Local schools vs International Schools

The4Ace

My daughter and my son are studying in two well sought-after local schools in Kowloon Tong.  They are in primary 6 and primary 5 respectively.  We are debating if they should stay with the local system or change over to international schools for better preparation for university education in UK/US and developing them into well-rounded persons.  Have any of you even had such kind of debate?  Would you please share your view?
For those who are pro international schools, what do you think about ESF schools, ISF, CIS and Harrows?
Thanks!

ngkka

What's the character of your child?
For my girl, I think she learns more in structured learning style. Most importantly, she does not take initiate to read book.
For my boy, he can learn from play based teaching and he loves reading. So I think my girl will be more beneficial from LS training whereas my boy can go for IB.

DreamKid

回覆 annie40 的帖子

My experience is the opposite.  None of the IS parents I know made any comments about LS kids.  They seldom made any comments.  The only cooments ever made would something like luckily our kids do not have a lot of homeworks like LS school.  On the other hands, i often come across people making negative comments on IS based on what they believe.

4eyesDad

原帖由 The4Ace 於 15-10-13 發表
Thank you all for your feedback.
Apart from smooth transition to overseas Uni, one of my major conce ...

Based on your description, I think your son will definitely be able to benefit from an international school (and oversea) education.  Your daughter is slightly different.

oooray

信心不足的人總愛以否定別人的方式來證明自己才是正道。
其實兩邊要走的路截然不同，斷章取義的方式去比較，沒完沒了。

annie40

I have never met any friends and relatives who gave negative comments about international schools. Maybe they did, but I take it as a kind concern instead. They did question about Chinese, but not the way to degrade international schools.  They  gave fair comments and shared useful experiences too. The outside people don't fully understand international schools because they have never been there. Everyone is afraid of changes, afraid of  something unknown,  afraid of being left behind.  

As a matter of fact  I saw quite a lot  IS parents enjoying to label LS kids irrationally. Yes, IS is good.  However, IS is not that good as it promised.  Why parents do it?  perhaps to protect their ego and minimize the fear of failure at the same time.

torunpoland

昨晚張堅庭在TVB節目望子成才中提到國際學校之好處:

(1) 功課少
(2) 設法提升小朋友的學習興趣
(3) 教育層面廣: 藝術教育, 運動教育及學科教育

DreamKid

FattyDaddy 發表於 15-10-14 01:56
Their rationale is, international school students can avoid the "死亡之卷" (DSE Chinese).

哈哈，你好厚道。我反而覺得系因為佢地認為國際學校好淺，所以入到一定好易考。
至於中文，我從來都唔覺系死亡之卷。中文考試系有特定既模式，只要知道方法，一啲都唔難。更何況只不過要求一個2。如果對一個從小學中文既 native考2系咁難，就唔好再話國際學校中文程度低。

slamai

回覆 The4Ace 的帖子

Instead of just comparing international and local schools, I have attempted to group them into 4 types and made very general comparisons between them below :-

School types :

A -
International

B -
PIS (international)

C -
DSS (local + international streams)

D -
Local (including local DSS)

	A	B	C	D
Teaching style	Inquiry-based	Inquiry-based	One-way / Inquiry-based	One-way
Workload	least	less	more	most
English	highest	higher	depends	lower
Chinese	lowest	lower	higher	higher
Maths/Science	lower	lower	higher	higher
Behaviour/culture	Western	Chinese > Western	Chinese	Chinese
Staff	foreign	mostly foreign	mostly local	local

Since it is in fact a whole spectrum of schools in real life, the above generalisations may not apply well to individual schools.

nintendo

FattyDaddy 發表於 15-10-14 01:56
Their rationale is, international school students can avoid the "死亡之卷" (DSE Chinese).

成日話 "死亡"，一樣大把人 5 5* 5**。
冇大學收唔夠人。
講完。

annie40

回覆 The4Ace 的帖子

It is nothing wrong to worry about the transition from local school to international school. I always do study and research to reinforce my perception so as to lessen the unsettling.
We have wide range of students come from different countries in the same international school, They are so different, They could be academic, all rounded, pointy, hardworking, laid back, mischief, wild, gag, or not gay.  The school would do the best to respect them equally.  In general  students are very open minded to accept new concepts and new friends that would extend their flexibility and imagination too see the real world.

I can see your kids are doing well in local school. You have done a good job. They would be fine in either LS or IS . No need to make a rush decision. Go to seek advice from friends who may have children in secondary school LS or IS. They may have much to tell you.  Also, your children could join  kind of after school activities mixed up with IS students that they may like it, or dislike it, or even ask you to change school finally. Then the dilemma will disappear.

Good luck.

FattyDaddy

DreamKid 發表於 15-10-13 21:07
你聽過有本地家長話考IB入香港既大學好容易。我都費事解釋！

Their rationale is, international school students can avoid the "死亡之卷" (DSE Chinese).

DreamKid

The4Ace 發表於 15-10-13 22:18
回覆 DreamKid 的帖子

Ha! Ha!  No worries, you guys didn't scare me off.  I welcome all comments.  I ...

本地家長真係好叻。不過，我唔明點解五、六年班仲要同佢一齊溫書。嚟樣野，我會有啲擔心。

DreamKid

shadeslayer 發表於 15-10-13 22:05
Year 7 唔入， year 8, 9, 10 入，要進入別人圈子要看天時地利人和。

有好時係時也命也。一日唔試，都唔知遇到咩人咩事。而且樂觀啲睇，又係一個學習機會。何況如果最後都係去外國讀書，不如就試一下可唔可以螎入人地既圈子。

The4Ace

回覆 DreamKid 的帖子

Ha! Ha!  No worries, you guys didn't scare me off.  I welcome all comments.  I was doing homework and revision with my children the whole day...

shadeslayer

原帖由 DreamKid 於 15-10-13 發表
咁我地答返樓主既問題啦！
我既小朋友未上中學，不過都快。有幸同一啲由本地小學轉到國際中學既學生傾計。 ...

Year 7 唔入， year 8, 9, 10 入，要進入別人圈子要看天時地利人和。

DreamKid

shadeslayer 發表於 15-10-13 19:54
好衰架你地，嚇走樓主。

咁我地答返樓主既問題啦！
我既小朋友未上中學，不過都快。有幸同一啲由本地小學轉到國際中學既學生傾計。佢地覺得係國際學校比較輕鬆，亦好鐘意lS既學習模式。不過佢地都係聰明既年青人，而且好有自理能力。我問過佢地交朋友有冇困難，佢話一啲都冇，同學之間都好friendly不過，每個人既經歷都唔同，佢地又唔可以代表所有人。

DreamKid

poonseelai 發表於 15-10-13 20:55
仲有嘻嘻哈哈讀完入埋出名大學, 有錢就得

你聽過有本地家長話考IB入香港既大學好容易。我都費事解釋！

poonseelai

原帖由 DreamKid 於 15-10-13 發表
回覆 poonseelai 的帖子

最近有人問我點解兩個小朋友讀唔同學校，我答一個考唔到。佢話物國際學校唔係有錢 ...

仲有嘻嘻哈哈讀完入埋出名大學, 有錢就得

DreamKid

回覆 poonseelai 的帖子

最近有人問我點解兩個小朋友讀唔同學校，我答一個考唔到。佢話物國際學校唔係有錢就可以讀既咩！