有無加拿大國際的家長？

oneonemama

小孩喜歡上學嗎？老師質數如何？
我plan仔仔先讀anfield, 然後再考cndis, 如果入到K, 係咪直上小學？

thirdculture

Hi Type409, any reasons why you put one child in ISF and the other in CDNIS? What type of personality do you think is a better fit for each school?

lijacq

原帖由 elmostoney 於 16-06-08 發表
I think drawing ISF (a private school btw, not IS) out as comparison is not fair because its Chinese ...

Yes, my niece, who started prep in CDNIS and now in IB DP Chinese A, did have a lot of help from parents and family regarding her study in Chinese: got am honest tutor in Chinese during her primary years, help her little brother (in local school) to do homework and revise dictation, read stories such as 西遊記 and 水滸傳before bedtime to her little brother and sister.  And the whole family converses in Chinese.

type409

My other kid is in ISF. ISF's chinese level is one year behind local school. It is very easy to verify. I have compared their assessments with those of LS. Before doing that, I also thought ISF is as par or exceed LS.

Sigh...This is my 3rd year in CDNIS. I know parents from both schools. I know I'm giving a fair comment. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with my kid's chinese learning at CDNIS. But definitely it is far from "bilingual". Just browse CDNIS website and read their IB results statistics.

Again, CDNIS is very good school and I really like it.

lijacq

原帖由 elmostoney 於 16-06-08 發表
I think drawing ISF (a private school btw, not IS) out as comparison is not fair because its Chinese ...

Agree.  My kids have been force fed with Chinese for the primary years and I find that it kind of kills their interests in the Chinese language.  Every week, we work on Chinese dictations everyday, one paragraph a day, and after the dictation is done, it starts all over again.  
I am happy to see that ISF have implemented a unique strategy to help the kids appreciate Chinese language.

elmostoney

I think drawing ISF (a private school btw, not IS) out as comparison is not fair because its Chinese standard probably matches, and could in some cases, exceed local schools.  They encourage P1 students to learn 2000 characters by year end, and their school starts off with 70% Chinese/30% English in lower years.  I think most parents send their children to an IS do understand that Chinese standard cannot be comparable to a LS.  It's just a matter of how much further behind.

type409

I'm not here to discourage those who want to send their children to CDNIS hoping that they can be bilingual. But be realistic about it...

My kid is in lower primary and was allocated to language A. I love the school but I never hope that he can learn chinese well in a Canadian school. His Chinese standard is far behind than those same age ISF kids.

If students have "advanced" Chinese standard in upper primary or secondary, it is very likely that they were transferred from other schools in mid way...

lijacq

原帖由 lijacq 於 16-06-07 發表
@smallsum, @thirdculture, yes, CDNIS is looking for a new head.  Their previous Upper School Head is ...

Sorry typo again, previous Upper School head is now in American School HK in Taipo.

lijacq

@smallsum, @thirdculture, yes, CDNIS is looking for a new head.  Their previous Upper School Head is now at the new American International School in Tai Po, a new international school with American curriculum.

lijacq

原帖由 lijacq 於 16-06-07 發表
Yes, all mandarin in CDNIS, my daughter always complain and wonder why Cantonese be used......

Sorry, typo, my daughter wonders why Cantonese CANNOT be used......

lijacq

原帖由 poonseelai 於 16-06-07 發表
My daughter’s school requires chi B students to do the oral part in Mandarin, whereas chi A student ...

Yes, all mandarin in CDNIS, my daughter always complain and wonder why Cantonese be used......

thirdculture

Thanks @lijacq!

@smallsun, I read online a month or two ago that Maloberti is not pursuing a second term as head of school and that the school is looking for a new head.

smallsun

原帖由 lijacq 於 16-06-07 發表
I am not very sure about lower school, but my daughter and three cousins are studying there, with 2  ...

Thx so much @lijacq!! It's always nice to hear from real insiders!! So u mean maloberti is out?  I only know there'll be a new LS principal in the coming semester...

poonseelai

原帖由 lijacq 於 16-06-07 發表
The teachers said her mandarin (spoken) is not good enough and her grades do not qualify her to take ...

My daughter’s school requires chi B students to do the oral part in Mandarin, whereas chi A students can use Cantonese though teachers ask them to use Mandarin too. Seems different from CDNIS.

lijacq

I am not very sure about lower school, but my daughter and three cousins are studying there, with 2 in upper school and 2 in lower school.  For my daughter in upper school, the real impact is that her favourite teacher is leaving this year, so, she will have another teacher for her final IB year which is rather annoying as one has to adapt to a new teacher and you may not have time to do that before the final predicted IB grade is out.  But other than that, everything is quite cool in Upper School.  I have not heard major complaints from my sister in law, so I think things are okay.  Kids are still VERY happy.  Moreover, the principal that causes all this turmoil will not renew his contract after 2016-17 year.  My daughter is in a service club called CDNIS the Reading Tree.  You can visit their club page on Facebook and see the videos they posted.  You can see that the teachers are more passionate than the kids on service and they are mighty creative.

smallsun

Sorry if I'm off topic... But I'm curious to know if the governance incident that happened last year has any residual impact so far?  How are the students / parents / faculty taking it?  Has the management of the school set out a plan concerning the school's strategic direction yet?  Thx!

(Btw, my kid will be joining CDNIS this fall)

lijacq

In my daughter's local school, Chinese is taught in Cantonese and Mandarin class only 1 class per week.  And we did not do much tutoring.  As I do not like after-school tutoring for academic subjects, we decided to switch to international school. And it is the best decision we have ever made.  It took her 2 years to adapt to the IB coursework as it focuses more on independent research, critical thinking, essay writing, computer technology and presentation.

lijacq

The teachers said her mandarin (spoken) is not good enough and her grades do not qualify her to take Chinese A.  When she transfers from local school, she finds many kids in CDNIS has much better Mandarin (spoken) as they have Mandarin class everyday.  In terms of written and reading, she qualifies.

thirdculture

Hi lijacq, thanks for your comments. You mentioned that your daughter is only qualified for IB Chinese level B, could you let us know why that's the case? Since she went to CDNIS from a local school, I would have thought that her Chinese would be more than good enough for level A. Or was it a conscious choice on your part to stick with level B?

lijacq

Level of Chinese is good, but we speak Cantonese at home.  My daughter is only qualified to do IB Chinese level B, but quite many kids are doing IB Chinese Level A which is native level Chinese and some of these kids start from Prep, so home grown kids going for IB Chinese level A is quite impressive.  But as I say, it depends upon whether you use Chinese at home.  For some kids, their Mandarin is better than Cantonese, so I think school has done excellent job in Chinese.