英基學校

ashleymama

LV77,
How old is your son? As ESF P1 students are 5 yrs old.

LV77

Hi, ashleymama

My son now is 5 years old, and will let him go to
P.1 by next year ! Do you think that I need apply
ESF P2 ? Do you know ESF website ? Pls advise.

Many Tks!

mrs_ho

http://www.esf.edu.hk

This is the ESF website.

ashleymama

Dear LV77,
yes may be you need to apply for p2 since ESF accepts students according to their age. by the way, for next year p1 application started already on 3-23 Sept this year.

momom

Dear Y2KChild,

Would you mind tell me what is your son's mother lanuage?
I am struggle what type of kindergarten for my son.
I am wondering to apply for ESF kindergarten or Victoria kindergarten.  We would like to send my son to ESF primary school.
However, we are not native english speakers and I am afriad if my kid study in ESF kindergarten and at last can't get a place in primary.  That will be a problem for studying in other local primary school.
Can you give me some advice?
Thanks.
momom
Y2KChild 寫道:
Dear Mickeyball

Before giving my comments on QBS, I would like to give you some facts first.

There are altogether 24 classes from Year 1 to Year 6, i.e. 4 classes per year and the maximum student number is 30 per class. For Year 1, there are two teachers per class, one major and one assistant but both are native English speakers. There is also an additional assistant (I am not very sure whether there is one for 1 class or for 2 classes). For some special subjects like PE, music, art and computer, it seems that these subjects are taught by special teachers.

Tonight, my wife and me had just attended the teacher consultation session and had a 10 minutes talk with my boy's major teacher. We were highly appreciated for the professionalism and quality of my boy's teacher as she was very patient to kids and knew how to positively appraise and encourage the kids to achieve better. She also had good observations on the strength and weakness of each kid and can pinpoint very details and exactly the areas of improvement. You will be very convinced that she is really a profession in kids education and knows how to guide young kids.

Our feeling on her are much better than all those previous teachers of my boy in his previsou kindergartens. Not to say those teachers in the traditional Chinese kindergarten that they could not pay individual attention to the kids because of the high teacher to student ratio. They really did not know my boy's characteristics and only focused on the selfcare capability of the kids. They could only give some very general and superficial comments on the kid's ability. Please note that my kid's previous local Chinese kindergarten is also a very famous kindergarten in HK side and adopt activity-based learning approach in teaching.

When comparing with my boy's second international kindergarten he attended for 2.5 months, those teachers are very good and patent to the kids and could pay individual attention to the kids. However, you can easily feel that they are not so professional as compare with my boy's current teacher in QBS when you talked to them during the teacher consultation session.  Of course, all these are only my personal view and the teachers I had come across may not reflect the majority of the teachers in each school I mentioned.

In general, my wife and me consider QBS  very suitable to my son because of their ways of teaching - activity-based teaching; encourage positive and creative thinking; pay attention to the variation of the students's abilities and provide additional assistant to those in need but at the same time try to strive for academic excellence for each student; will not label or stimatize individual students; encourage discussion and expression of ideas during the class; concern in student's discipline and moral standard, etc.

The only drawback I have to admit is that there is not enough Chinese study in QBS and we have to find other ways to help my boy to keep up with Chinese study by ourselves. Besides, we also feel regret that QBS is not a Christian school as we are a Christian family.

When we found my boy well adapted to his new school life in QBS, my boy and we decided not to attend interviews for those local schools we had applied before because we could not find a local school more suitable to my boy.   

Regards

Mickeyball 寫道:
Dear Y2K,

Thanks alot for your informations. How do you think QBS comparing with local school?? Are the teachers patient to kids? How many classes are in P1 since you mentioned that there are 29 in your class? Also, how many teachers in one class? May be they still have one/two vacancies at this moment so I'll keep trying.

Thanks again!!

[/quote]

mrs_ho

Dear momom,

In my opinion, it would be 'safer' to put the kid in local kindergarten (but with very good English training) if you're afraid that he/she may not be accepted by international school because it is almost impossible for a kid who doesn't know Chinese to study in local primary school.

My girl spent her K1 & K2 in Victoria Kindergarten and got accepted by ESF primary this year. I want her to learn Chinese since young (as a Chinese and in case we change our mind of putting her in local school). I am not sure if Victoria's English training is good enough because both my maid and I talk to her in English all the time, I didn't depend on the school only.

Maybe Y2KChild will have a better idea on this as his son has studied in both local and international kinders.

mrs_ho

LV77

Dear ashleymama,

Many tks !  :wink:

ashleymama

Dear Y2KChild,
May I know which Int'l kinder your child went to?
By the way, what is the % of local chinese at QBS? It sounds like a very good school. I've heard that Shain Junior / Shatin College are also good schools (as academic result of Shatin College is high) but almost 80% of SJS are local chinese. I don't know how to choose, a reputable int'l school with lots of classmates are speak in cantonese? Or may be they won't speak in chinese at school at all?
regards,
Ashleymama

mrs_ho

I also heard from a staff of ESF that the passing rate of victoria students applying for ESF is 50%.

minggrace

Hi,

I have two doubts.

1. My son will be 4 years10 months old by Sep 1. I will apply for ESF primaries for my son for P1. Do you think ESF primaries will accept kids aged less than 5 by Sep 1 for that academic year? I really don't want my son to repeat/ do 1 more year after completing K2.

2. My son is doing K1 at Kowloon Baptist Church Kindergarten. He's accepted by ESF Kinder - Tsing Yi. If you were me, would you let him stay at KBCK or go for ESF Tsing Yi in order to increase the chance of going to ESF primaries? (But there are many negative comments on ESF Tsing Yi about kids communicating in Cantonese with one another...) I'm headache...

Please advise...

Many thanks.

Minggrace

WYmom

Minggrace,

ESF P.1 min. age is 5, it is equivalent to K3 of local kinder.  Kids usually study upto K2 and then join ESF P.1.  Your son is too small.

warrrren

Y2KChild said,

If I got another kid, I would put him/her into a pure international kindergarten

I am with Y2kChild on this.  Studying in a real international kindergarten (e.g. Starter School, Small World Christian Kindergarten, ESF Kinder, FIS Kinder etc) has a few advantages, namely: –

1. The chance of getting into one of the international schools is considerably higher.

2. The kids can pick up really good English.

3. The kids can get mixed with kids from other countries.

4. For those who want their kids to learn more Chinese during the primary years, as most international kindergartens do not offer K3, you can always let your kids go to a local kindergarten (say Victoria Kindergarten or Lingnan) after K2.  

Of the few international kindergartens I just mentioned, I know Small World best (my girl studied there).  Small World is like a feeder school to the better-known international schools.  In the past few years, most (if not all) of the Small World kids managed to get one or more offers from ESF, FIS, GSIS, HKIS and the like.  For the minority few whose parents decided to let them go to local schools, they received offers from schools like DGJS, SPCo-ed and DBSPD.  It is not hard to imagine why kids from international kindergarten are well received - let's say you are the head master of DGJS and there are 100 girls standing right in front of you.  Who do you think will stand out – the two little girls who finished K1 and K2 at Small World and French international, and K3 at Lingnan, or the 98 others from local kindergartens?


Warrrren

mrs_ho

Dear Minggrace,

ESF's requirement is based on the YEAR OF BIRTH intead of the actual AGE. For example, kids borned in year 2000 are accepted for Sept 05 as Year 1 students (no matter which month), and kids borned in year 2001 will be accepted for Sept 06. All of my daughter's classmates were borned in 2000, some in Jan and some in Dec. You can check its website for details.


'My son will be 4 years10 months old by Sep 1. I will apply for ESF primaries for my son for P1. Do you think ESF primaries will accept kids aged less than 5 by Sep 1 for that academic year? I really don't want my son to repeat/ do 1 more year after completing K2. '

supermom123

Regarding Q2, definitely stay in KBCK,curriculum wise,Tsing yi is incomparable to KBCK,my son is now in SJS P1,he attended KBCK,he already learn all the phonics ,for those from Tsing yi,they still picking up ABC. Also the headmistress is not caring and nice.whereas the staff and teachers in KBCK are really nice and genuine.

chuchuma

Hi Minggrace,

Knowing that your son is studying in Kowloon Baptist Church Kindergarten.  As KBCK is my favourable international kindergarten, I have just sent my application to KBCK and they replied that they would invite us for an interview in Jan 06.

Thus, I wonder if you still remember and let me know the process and contents of the interview ?  By the way, do you know their selection criterieas ?   Some bk momies said that sending the application earlier would have the advantage, however, I have just sent my application this month.