PIPS (KLN) vs Tutor Time vs ESF Tsing Yi

echa1110

anyone have any comments on the above schools?  Thanks!

caramom

PIPS - Local school, trilingual
Tutor time - Bilingual (Eng+PTH), Int'l school
ESF - English, Int'l school

Obviously, if you're considering local primary school for your child, then it's better to go for PIPS since it has a relatively high Chinese standard and average English standard compared with the other two schools that you've mentioned, the transition between K3 to P1 is much more easier. As Tutor time and ESF are opened for children aiming at int'l primary schools later, their Chinese standard must be lower than local kindergarten, moreover, the teaching style is very different too, therefore it's quite tough for a child to change from an int'l kindergarten to a local P1.

But if you aim at Int'l primary and secondary schools in future, then you may go for TT or ESF. ESF Kindergarten students receive priority when applying ESF Y1, if you're a Cat.2 (children who speak Cantonese), then attending an ESF kindergarten doesn't help much since there are huge number of Cat.1(children don't speak any Cantonese) behind you and most likely they'll take up most of the seats. Tutor time focus more on bilingual while ESF focus more on English, I went to TT admission talk few years ago and they claimed that many children from their school were admitted to Canadian Int'l and Chinese Int'l, these two schools are extremely competitive, so I believe that their standard should be above averge in order to be offered a spot.

echa1110

I thought PIPS (KLN) also have international class?  I went to their site visit this week and they mentioned parents can choose to put kids in the trilingual class (for local P1 school) or bilingual class (for int'l schools).  

Thanks for mentioning about Cat.2 issue.  I speak some Cantonese to my son also but our primary language to our son is English as my husband doesn't speak Cantonese.  In that case, will my son count as Cat.2 or Cat.1?  

caramom

Yes, PIPS (KLN) does have int'l class, but int'l class is different from int'l school, most int'l class in hk are using English as medium of instruction and some of them do not adopt foreign curriculum (eg: UK national curriculum). Another fact is most students attending int'l class are locals, int'l school have more foreigners, while int'l class is for kids who aimed at Private/DSS schools in future because some of these schools conduct interviews in English. Parents wanted their kids to have a higher English level, hence put them in int'l class, but it may be not enough for int'l school.

I saw the P1 admission results of York and it seemed that the majority of students are going to local and DSS schools, they didn't mention any int'l school admission result.

If your son have enough English exposure at home, then I think int'l class is also an option since the Chinese standard is higher than TT or ESF. I knew some expats sending their children to a local kindergarten with all subjects taught in Cantonese, since these children speak English at home, therefore even when they apply int'l primary schools, they still got admitted.

If your son doesn't know how to speak Cantonese and your husband doesn't know any Cantonese, most likely you'll be classified as Cat. 1, attending an ESF Kindergarten gives you a higher priviledge. If you're Cat. 1, you'll be palced in front of all Cat. 2 ESF Kindergarten students, but behind all children with siblings priority, Nomination Right (1xx quota in total) and ESF staff priority students [These groups of children enjoy the highest priority]. Generally if your son attends an ESF Kindergarten and belongs to Cat. 1, the chance for successful admssion to ESF Y1 is quite high, but I can't predict what's happening in the future, from when I see now, most likely you'll be offered a spot.