ESF vs. KCIS

HaileyChn

My son is now accepted by both ESF Abacus and KCIS K1 2009.  Which one is better?  Any comments?

evatsoihk

你說的對，英語的確是ESF較強，尤其是它們學習語境和教學支援方面。

但說到中文教學（姑且不討論我們身為家長的付出），兩校相比，我還是認爲KCIS略勝一籌。現時KCIS小學使用的中文書籍只比其本地部KCS低一年級--如有錯誤請指正。

說實在的，這兩所學校很難互相比較，皆因各有所長。所以，作爲家長的我們，首先應該有清晰的思路，到底你要為孩子選哪一种：首選英文，還是重英之餘兼附帶中文。

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 15:16 發表
One thing I would like to clarify.

I am only talking about the comparision of ESF primary and secondary with KCIS primary and secondary.

Regarding the kinder, I think the teaching quality of KCIS ki ...

popolung

looks like this news on P.3 has a broken link?

oooray

原帖由 琬晴B 於 09-3-30 17:12 發表
I think it may be unfair (and dangerous!) to say one school is better than the other. Unless someone puts one child in ESF & one in KCIS at the same time, it is hard to make an unbiased judgement.

Sa ...

100% agree with you. It is irrational to simply conclude A school better than B school except u really experience them together.
Also, rather than simply asking somebody comments on either A or B, why not going into details of characteristics of A & B and then decide which one fit your child?

琬晴B

I think it may be unfair (and dangerous!) to say one school is better than the other. Unless someone puts one child in ESF & one in KCIS at the same time, it is hard to make an unbiased judgement.

Same as popolung, before I put my daughter in KCIS, she was in an "International Class" of a local kindergarten. Although she was taught by native English/Mandarin teachers, I can firmly say that was absolutely "local" because of the curriculum/assessment system/homework...

Back to the topic question, i.e. "ESF vs KCIS", my choice was KCIS two years ago & I have no regret too because 1) I wanted my daughter to learn more Chinese/Mandarin (more than that of ESF) in an international school setting; 2) KCIS is a through-train school and I am a play safe person; 3) ESF primary was not my target school. (**I only applied RCHK for my daughter this year.)

Some of my daughter's classmates will go to QBS but I don't think many KCIS students target on it. For me, it's also interesting to know some of the KCS (main stream) students will be going to SIS, CIS.....

So I guess parents choose KCS/KCIS because they are attracted by the emphasis on Chinese/Mandarin.

After reading the thread, I was tempted to do a little research on "What is an international school???".

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3378121,prtpage-1.cms

http://www.isbusan.org/php/thePrincipal.php

There are also some discussions regarding ESF & KCS or KCIS.

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/parenting-advice/threads/89092/esf-or-kc/

http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread122906.html

popolung

原帖由 oooray 於 09-3-30 15:34 發表

Dear popolung,
I do appreciate your sharing of your personal experiences;
I agree that Personal experiences are worthy for others' references.

Welcome, just hope what I knew will be able to help other parents who is still finding their way. The key point is, I "think", once you decided the academic path for your kid (of course you have to estimate if you can afford it), don't twist easily. The one who suffer will be your kid immediately, and the whole family finally.

oooray

原帖由 popolung 於 09-3-30 14:13 發表


I have experience by putting my kid in local operated kinder and ESF kinder (abacus) and found some diff

1. local one has more Chinese teacher teaching english (may be the one we are at is not famo ...

Dear popolung,
I do appreciate your sharing of your personal experiences;
I agree that Personal experiences are worthy for others' references.

popolung

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-30 13:55 發表
Regarding kindergarten education, the weightings on school environment, facilities and extra-curricular activities are relatively less important as compared with the primary and secondary education. O ...

I have experience by putting my kid in local operated kinder and ESF kinder (abacus) and found some diff

1. local one has more Chinese teacher teaching english (may be the one we are at is not famous enough)

2. in ESF kinder (K2) our class has more than 75% overseas kid

3. The environment, especially in Abacus, is like a little rural village. I like it a lot. Everyday they have outdoor activities. The local one is surrounded by A/C 24 hours a day. All kids need more fresh air!

4. Finally more than 95% of kids get a place in ESF Y1 (as fas as I heard)

5. Most important, my kid like it a lot.

6. In local kinder, they will give u some homework to take back home, even just a page of connecting 2 dots to form a line.

Adding up everything, and finally my kid got in CWBS, I will take Abacus if I have to do it all again!

panala

wisekid2007,

My girl is going to KCIS  K1 in Sept 09.

Would u please also give me some opinion about the ESF and KCIS primary? As we may plan to leave HK whe our kids complete their primary school.

I know that every school has its pros and cons, but should I try to let her go to other IS (with KCIS as the backup choice only) or it's ok to let her stay in KCIS for kinder + primary?

Thx

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 15:16 發表
One thing I would like to clarify.

I am only talking about the comparision of ESF primary and secondary with KCIS primary and secondary.

Regarding the kinder, I think the teaching quality of KCIS ki ...

popolung

原帖由 thomas7799c 於 09-3-29 21:54 發表
Thx for the info. Do you know if all Cat. 2 students of Abacus were given an interview for CWBS if they selected CWBS in the first place?

As far as I know, the answer is no for CWBS. But all Cat 2 students should have interviews in other ESF school too such as KJS, BHS, SJS, etc. But not all finally has been accepted as it will still depend on the kid's english capability.

So I will suggest you should also apply RCHK in parallel as a back-up.

thomas7799c

Thx for the info. Do you know if all Cat. 2 students of Abacus were given an interview for CWBS if they selected CWBS in the first place?

popolung

原帖由 thomas7799c 於 09-3-28 00:01 發表


My kid is now in Abacus K1. Students from Abacus have to be interviewed before they will be accepted by Clear Water Bay School. Abacus students get priority for interview. It works in this order: Ca ...

I think you mix up some info. My daughter is in Abacus K2 and she got admitted by RC & CWBS (and we chose CWBS).  Almost all Cat 1 students goes to CWBS already (some do go to RC). Some Cat 2 students also get in CWBS in 2 round of interviews. For the rest of Abacus K2 students, they were interviewd by KJS, BHS or SJS, and most got admitted finally, unless they failed the interviews.

I think ESF Abacus (and other ESF kinders) try their very best to let all children have interview chances in ESF Primary school finally, but there is no free lunch for going to ESF Primary school, and this maintain the standard of ESF primary school, though it sounds like I am very cold-blooded to say that....

And Abacus has emphasised at the very beginning that students should apply more school in order to secure a chance for their kids to study in primary school. That included RC and normal ESF that you can send in 2 applications for both school (not sure if you can apply for DC too). Most parents think it is not necessary as their kids (even in Cat 2) will be able to enter any ESF easily, and finally proved it is not true.

If you are in Abacus, I think you should stick with it. It is a very good kinder with lovely garden good teachers, and you are half way in a very good education system in ESF already. Make your own call.

popolung

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 15:16 發表
One thing I would like to clarify.

I am only talking about the comparision of ESF primary and secondary with KCIS primary and secondary.

Regarding the kinder, I think the teaching quality of KCIS ki ...

Why KCIS teaching quality is better? How do you compared? You have kids in both kinder?

thomas7799c

原帖由 HaileyChn 於 09-3-13 00:20 發表
My son is now accepted by both ESF Abacus and KCIS K1 2009.  Which one is better?  Any comments?

My kid is now in Abacus K1. Students from Abacus have to be interviewed before they will be accepted by Clear Water Bay School. Abacus students get priority for interview. It works in this order: Cat 1 Abacus students, Cat 1 non-Abacus students, Cat 2 Abacus students, Cat 2 non -Abacus students.

I heard from some K2 parents that up to 2 weeks ago, there were still no interviews for Cat 2 students in Abacus because there are too many Cat 1 students applying for Clear Water Bay School. Note: Shatin Junior has already completed the interview process for ESF kindergarten students around Chinese New Year. Now Cat. 1 are foreigners. I think students with siblings also belong to Cat. 1.

When I heard the news, which I did verify with their office, I was very worried that my kid would not even be given an interview for P1 next year. I then applied for a place in K2 of KCIS (International) as once you get in KCIS, you can go direct to P1 without an interview. I may transfer to KCIS next year.

Is there any way I can contact you direct to give you more comments?

popolung

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 13:56 發表
For the results of secondary schools, someone has posted them on BK before and you have to search them from those threads in this section long long time ago. But one thing I remembered clearly that th ...

I found some very rough data from ESF Secondary school website:

KGV: http://www.kgv.edu.hk/achievements/examresult.html

SC:

https://clc.esf.edu.hk/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupId=2299&ResourceID=180035

SIS

http://www.sis.edu.hk/index.aspx?nodeid=1128&langNo=1

WIS

http://clc.esf.edu.hk/GroupRenderCustomPage.asp?GroupID=1888&ResourceId=19355


Can't find IS one...

popolung

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-3-27 11:47 發表
第一，它的英語跟ESF一樣 --- Really ??

第二，它的中文肯定比ESF強 --- I don't think so as the Chinese standard of students in IS are mainly depending on the parents but not the school.

My person view is v ...

where can we see those results? Can you share some links?