SC - $85,000 p.a. while RC(Primary) - $64,000 p.a. and RC(Secondary) - $88,000 p.a.. Do you mean RC will raise its school fees again soon?

JennyBaBa

My girl is studying at ESF Kennedy school. Her class teacher last year, Ms. Green, has been transferred to RC this academic year. Ms. Green is a very good teacher. She really cares about her pupils, love them, and know how to encourage her students. My girl misses her a lot. Just take this chance to express our gratitude to her and feel happy to her students in RC.

hjm

原文章由 zhumama 於 07-9-15 00:15 硐表
Dear hjm,

Thank you very much for your information.
Would you mind telling me their math level which compare with the local schools?
And what are their daily writing in Eng and Chin?
Is there any tes ...

I'm still a new parent at RC, but i'll try answering your questions.

Since the maths is now in Eng it will mean a little difficult if the Eng language has not been used often enough before.  My son is a lot stronger is Eng than Chi all along and his Maths was OK.  He said now Maths is covering aspects he has learnt before so he has no problem at all.  He has also learnt a bit of F1 Eng like Algebra when he was P5.

I just received a notice to parent on Eng Test.  They are taking this serious enough...at least from my perspective they listed the format, expectations about homework and assessment on the notice and ask the parents to read and sign.  It will be held next week.

My son also said every now and then they have little assessment to see how they have been doing.  They have advisors (is this the format in all ESF secondary?) and they meet with the advisor in a group every morning.  Advisors are like mentors who help the students in every aspect.

I do not know how well or poor my son's standard is yet, he only said he's fine.  Will need to see when it comes to parents day meeting with the teacher!  Then I'll be able to tell more about the standard.

zhumama

Xenonlit, Kathiema, Jennybaba, Hjm,

Thank you all for your response

According to our observation, in SJS there are 30 kids in one class. In RC, the number of students is around 24. I know both schools have a teacher assistant in each class.

I met some teachers in SJS. Like RC, they are hardworking.  The classrooms in SJS are not so big. Kids have to eat lunch there. The library is not big.

Both the SJS and SC have very good reputation. RC, as you mentioned, is new but has potential to grow because of the staffs and facilities.

It's difficult to make the choice.

zhumama

Thank you very much for everyone's information and analysis.  
Does anyone knows how many children are there in the class of P5 ,P6 and P7 in RC or SC?
Thanks.

chingyu

christf and all,

(1) Resources
Sorry, I still don't understand why you said resources in SJS better than RC.  Could you please list out more specific?  Obviously the campus and location in RC both are better a lot.

(2) Teachers
I heard many good teachers from other ESF had changed to RC now.  Let cite Ms. Green from ESF Kennedy as an example.  Why this happen?  

Some parents said most of RC teachers were Australian because of lower salary. In contrast, RC website clearly showed that most of teachers are Canadian with many years teaching experience.  (I am NOT the one who has discrimination.  I have just quoted another parent's dialogue.)

Besides, RC's principal (Mr Peter Kenny) always reinforces that he would screen the teachers and have interviews in different countries with very strict standard.  How about SJS? I heard many ESF teachers were back-packers nowadays.  Is that true?  How can I see the background details of teachers in SJS?  In RC, I can check all teachers' background via its website.

(3) Teacher / Student's ratio
1:26 in RC
1:30(?) in ESF including SJS

(4) Chinese (Mandarin)
RC Y1-Y2 - at least 40 mins/lesson for 4 days
RC Y3 or above - I heard it's over 40mins/lesson for 5 days  (My daughter in Year 1 learned 8-10 Mandarin songs from August 21 to last Friday-Sept 14.  She could translate the lyrics from Mandarin to Cantonese. She told me all Chinese writing had finished within the class.)  How about SJS? May you please tell us more?  Why can't we presume RC really invests more resources in Chinese than other IS?   Besides, how many Chinese teachers for how many students in SJS?  What's these teachers' academic level?
Last year (the first year of RC), RC got Champion in Speech Festival.  As you mentioned that Chinese standard in SJS is growing now, did SJS join any events/competitions or hold any summer trips so as to motivate students in learning Chinese/Madarin?


(5) Good reputation (?)
Personally I don't want to choose DGS/St. Paul Co-ed so I changed my target to IS.  I hope that a school may motivate kids to learn more instead of kids well trained for a school.

(6) Withdrawal
Last year (my daughter still didn't join RC), my friends' daughters in SJS, she always told me that lots of students in SJS withdrew to other IS schools.  Why this happen?
As a parent of RC, we did have some consideration about other schools say SJS because every parent would choose the best to his/her kids.  However, do you know why we have such hesitation now though it seems most of people think SJS over RC?  We RC parents really think RC satisfactory.

All above questions are open for discussion.  It's welcome that PARENTS ESPECIALLY FROM SJS shares more details with us because we really want to know the REALITY.  At this moment, I still didn't apply SJS because we really have hesitation to change as long as RC runs quite well indeed.  Certainly we would consider other ESF including SJS if we know more specific how they work over RC after counting the opportunity cost.  

Above all, RC is unlike those DSS (say CKY, HKUGA...etc), we parents so far don't have any complaint although it is a new school.  This point can show Mr Peter Kenny who really waved his magic wand and did something amazing, right?

[ 本文章最後由 chingyu 於 07-9-16 22:07 編輯 ]

Brent

原文章由 zhumama 於 07-9-16 14:27 硐表
Thank you very much for everyone's information and analysis.  
Does anyone knows how many children are there in the class of P5 ,P6 and P7 in RC or SC?
Thanks.

This is not a new question and different people will have different answer.

As I live in Shatin, I see many students wearing ICS, SJS, RC uniforms (more of them are wearing local school uniforms though) at my estate every morning.
Parents all have their own choices for different reasons.
As my son is at RC, I find it a good school.
I also believe that SJS is a good school.
If you don’t find RC better than SJS, there is no point to pay higher school fee for RC.

I know that there are students switching from RC to SJS, and SJS to SIS this year.
I am not sure whether there are any students switching from SJS to RC.
My son was also offered an interview by SJS but we did not take it because I find RC better than SJS because it meets my requirements more.
As long as a school is good enough, it is the parents who make the children different.
I care whether my son can score more than 40 in IBD than the percentage of students scored more than 40.

zhumama

Chingyu, Brent,

Thank you very much for your responses

I know there is something from the bottom of my heart which is I think RC is more suitable for my son because my son has been studying in it and we know more about it . That is why we have such a long time of hesitation to consider the offer of SJS.

But as many friends told us SC is a school with a good reputition, we just like standing at a cross street.

It's really making me headache

Base on WYmom's logic and comments, we can think in this way. Which secondary school is more suitable for my son, RC or SC?

Does anyone know SC more?
Thank you.

WYmom

原文章由 zhumama 於 07-9-17 09:46 硐表
Chingyu, Brent,

Thank you very much for your responses

I know there is something from the bottom of my heart which is I think RC is more suitable for my son because my son has been  ...

If you think RC is more suitable, then stay in RC.  Your son is only in P1, so he will study in secondary only after 6 years, and graduates from secondary after 13 years.  At that time, RC is no longer a new school and will have 14 years of track records, so not too much a concern by then.

SC is of course a very good school, my kid is studying there, very competitive and challenging, well-balanced in all aspects, have well-established culture and high school spirit.   I believe RC can be the same too in next 10 years' time.