有人in左kbck嗎?

alunsweeney

我是19日，你們有沒有人早過這日?

YYFUNG

Pardon me saying this: I think it is off the track in the topic of international school.

I personally believe the majority of the parents choosing IS for their children is NOT to learn English, but they 'd like to pursue a more innovative and "fit-for-use" education system for the kids.

Please respect this - International school is not a language school. International school is an alternative to local system promoting encouragement and self-esteem & self-confidence, and buliding up a global view and / or a choice for the specific nationals to continue their education of the original countries abroad.

(I have two reasons: for return to US and for my child to think critically and flexibly)

If we stand out of the box, Chinese is just one of the many many thousnad kinds of languages. Why do we need to be so narrow-minded to keep only taking tango with Chinese (and English)?

I would not deny mandarin Chinese and its character an dculture, but I hestitate the fact if the definition of Chinese is meant by local langauge.(in cantonese pronunciation)

In my own opinion, whether to get English, or Chinese or whatsoever language(s) is really a matter of mentality. If we as a parent, can be always open-minded, the child would not be resist a new language.

Back to KBCK, KBCK, as the parents of the existing students and as we the potential ones, is regarded as a 'feeder" school for ESF education system, and international schools. The principal said the students going to non-local cirriculum school and /or ESF / IS are what they target.

If the ESF/ IS is not your final goal, please may I beg you not to waste time?

Kind reagrds,
Maria

原帖由 sophievan 於 09-2-25 11:16 發表
如果你收到信的話，你會比小朋友讀嗎?除了kbck之外，你申請了什麼學校?

沒有mandarin及中文，只有英文，競爭力比其他小朋友會差小小嗎?

matthewdad

There are 3 choices:-
1) Schools offer 50% English and 50% Chinese.
=> may be neither good in English or Chinese
2) go to IS and have private chinese totorial class => good in English with average in chinese
3) go to Local Kinder (e.g. KV) and have private english totorial lesson => good in chinese and average in English
Which is the best? It depends on the desire of the paretns....

原帖由 sophievan 於 09-2-25 11:16 發表
如果你收到信的話，你會比小朋友讀嗎?除了kbck之外，你申請了什麼學校?

沒有mandarin及中文，只有英文，競爭力比其他小朋友會差小小嗎?

[ 本帖最後由 matthewdad 於 09-2-25 22:09 編輯 ]

sophievan

have you applied for YMCA Int'l Kindergarten? Both school are in Kln Side but in terms of school facilities and enviornment, I think YMCA will be better. Of course, they will charge you $4680 per month and it will be double of KBCK.

bakusensei

Hi sophievan,

It's v. likely that we will let my son to go to this school if we receive the letter. our preference on ESF over KBCK is only less transportation time.  n to be frank, we don't ve the offer from esf at the present moment. for the other offers we got (mostly local, some with quite high eng standard), we consider them too demanding and violate our concept of early education.

"沒有mandarin及中文，只有英文，競爭力比其他小朋友會差小小嗎?" If this is our concern, we wouldn't consider this kinder at the very begining.  and that's why we sincerely advise parents who plan to go local stream in primary school should seriously consider if kbck is their cup of tea, particulary if 競爭力 is their concern :)

原帖由 sophievan 於 09-2-25 11:16 發表
如果你收到信的話，你會比小朋友讀嗎?除了kbck之外，你申請了什麼學校?

沒有mandarin及中文，只有英文，競爭力比其他小朋友會差小小嗎?

sophievan

如果你收到信的話，你會比小朋友讀嗎?除了kbck之外，你申請了什麼學校?

沒有mandarin及中文，只有英文，競爭力比其他小朋友會差小小嗎?

原帖由 bakusensei 於 09-2-18 17:24 發表
Million thanks for YYFung, Matthewdad and others comments and valuable advice. :)

We've been to the interview and honestly, the interview env't was v. cozy. my kid enjoyed it and talked a lot. the pr ...

matthewdad

please check pm.

原帖由 Chewy 於 09-2-20 23:53 發表

I have no comment on this school after I visited. And I am pretty sure, I will send my kid to Anfield in coming Sept for K1.

Chewy

I have no comment on this school after I visited. And I am pretty sure, I will send my kid to Anfield in coming Sept for K1.

alunsweeney

I would like to share one more thing, according to the Chinese lady, there were over 150 applications and there are only 50 places for am and pm class!

The school enviornment, when comparing with YMCA Int'l Kindergarten is slightly old and messy. The majority of the kids are from Asian and parents are invited to be the volunteer from time to time.
+

alunsweeney

sorry to reply you late

the interview was started at 10:20 am and we were asked to attend the K1 class with the students. Honestly speaking, I was very shocking because the class room was very messy. all toys were on the grounds and some students were reading in the reading corner. The other helper was making "咖哩角" for students. Some students were eating the food at the other corner. My husband and I walked out from the classroom and the corridor was even more messier. Many toys were placing in different places and some students were fighting. I spoken in Cantonese with my husband in a very low voice and some students heard our conversation and they immediately pointed to us in English, "English, English, speak in English."!!

The interview was conducted by the headmaster Ms Lola and one Chinese lady who spoke in fluent English. My son was asked to play the toys with the headmaster and my husband was interviewed by the Chinese lady. The conversation was a relaxed one. They just wanted to know your educational concept and the education path of your family.

At the end of the interview, the Chinese lady said the interview was postive and we will receive the letter in early March.

That's all I can share, if you do want to know more information, you are welcome to send me message to my email box.


Good luck with your interview and look forward to hearing your good news!
Kind regards,
Alun Sweeney

Chewy

______Deleted__________________

[ 本帖最後由 Chewy 於 09-2-20 23:50 編輯 ]

alunsweeney

my interview will be taken place tomorrow ...wishing me good luck!

bakusensei

Million thanks for YYFung, Matthewdad and others comments and valuable advice. :)

We've been to the interview and honestly, the interview env't was v. cozy. my kid enjoyed it and talked a lot. the principal was really nice and gave us much assurance.

we love the school. it's definately a gd place to develop interest in learning and self-confidence, acquiring social skill and building a strong eng. foundation............. not much pressure, learning thr play........... it's really gd as we ve decided to go for the int'l stream before the kid's birth (my husband is teaching in one of the local traditional elite secondary schools, "producing" lots of "A"  every year. yes, producing, like a factory!)

but we would advise parents think twice if they plan for a local primary school. for one thing, KBCK only offers K1-K2, you have to consider where to go at K3. for the other, the standard in local P.1 is abnormally high in HK. even kids from those local kinder not being too pushy cannot adapt the P1 curriculum.

alunsweeney

Hi

As I mentioned before, KBCK is our 1st priority but the only big problem for us is that this school is purely English and students will not be able to learn any Chinese characater. I understand that parents will organize different kinds of Chinese lessons after schools for their kids, however, I am not sure whether this direction is good for them.

One of my friends they are now sending their kids to Starters in the morning session, they put their kids to local kindergarten to learn Chinese. Their mother told me that she is not the only one to do this way.

My son was accepted by Victoria kindergarten but after the orientation date, I observed that the enlighs environment of the school is not strong enough to let students to speak good english. All teachers are Cantonese speakers, there are only 3 NET in the schools (they all are not Westerners!).
If we send our kid there, we still have to pay him money to practise English outside.

My friend's son is now studing in Chow Kai Yau Primary school, his English is very native because he studied at Yew Chung for 3 years. When he was interviewed by teachers in CKY, the teachers also quetioned about his level of Mandarin. Luckily he was able to show his basic level of Mandarin to the teachers and he was able to get the offer.

English is important because this is the most popular language in the world. But we can't ignore the importance of Chinese, especially MANDARIN too. Where is the best schooling for our kids to learn both languages!???!

matthewdad

BabaTed
In additional to YYFung's comment, it is not easy to switch back to local school as most P1 interview expect the kid can read/write chinese(Mandrain) i.e. they will consider your kid cannot meet the requirement.

FYI, there are only a few IS has emphasis on Chinese such as Chinese International school but it is very difficult to get in and expansive.

I am not discourage you to do it (switch back to local school)  as I have seen some sucessful case but you need to have detail development plan before you make the decision.
Please check PM.

原帖由 YYFUNG 於 09-2-10 09:07 發表
Dear BabaTed,
I dont think the principal would show any disagreement to your decision, and she'd rather wish the parents was decisive and used Englsih also in non-school hours.

The rationale is that  ...

[ 本帖最後由 matthewdad 於 09-2-10 09:36 編輯 ]

YYFUNG

Dear BabaTed,
I dont think the principal would show any disagreement to your decision, and she'd rather wish the parents was decisive and used Englsih also in non-school hours.

The rationale is that they had two students attending ESF primary interviews and were speaking chinese very fluently in the session. It is not wrong with the children, but the screening mechanism of ESF need to identify the chinese language users (they have chinese language teachers there in the interview). The most important point was they jotted down "English" as the only language in the application form. The background of these children were bilingual education - they use Chinese at home and/ or attending local kindergarten as well.

The parents could not blame the children " you fail" as in the eyes of the principal, children is too young to be used with the word "fail/ failure".

Yesterday we also attend ESF kindergarten perents info night. The class teacher reinforces the parents "You cannot expect the child to be fluent in the language if she/ he justs learning English during the school hours. What can the child achieve in just one year, and attend the ESF primary interview?" ESF is not against home language but they also remind the parents of heavy & consistent exposure to English.

Again, KBCK, SWCK, Starters all these kinds of schools would not reject you. They only kindly remind you of the possible consequences.

Kind regards,
Maria

原帖由 BabaTed 於 09-2-9 21:16 發表


Hi Maria,

Thanks for your sharing about the interview. I am applying K1 on 2010 and searching for more information about this school now.

Frankly speaking, I will switch to local primary school as ...

alunsweeney

I think this BK reader wrote very good

"隨便假設  "讀國際學校的英文程度很好, 但是, 可能學習不到中國傳統文化; 而且中文又未必能應付未來社會的挑戰,..." 可是 "讀傳統學校, 可能更善於掌握考試技巧, 在公開試及全球的會計或數學比賽/考試名列前名茅, 但可能成為一般人所批評的高分低能, 不善解難或創意欠奉."而維小的好處可能就是中間落墨" do you have any comment?