How to choose?

umom

Appart from the reputation of the primary school, the secondary school allocation result, what are the other factors that you parent take into consideration when deciding a suitable primary school for youur children?

Small class 小班教學? Instruction medium (whether is English or Chinese primary school?)? Fees and location? Any other things?

Thanks very much!!  

umom

JadeW 發表於 12-10-30 15:03
For secondary school selection, it's criteria is based on banding however he sequence among each band is in random base with a lucky draw no assigned to the student. Therefore, even though you might got the highest score in band 1, doesn't mean you can choose it first. Thus, results might be unexpected and may fall to another band if your lucky draw no is very low priority and the no of that band seat is less than the no of student in that band.

Thanks JadeW.
Actually, I think ultimately I want my little one to be  in a school with good student conducts, down-to-earth attitude, encouraging atmosphere rather than over competitive. I think the primary years is very very important when young children develop their interest in learning, and value judgement. For me, the ultimate success and happiness is really about how much one enjoys discovering new knowledge every day, cause this is really a life long thing.

umom

onepiece 發表於 12-10-30 14:42
Band1學生可派至所謂band2中學，band2中學又可派至所謂band1中學，好睇家長點排志願，區內學校band，男女校分佈，而且學生的band是按區分，同一學生同一分數在唔同區band又可以唔同。另外要估自己細路band幾都唔易，有D學校無排名次，或唔公佈band1學生幾多%，想估計孩子band幾去選乜學都幾辛苦，萬一估錯，派位隨時跌到好後。

Thanks onepiece!!
So, back to square, again it's really the matter of luck and be in a branded primary school?!

hadwinboy

回復 朱寶 的帖子

I am in same situation as yours. My son was being accepted by 嶺小 and another "One dragon" school (but secondary is band 2 only). So, I am still struggling.

MCLIAN

回復 朱寶 的帖子

Agreed with your points. Can you share with us which schools you finally come up with?

JadeW

Not true as there is always wrong matching in reality.  Besides, your kids Banding not only depends on his performance, it ALSO relies on past student performance. The previous students performance attributes the % of each banding of the school while your son's own performance determine which band he belongs among his year.

For secondary school selection, it's criteria is based on banding however he sequence among each band is in random base with a lucky draw no assigned to the student. Therefore, even though you might got the highest score in band 1, doesn't mean you can choose it first. Thus, results might be unexpected and may fall to another band if your lucky draw no is very low priority and the no of that band seat is less than the no of student in that band.

onepiece

原帖由 umom 於 12-10-30 發表
So even the primary schoo I choose is not a "famous/ branded" school, if my kid can do well in 呈分 ...

學校無分band，只是學生在統一派位時分band。大家好鐘意講中學乜band，其實係坊間以前按會考6科14分%排出來，轉咗DSE之後中學要排band都唔易。
Band1學生可派至所謂band2中學，band2中學又可派至所謂band1中學，好睇家長點排志願，區內學校band，男女校分佈，而且學生的band是按區分，同一學生同一分數在唔同區band又可以唔同。另外要估自己細路band幾都唔易，有D學校無排名次，或唔公佈band1學生幾多%，想估計孩子band幾去選乜學都幾辛苦，萬一估錯，派位隨時跌到好後。
升中派位好似選立法會分票一樣，結果分分鐘出人意表，統一選校時自行result又未知，真係難玩過小一派位好多。

umom

朱寶 發表於 12-10-29 16:25
回復 umom 的帖子

呈分試就係p.5下學期, 同埋p.6全年既考試成績, 上呈education department, 呢個係定左個學生本人既braning, 派位先後次序同呢個分好有關係, brand 1學生會比2及3既學生早派位, 相對揀到派到心水學校既機會打好多

So even the primary schoo I choose is not a "famous/ branded" school, if my kid can do well in 呈分試, he will still have the opportunities to go into a good secondary school. On the other hand, if my kid's result in 呈分試 is in band2/3, that mean he can only go to those schools accepting band2/3 kids? have I udnerstood correctly?

Are the secondary schools labelled as band 1/2/3 by the education bureau OR the school is labelled as band 1 simply because most (if not all) the students are with band 1 呈分試 result??

Thanks again

umom

回復 JadeW 的帖子

Thank you so much JadeW.

Yes, I personally prefer active learning and I think that also suits myboy better, he’s the type who loves active participation in the classroom.Thanks for letting me know that we should really find out the REAL situationfrom existing students/ parents instead of just relying on what’s written onthe school introduction.

For better outcome from the group discussion, I guess it’s reallydepending on how experience the teachers are in guiding this and leading youngchildren into focusing on the discussed matters.

some schools may ask theparent to help their kid after school or attend other tutors yourself in orderto catch up with the school works. The school may be more tight on schedule asthey would ask the kid to learn in advance about half to one year syllabus.Some school may teach the basic concept and with easy homework but with hardtest and exam. You need to know the school you choose in details.

I always think this is bizarre! Why on earth these parents( I think it’s more of the parents and schools trying to match the expectationof the parents) want to push their kids ahead of the others??? Learning is alifelong process, it takes time and pleasure to discover and slowly consolidateand build up. Pushing them to do something probably beyond their capabilitiesis totally torturing for everyone. I think many parents in HK are smart enoughto understand this, but lots of them are still trapped with wanton their kidsto be far advance than the others. I agree on suitable amount of stimulation isbeneficial for learning, but often what I hear about here is age inappropriate.

I want my kid to learn inschool mostly and only need a little assistance from me after work which meanshe can handle the school work himself without learning in advance so much.

Yes, this also trains them on doing their worksindependently, which is an important training!

JadeW, you really have pointed out what I want.

I am really more on looking for a school with down-to-earth culturethough the student conducts and school discipline are still the top on my list.I just hope there are good schools like this and yet the parents aredown-to-earth. Are there schools like this??

JadeW

傳統vs 活動
Not necessary means the difference in quantity of homework but also types of homework, dictation content, type of teaching method and how students interact with teachers.

Traditional way normally will require student to sit more steady and listen to what teacher say and follow instructions. Rules are more strict and not too much flexibility in discipline in order to deal with the relatively larger class sizes.

For activity or project based teaching, the student will have more interaction with teachers and classmates usually. The teaching content would seems to be easier an less structural when compared with the traditional teaching. The students would seems to have more freedom and can be more active during class. They need to discuss, work in groups and present result more.  To some parent, they may think the lesson is not good in discipline and content seems to be too easy and a lot of time is used for the students to discuss and to conclude a result which may seems to be waste of time and students seems to be more naught and noisy.

But nowadays, many schools are in between traditional and activity or project based teaching.  You need to learn and verify the type for each of the school carefully.  As what they say aren't mean what they do sometimes.  Not only listen to what official school do say but also need to search and ask what the parents say.  Each parent acceptable level and points of views may be different.  So you need to collect "fact" not opinion and think what you really prefer i.e. quantity of homework, what it need to do, time used.  You may also ask to have a look on the books used and homework done to see the student level and whether it fits your kid.

For myself, my son is in activities based kinder and also primary school.  I agree that the lesson and student are usually less structural than traditional school.  I like it as I want my kid to be active and be able to speak and express himself instead of listen and obey rules most of the time. I want him to discover the knowledge, love to learn and not to memorize them.   But some of the parent and kid may prefer traditional teaching as it better fits their personality and learning type.

For me, I also want closer teacher, parent, student relationship which we can all share our thoughts and help the kids together.  However, some schools may ask the parent to help their kid after school or attend other tutors yourself in order to catch up with the school works.  The school may be more tight on schedule as they would ask the kid to learn in advance about half to one year syllabus. Some school may teach the basic concept and with easy homework but with hard test and exam. You need to know the school you choose in details.

I want my kid to learn in school mostly and only need a little assistance from me after work  which means he can handle the school work himself without learning in advance so much.  

For some schools, parents like to compare a lot and are very concerned with their kid's performance both academic and ECA.  They like to compete with each other and may only share their information with the closed group of people that they think are of similar level.  

For me, school culture, parents type in general and teaching method are all my concerns for choosing a school.

umom

PTA point is interesting. Will do some homework about that for sure.

Yes, the NR/ CP/ debenture...  Though we know there's options to use the levy... But sigh, $$$$$$.

Do u have kids in the primary school?

HKTHK

On PTA, it is just a matter of education philosophy.  Some schools may prefer parents to be involved and would seek their opinions.  Some schools can probably care less what parents think.  There is also a wider issue of parents' role in education.  Some schools don't really take feedback from parents and maybe less flexible on co-operating with parents while some do.  Which style do you like?

If you are serious about ECA, some activities may require school's co-operation to apply or taking time off.  Will the school allow that?  How is that looked upon?

I doubt most international school parents have 3-5 million locked away.  Are you referring to buying a debenture?  I don't think that is a requirement at most schools.  One usually only need to pay a capital levy and the amount varies by school though substantially less than 1 mil.

朱寶

回復 umom 的帖子

My boy will promote to p.1 in 9/2013, we are playing the admission game right now.Luckily, we got two offers 嶺小 and a dragon school, just compare both of them and can't make decision yet

umom

By the way, does anyone know what is 活動教學 and what is the 傳統教學？
Does the former imply less dictation and text copying homework?

Do kids in HK local schools generally have frequently dictation and text copying, and tests?
I heard about kids given 10 homework everyday, is this just rare extreme case or fairy normal?

umom

Thanks a lot
The info is very vey useful indeed.
May I know if you already have kids in the primary schools or are u also in the admission game this year?

朱寶

回復 umom 的帖子

Spoh no, yes, banding.........haha
Sorry for my careless mistakesssssss

umom

Many thanks once again for the detailed expiation!

Yes, I can read Chinese but not typing in Chinese

When u mention "branding", did u actually mean "banding"?

Thanks again.

umom

Thanks HKTHK!
Why do you think PTA is an important factor when considering a school? Is that because if the PTA is active and influential, we parents would have more say about how the curriculum and other relevant matters?
Would the PTA in the direct subsidy and private schools be more important as a consideration factor than the government schools?

Extra curriculum activities. Do you mean some schools have more while other have less as they are more focusing on the academic achievement? Or do you mean some schools would expect kids to attend lots of extra curriculum outside schools as they want kids with various "nurture talents"??
I suppose if the school encourage the participation of extra curriculum in the school ( they school takes the effort to organize them) these schools would gives their students lesser homework??

I am so sorry if I do sound rather ignorant as some these may be just common sense to you all, but definitely foreign to me. Once again, I really appreciate everyone's kind input

Why do we go for the local? $$$$$$!
We can afford the monthly tuition fee but the extra cash ( talking about 3-5milliom) to be locked there for 6-12 years is not within our capability now! My husband also prefers they go to a local school to at least learn some Chinese. After all, easy for him as he's not the one chasing and nagging the kids to do homework!!!
Well, I know it's definitely tough but I am trying to minimize the "torture" for him and myself!!

朱寶

回復 umom 的帖子

about the TSA  and 呈分試 .........


我估你識睇中文, right?

TSA, 主要係定呢間學校既學生既學習能力, 初步認定呢間小學有幾多個%既學生係brand 1, 2 或者3, TSA主要係幫師弟師妹攞分, 師兄姐做得好, 咁就可以令到多d %既弟妹進身brand 1, 對派位係有幫助既

呈分試就係p.5下學期, 同埋p.6全年既考試成績, 上呈education department, 呢個係定左個學生本人既braning, 派位先後次序同呢個分好有關係, brand 1學生會比2及3既學生早派位, 相對揀到派到心水學校既機會打好多

大部份學校都會做以上兩件事, 小部份學校會選擇唔做, 大多數係有直屬中學, 而又保證100%小六生會全數升上中學既學校

無做以上兩件事既學生, 除左直升直屬中學之外, 就只有自己去扣門或者考直資私小, 官津校派位難以入隊, 因為無branding呀!

HKTHK

Some other issues to consider:

culture: what are the kids like?  are they courteous?  do they seem well-disciplined?
school parent relationship: is the PTA active?  what type of feedback can parents expect?  what kind of involvement by parents?
tutoring: is it encouraged or discouraged? how prevalent is it?
extra-curricular activities: is it encouraged?  would there be sufficient time?

Can you share the reasons why you choose a local, as opposed to international, school?  For someone educated in the West, this is an interesting choice.