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教育王國 討論區 國際學校 好想比個囡讀國際學校....但....
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好想比個囡讀國際學校....但.... [複製鏈接]

Rank: 3Rank: 3


380
101#
發表於 08-3-25 00:55 |只看該作者
Hello,

I'm a newcomer in this forum.  I am considering to let my gril to study in IS.  She is now studying in K2 at a local kinder.

Reasons:
1. Local education is very competitive.
I can feel the pressure as I am gathering some information for my girl for the primary school now.  I also try to get the certificate, attend the contest and the interview class for the application for the primary school.  However, I feel exhuasted and time consuming. I think I could make use of more resource, time and effort to develop my girl more if she is in a more relaxing school environment.

2. English is very important.  
I also heard that some of the famous local primary schools encourage their student to talk in English and the books are in English as well.  I'm thinking if the main purpose for the children is to be trainined in fluent English.  Why  don't I let my girl to study in IS directly?

3. International Exposure
I believe the chidlren who study in IS is more easier to deal with different kinds of people from the world.  It's true...  I am working in a MNC and I feel that it is an advantage for the employees who are coming from the overseas or received the education from abroad.  I want to my kid to be more adaptable, proactive and outspoken whereas the local students can rarely do this.  

4. Lost confidence to the local education
Can anyone give me five government official who let their chidrent to study in a English-anglo local school?  They are all sending their kids to overseas, why not in China?

However, I really understand that it is not easy to get a seat in a good IS.

My questions are
1. My girl is K2 with 5 years old.  Can I get a seat in some good IS?
2. How can I apply and be prepared for good IS?

Please help.  Thanks!

Rank: 3Rank: 3


314
102#
發表於 08-3-27 00:35 |只看該作者
I am tempted to respond to you as I have gone through the same thinking process, at least twice. In fact, I have just rejected an offer from an IS.

1. Local education is very competitive.
It all depends on your attitude. If you think this is a waste of time in preparing profile, etc, which I agreed, then don't do it. My daughter is now in P1 in a private school. Not much homework, small class, a real Christian school, treat each kid as an individual and care about their feelings. The teachers are able to tell your kid's characters, help her on her weaknesses and explore her strengths. Students are mentally healthy, cheerful, enjoy learning and proactive. Good academic. So the choice is not only between traditional or IS. There are good local schools in HK. The problem is, most parents think that if their kids cannot go to DBS, DGS, St Paul co ed, or those with 'one dragon' schools, then there is no choice but IS. This is not true.

2. English is very important.  
Strongly agreed. But English is not everything. We should also focus on moral and discipline. No one want another Edison, right? He speaks like a native and he has good social skills. But did he use these skills correctly and morally? In addition, it is important for your kids to master Chinese unless your kids will never work in a Chinese society. Personally, I cannot bear with a Chinese who cannot read or write Chinese well (by the way, Chinese is much more difficult to learn than Eng!). On the other hand, I do not think foreigners expect we Chinese to speak as fluent/native as they did! Instead, my daughter has a weekly Eng class which she enjoys very much (native eng teacher, no homeowork, theme topics). I also read a lot of eng books for her. So I can say that her eng is really not bad and she is brave enough to speak out in eng. She has just got an award in the inter school speech festival (eng solo verse).

3. International Exposure
True. Local schools may not be as 'free' or 'creative' as a IS. What I did is that I will not choose any government schools as they have to strictly follow the syllabus set by the stupid government officials. Instead, I chose a well established private and real-Christian school for my daughter. She enjoys studying there. I do not need to struggle with her on homework (she finishes most of her homework at school) and no need to take leave to study with her for exam. However, I read many books for her (esp english books) so as to build up her imagination and creativity. If the kids are not over-protected by their parents and stay with a good local school, I think they can still acquire the necessary social skills. If the parents are creative and proactive, their kids will be able to acuqire these characters. I am also working in a large organisation. Our top management are both Chinese and foreigners. I do not think foreigners have absolute advantage. We have local graduates who are high fliers in their career path. Of course, I agree  large multi-national organisations like investment banks may prefer overseas graduates.

4. Lost confidence to the local education
Please do not misundertand me that I think IS are not good. I like them too. If not, I will not apply for my son. But I agreed with my husband that there are more important things like value, chinese culture, etc. than Eng. Once you send your kids to IS at such a young age, you basically give up such important things which are very difficult to re-establish later. Some parents told me that they could teach their kids moral and values at home. I do not believe in this as kids are highly affected by peers. At least I will not take risk on this. In fact, I also plan to send my kids (my son is K2 now) abroad but only at university level when I think they have established a correct and strong moral value and have sufficient family bond. The purpose is to open their eyes, let them work with people of different nationality, and exposed to different cultures, thinkings, talents, etc. I may also consider sending them to IS at secondary level, but definitely not at primary level.

My questions are
1. My girl is K2 with 5 years old.  Can I get a seat in some good IS? What is mean by good? it's hard to get a seat, as I have heard from my friends because many local parents are pusing their kids to IS. Even some foreigners cannot get a seat, as i have heard from my workplace. My son is somehow too lucky that he is able to get a seat in ESF. But after balancing all factors, we still prefer to keep him in my daughter's local primary school. You can always send the kids to eng class and read more books for them if you want to boost up their eng. As my daughter likes drama, I also let her attend drama classes (Cantonese) to build up her confidence, presentation skill, creativity, and social skills. So far she enjoys learning, teachers commented her as 'popular, excellent conduct, helpful, good language skills esp english, proactive'. As a parent, I think it's already good enough.
2. How can I apply and be prepared for good IS?
ESF's interview is quite informal. Teachers play with kids and observe them and talk to them to assess. I have no preparation and practice for my son. I have only told him to speak in Eng throughout the play section. I trust my son speaks eng well despite he is in a local kindergarten. I guess my reading and his eng class work well.

So IS is not the solution to all problems. I do not want my son or daughter to tell me one day that they think smoking is fine, marriage is stupid and living together is a good option, gay is fine as it does not hurt other people, chasing for expensive brand names is cool, etc... These values are unacceptable to us as a Christian family and I will not risk my kids on these. Certain level of discipline is necessary to build up the basic core values. Being too flexible is not a good thing especially in building kids' core values.

I must stress that the above are only my perosnal opinion, experience and struggle for your reference. No offense to other IS parents who of course could have very different views.

[ 本文章最後由 readers 於 08-3-27 11:28 編輯 ]

Rank: 3Rank: 3


380
103#
發表於 08-3-27 01:08 |只看該作者
Readers,

Thanks for your sharing!

After reading your message, I am interested to know which local primary school your girl is studying.  Can you PM me?  

As I know, ESF's P1 application is very rare to accept local student.  My understanding is that they give the priority to the foreigner (native Eng speaker).  Which branch did you apply for your son?  If I'm living in N.T., can I apply the ESF school in HK Island?

Rank: 5Rank: 5


2258
104#
發表於 08-3-27 10:37 |只看該作者
原文章由 范莉莎 於 08-3-27 01:08 發表
Readers,

Thanks for your sharing!

After reading your message, I am interested to know which local primary school your girl is studying.  Can you PM me?  

As I know, ESF's P1 application is very ra ...


hi Readers,

May I know which primary school is your girl studying?  Could you pm me.  Many thanks.

Rank: 3Rank: 3


314
105#
發表於 08-3-27 11:08 |只看該作者
He applied Quarry Bay School. He was even a late application and was only interviewed in mid March 08. I understand that the schools only accept kids in their specific covered regions. So I am afraid u cannot apply EFS on HK side. Both my kids are studying in Kau Yan School in Sai Ying Pun, HK side. One in P1 and the other in K2.

原文章由 范莉莎 於 08-3-27 01:08 發表
Readers,

Thanks for your sharing!

After reading your message, I am interested to know which local primary school your girl is studying.  Can you PM me?  

As I know, ESF's P1 application is very ra ...

Rank: 5Rank: 5


2258
106#
發表於 08-3-27 11:19 |只看該作者
原文章由 readers 於 08-3-27 11:08 發表
He applied Quarry Bay School. He was even a late application and was only interviewed in mid March 08. I understand that the schools only accept kids in their specific covered regions. So I am afraid  ...


Thanks readers.  I also heard that Kan Yan is a very good school.

Rank: 3Rank: 3


385
107#
發表於 08-3-28 21:46 |只看該作者
原文章由 readers 於 08-3-27 00:35 發表
I am tempted to respond to you as I have gone through the same thinking process, at least twice. In fact, I have just rejected an offer from an IS.

1. Local education is very competitive.
It all dep ...


I think what you have raised have been discussed before many times. If you are interested, you might want to dig out those old discussions.

I think the choice of local school vs international school is not as simple as you have raised. Education is a whole bunch of considerations and conditions. It is not merely because of the language itself, or it is not merely because of the exposures. Education is "life". Even within the local school subset, we will see different cultures and different values in different schools. We see a lot of very well-behaved local school students. And we see a lot of very lousy local school brats.

I really do not want to drag on (again!) with discussing which schools have most smokers, or which schools have most teen moms. We all know that ISs are not the main "suppliers" of these "problem teens". However, I just do not understand why this smoker thing keeps coming back. But if it make local school parents feel better by quoting the Edison Chen case, do so. However, a gentle reminder to you all that the Miss G involved, for instance, was from a local school, wasn't she? So now, we have a tie, don't we?

I agree with you, though, that IS is not a solution to everything. In fact, no single school can be a solution to everything. The growth of a child is not merely schooling. Parents or family support is very important. If a parent thinks that putting a child in a particular school (be it a local school or international school) would automatically make the kid a successful person, then this is really unfortunate.

Rank: 3Rank: 3


314
108#
發表於 08-3-29 00:05 |只看該作者
Thanks for your comment. I shared my views because someone raised those questions. Whether other people have discussed these before is irrelevant to me. I do not think I need to do a research and dig out all points before I respond. I also do not think everyone should raise something new everytime.

Every parent wants to get the best thing for their kids. Whether my choice between IS and local schools are too simple, I think it is hard or quite rude for a third party to comment [sorry to say this]. There are of course other considerations as mentioned below but I do not think I should give points in an exhaustive way. I only want to address the questions raised by someone else.  

However, I agreed with you that both local schools and IS can 'produce' good and bad students. So the choice is really personal (depends on the values you hold, the characters of your kids, your personal experience with someone from IS/local schools/local+IS, family plan, etc.).

We all know that learning is a life time process but no one can guarantee kids from IS have a higher chance of successfully executing 'life time learning'. Ultimately it goes back to family support, as u mentioned and I agreed.  

原文章由 almom 於 08-3-28 21:46 發表


I think what you have raised have been discussed before many times. If you are interested, you might want to dig out those old discussions.

I think the choice of local school vs international schoo ...

[ 本文章最後由 readers 於 08-3-29 00:09 編輯 ]

Rank: 5Rank: 5


3136
109#
發表於 08-3-29 08:53 |只看該作者
范莉莎

I suggest you call the Renaissance College. The school may be still accepting P1 application (for children born in 2003) for the coming school year. Hurry up!

http://www.renaissance.edu.hk/

[ 本文章最後由 birdbird 於 08-3-29 08:54 編輯 ]
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