請問有無弘立書院的家長?

咀咀超人

可否分享一下校內情況? 如學習環境、師資、學生上課開唔開心、等等。謝！

ngmom

原文章由 chez 於 07-11-9 13:41 硐表
Thanks for sharing.  It's really nice to have existing parents of ISF to share with others.  

1) ISF is my 1st priority school.  I understand that students at school can only speak Eng and Mandarin.  ...

1) Students may only speak Eng or mandarin in school.

2) Language classes are taught by native speakers (English may be taught by Asian who speak fluent English).

3) For Foundation Year and Grade 1, language is not an assessment criterion ie whether the kid speaks English or Mandarin or Cantonese is unimportant.

4) It is expected that the Foundation Year students will take up about 50% of the Grade 1 places.

Hope this helps.

chez

Thanks for sharing.  It's really nice to have existing parents of ISF to share with others.  

1) ISF is my 1st priority school.  I understand that students at school can only speak Eng and Mandarin.  Is that true ? If that's the case, I think the school has provided a good environment for students to enhance their spoken language fluency.  

2) Also, is the language class taught by native speakers ?

3) is the interview conducted in Eng or mandarin ?

4) I know that ISF has reception class from 2008 onwards.  Will large portion of Grade 1 places be reserved for those students ?  I live in Kln side too.  despite I like the school very much, it will be really too far to send my son to study the reception class.  I afraid that this will affect the chance of getting into ISF by Grade 1.

sorry for having so many questions.  

原文章由 ngmom 於 07-11-7 13:06 硐表
My son switched to ISF to study Grade 2 this year and he likes his school very much. Teachers are very qualified and caring. We can always talk to the teachers if we have questions.
The Chinese curric ...

ngmom

原文章由 little-duck 於 07-11-8 21:41 硐表
ngmom,

Would you mind to tell if students in KCIS are mainly communicating with each others in English, Mandarin or Cantonese?  How's standard of the school in your opinion?

As far as i am aware, the kids communicate with each other in English most of the time. The academic standards are good, especially Chinese language (comparing to other international schools).

ngmom

原文章由 chanls 於 07-11-9 07:43 硐表
My colleague's kid is studying in ISF Academy, Her comment is as follows,

1/ What they teach is so simple, even the writing Chinese and English is so poor! ONly the spoken langua ...

I don't know what grade the kid of your colleague is in but all I can say is that my experience is different. Also HK is a free market and one can always switch or change if one is so negative about the school. It is important that the parents share the school's philosophy and approach.

Two points to clarify:

1) The school follows the IB curriculum in the primary section but is not going to get a certification in IB since the curriculum put so much emphasis on Chinese. The school is planning to get IB MYP and diploma certification which can only be possible after they have moved to the new campus and have developed a critical mass of students.

2) Shirley Lee has always been the principal with overall responsibility for the primary and secondary sections.

I thought an existing parent should have known these.

ngmom

原文章由 Prema 於 07-11-8 16:36 硐表
Hi, ngmom,

Thanks for your reply.  I know they are already full in G1 but still accepting application for waitlist.  I wish to apply this school and hope for the best.  I live in Kowloon side. Do you ...

I think there are school buses running on the Kowloon side but I don't have the schedule. Maybe you could ask the school directly. The school starts at 8:00am and finishes at 3:30pm. From what i have heard the school buses run a fairly efficient schedule.

Good luck!

chanls

My colleague's kid is studying in ISF Academy, Her comment is as follows,

1/ What they teach is so simple, even the writing Chinese and English is so poor! ONly the spoken language is OK.
2/ The class disipline is very loose
3/ From the academic point of view, the school is too new to have any academic results to be referenced.
4/ The school claimed it use IB program, but my friend cannot search this school from IB organisation web site, so my friend said they may just use IB to attract people.
5/ The principal is changed at around 2005. It mean there may be some underlying issue which we don't know and at least, the direction of the school is not so clear yet.
6/ The school  fee is too expensive, and my colleague said that my school fee will be increased every year because they need money for the new campus. If I send my kid to the G1 class, I need to plan for at least 12 year schhol fee. Another point I need to consider is that if my 1st kid go to ISF my next kid should also go to ISF, and the school fee is doubled. Actually I can afford the school fee but I think it is more cost effective to leave the money to them when they grow up so that they can use the money to do something (eg buying new flat) important to them.

In conclusion,  I would rather send my kid to International school like CIS, KCIS where the track record is very good and the chance of getting in University is garanteed!

little-duck

ngmom,

Would you mind to tell if students in KCIS are mainly communicating with each others in English, Mandarin or Cantonese?  How's standard of the school in your opinion?

原文章由 ngmom 於 07-11-8 12:56 硐表
He switched from KCIS (international section of Kiangsu-Chiangkiang Primary School) co's we moved to Island South last year.

Prema

Hi, ngmom,

Thanks for your reply.  I know they are already full in G1 but still accepting application for waitlist.  I wish to apply this school and hope for the best.  I live in Kowloon side. Do you know whether the school bus has Kowloon route? Can you tell me what is their school time table?

Thanks!

原文章由 ngmom 於 07-11-8 13:12 硐表
As to ease of admission, last year was ok as it was moving to the new campus and some grades were increasing the number of classes. I understand that lots of people applied to G1 2008 and the PreG1 (K ...

ngmom

As to ease of admission, last year was ok as it was moving to the new campus and some grades were increasing the number of classes. I understand that lots of people applied to G1 2008 and the PreG1 (K3) (starting 01/2008).

As to school fees, I believe if one takes into account the extra tutoring that would have been required if a kid attended a traditional local school in order to achieve the same m level of proficiency in Chinese and English, it is not that expensive.

ngmom

He switched from KCIS (international section of Kiangsu-Chiangkiang Primary School) co's we moved to Island South last year.

咀咀超人

多謝回應, 我都參觀過校舍, 學校環境十分好, 不過距離屋企較遠, 所以要認真考慮. 請問你囝囝由邊間小學轉到 ISF?

lemonred

學費很貴?

原文章由 cecilau 於 07-11-7 14:53 硐表
請問弘立難唔難入呀?

cecilau

請問弘立難唔難入呀?

ngmom

My son switched to ISF to study Grade 2 this year and he likes his school very much. Teachers are very qualified and caring. We can always talk to the teachers if we have questions.
The Chinese curriculum is strong in the lower grades (70%) in particular. 70% of the curriculum will be in English in the upper grades.
As to the enviroment and atmosphere, you should see for yourself and arrange a visit to the school.