victoria shanghai academy

MPSVIC

Just wondering if there is anyone here whose kids are taking victoria shanghai academy at all.  What do u think of that 'school' in terms of the school fees increment lately?  To be honest, it is way more expensive than 英基............

cherubic

To be honest, the school fee is reasonable having regard to two teachers serving a class of 28 without any other source of income.

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-5 11:59 發表
Just wondering if there is anyone here whose kids are taking victoria shanghai academy at all.  What do u think of that 'school' in terms of the school fees increment lately?  To be honest, it is way  ...

mattsmum

Vsa has lot more Chinese.

MPSVIC

原帖由 cherubic 於 11-9-5 05:50 發表
To be honest, the school fee is reasonable having regard to two teachers serving a class of 28 without any other source of income.

I know VSA is not an international school.  To be fair, it was, I mean 'was', a good school before but ever since it has its own school premises, quality of teaching was never acknowledged, personally, it seems to be deteriorating.  Considering over $11000 per month with such kinda education provided, I am totally disappointed and probably you have no idea what the increment is for.  But if you understand over 40% of it is for the hike of salary of staff, I worry if you will puke eventually.

MPSVIC

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-5 11:20 發表
Vsa has lot more Chinese.

yes, indeed! you can hardly find foreign kids over there.  Prob that's y it is never classified to be international school.......... just kidding.

mattsmum

it is not an IS.

MPSVIC

It is not, I know but just it is charging us IS fees!  that's why we are so pissed off.

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-5 14:42 發表
it is not an IS.

samelsaho

記得兩三年前問過VSA, 學校係就係雙班主任制,但只有兩科係同時有兩位老師上課, 唔知依家係未一樣。

cherubic

English and Chinese - Yes [e.g. last year, they had two English teachers, the other one from another class of the same grade, presumably that class had other lesson at that time]
UOI - The two class teachers are responsible but not knowing how they allocate their work.

This is what I know from my kid's class.

kfy

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-6 12:33 發表
It is not, I know but just it is charging us IS fees!  that's why we are so pissed off.

Are you a VSA parent or are you considering the school ?
What I heard from my friends with kids in VSA, their comments are pretty good.
ESF is a bit cheaper because of government subsidy; but the government is continuously reviewing the policy. If ESF loses the subsidy, it may become one of the most expensive schools in HK. $400,000 nomination rights for Discovery College -  Probably it's just a pilot for all ESF schools ... Sigh ...

Radiomama

IS=good english??
Non chinese student=good learning environment??

VSA is not an IS but an IB school. Could it provide international aspects, good learning environment and teachers? If yes, what the point of IS or not?!

poonseelai

Totally agreed.
VSA never claims itself to be an international school.
It is a private bilingual school providing the IB programme.
It has no government subsidy, no financial support from other religious or charity groups.
So everything is funded by school fees.
Whether VSA is classified as an international school according to the Education Dept or not has nothing to do with the quality of education it offers.
HK is still a free market.
If one finds the “product” of VSA not meeting one’s expectation, he/she could go for other choices.
As a VSA parent, I would say VSA is a good school, though not a perfect one.
There is always room for improvement.

I tried but fail to find the official definition of an international school in the website of the Education Dept.
It seems that an international school is for non-chinese children.
So what’s the definition of non-chinese children.
Interestingly, ESF recently said that as more than 70% (correct me if my memory is wrong) of its students are from HK families, they should get more government subsidies.
Just wonder how come these 70% HK families are classified as non-chinese if the parents are HK Chinese.
I know in many case, parents only train their children to speak English so that they have higher chances of getting into ESF.

WYmom

原帖由 poonseelai 於 11-9-7 17:13 發表
Totally agreed.
VSA never claims itself to be an international school.
It is a private bilingual school providing the IB programme.
It has no government subsidy, no financial support from other religi ...

Local families do not equal to Chinese families,
Local residents not equal to 100% Chinese people.  There are many nationalities of people in HK.

VSA and ESF are not the same type of schools and they have different target of students.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 11-9-7 17:50 編輯 ]

poonseelai

原帖由 WYmom 於 11-9-7 17:48 發表


Local families do not equal to Chinese families,
Local residents not equal to 100% Chinese people.  There are many nationalities of people in HK.

VSA and ESF are not the same type of schools and t ...

Right, there are different target groups.  I quote ESF just for an example.  I would image the "real" non-chinese students has already been included in the remaining 30%

WYmom

原帖由 poonseelai 於 11-9-7 17:56 發表


Right, there are different target groups.  I quote ESF just for an example.  I would image the "real" non-chinese students has already been included in the remaining 30%

The remaining 30% are non-local residents, does not mean that they are Chinese or not Chinese.  Just clarify that the Chinese to non-Chinese % in ESF is not 70 to 30.  70% is the % of LOCAL residents (people who have lived in HK for 7 years).

I agree with you that VSA is a good private bilingual school and parents can choose schools according to their expectations.

I think maybe VSA is more similar to ISF rather than ESF.  ISF's fee is a lot more expensive than VSA and it is also not an international school.

[ 本帖最後由 WYmom 於 11-9-7 18:27 編輯 ]

slamai

ISF's primary school is not IB PYP.  RC of the ESF group is a closer match which can provide through-train all IB bilingual (English & Chinese) education for primary to pre-U students.

原帖由 WYmom 於 11-9-7 18:15 發表


The remaining 30% are non-local residents, does not mean that they are Chinese or not Chinese.  Just clarify that the Chinese to non-Chinese % in ESF is not 70 to 30.  70% is the % of LOCAL resident ...

poonseelai

原帖由 WYmom 於 11-9-7 18:15 發表


The remaining 30% are non-local residents, does not mean that they are Chinese or not Chinese.  Just clarify that the Chinese to non-Chinese % in ESF is not 70 to 30.  70% is the % of LOCAL resident ...

Thanks for the clarification.

MPSVIC

It is a free market alright.  But it is only part of the picture when your kid take the skul for that many years and esp when he/she is at his/her DP level now.  I dun see how it is classified as a good school when teachers as well as principal are not listening to students.  My experience is there is a teacher only cares about the schedule of the IB's while the kids are totally not seeing what he is teaching in his math class.  The kid only started the term for 1 week and there are tests piling up just because this 'nice' teacher needs to follow the schedule.  What about the other classes?  They are learning in greater details.  Believe me, this teacher is such  a 'fame' among students in regard of his teaching mode.  What about writing to principal?  The answer is 'Does he care?'  When your kids participate in this kinda school for that long, please understand it is not easy for them to adjust for or transfer to any other schools as easily as you said.  It is a free world, free market, but not your choice somehow.  Your comments are rather theoretical.  I am sorry to say that.

原帖由 poonseelai 於 11-9-7 09:13 發表
Totally agreed.
VSA never claims itself to be an international school.
It is a private bilingual school providing the IB programme.
It has no government subsidy, no financial support from other religi ...

poonseelai

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-7 22:38 發表
It is a free market alright.  But it is only part of the picture when your kid take the skul for that many years and esp when he/she is at his/her DP level now.  I dun see how it is classified as a go ...

I see, you are a VSA parent.  Two challenging years are ahead of you and your child.  I wish your kid good luck with the DP and the exam.

Seems your main concern is with the math subject.  Perhaps you will again think I'm theroetical, still, I suggest that you talk to management if this is really a problem/concern for your child.