ISF Interview

jor_mankiu

My son will be attending ISF interview end of November for the foundation class. Any parent has any experience how the ISF interview will be like, and what will be the Group Parent Meeting about?
Thanks!

kfy

My daughter is now in foundation year. The 1st interview was in form of a group interview. A group of around 10 kids with 1 English teacher and 1 PTH teacher.  There were group games, puzzles, toys for free play. Kids were required to draw a picture and describe to teacher what they drew. etc.
2nd interview was in form of individual parents meeting. I received the offer after 2 weeks.
Good luck !

原帖由 jor_mankiu 於 11-11-14 10:53 發表
My son will be attending ISF interview end of November for the foundation class. Any parent has any experience how the ISF interview will be like, and what will be the Group Parent Meeting about?
Than ...

jor_mankiu

I see. Thanks a lot kfy. So is the child expected to speak fluent Putonghua? What kind of questions do they ask at the Parent Interview?

Thanks!

cecilau

No, ISF does not expect the child can speak fluent PTH. My son spoke Cantonese during the interview few years ago.

原帖由 jor_mankiu 於 11-11-14 14:15 發表
I see. Thanks a lot kfy. So is the child expected to speak fluent Putonghua? What kind of questions do they ask at the Parent Interview?

Thanks!

kfy

原帖由 jor_mankiu 於 11-11-14 14:15 發表
I see. Thanks a lot kfy. So is the child expected to speak fluent Putonghua? What kind of questions do they ask at the Parent Interview?

Thanks!

Yes, same case for my daughter. My daughter said one teacher spoke English and one teacher spoke PTH. But the Chinese teacher did also speak Cantonese with my daughter. BTW, my daughter was from local kindergarten and had not learnt any PTH at all. So in my 2nd interview, actually I asked the VP myself if there would be any problem. She said "absolutely no problem, she will speak PTH fluently very soon." I think for my daughter's case, she learnt reading and writing Chinese (though in Cantonese) pretty well in kindergarten, and that helps a lot.

jor_mankiu

That's good to know. Thanks!

11223300

Does any one already received invitation for parent-child interview...I haven't heard from the school after the first assessment in Nov...does it mean application failed already??

11223300

Anyone already received notification for parents-child interview?

kfy

Is your son applying for Foundation or Grade 1 ?
I heard from my friends applying Grade 1, they had already attended the 2nd round interview in December.
For FY cases, 2nd interview should be a bit later, maybe in February.

Ving

Can any parents tell me why you would like ISF other than other International schools like CDIS, SIS or VSA? Thx

kfy

I do not have personal experience with all the 4 schools. But I have friends with kids in the said schools. All of them are very satisfied with their schools. So I do not think that any school is considerably better or worse than the rest.

I chose ISF because of its strong Chinese curriculum in traditional Chinese. I also like its math curriculum. The standard of teachers is good. And they have small class size of 18.

CIS is definitely another good choice to consider.

Ving

But it seems that ISF school fee is almost the expensive one. So, is it worth trying on the new concept school though I think small class (18 student) is good.

kfy

Somehow the tuition fee is reflected in the teaching resources. Class size does count. The lessons each teacher teach every week also count. Say for Chinese teacher everyone only teaches one class. So they have more time and resources to plan for their lessons, and that would be important. While they are open to continuously improve their curriculum and adjust their teaching, I do not think that they are really "brand new" on everything.

kfy

And I am most satisfied with the school library, which is open to parents. My kid borrows from the library and read at least 7 Chinese books and 7 English books. They have audio books too so that I can play it while I drive my kid to school.

11223300

Thank you kfy, my son is applying for Foundation Class, not yet received notification for 2nd interview...anxiously waiting for their responses. Keep my finger crossed!!! Thank you again for ur sharing!!

11223300

Thank you kfy, my son is applying for Foundation Class, not yet received notification for 2nd interview...anxiously waiting for their responses. Keep my finger crossed!!! Thank you again for ur sharing!!

elock

Any experienced parents can tell me the format and content of the 2nd interview?

MomAC

Hi elock, you got the 2nd interview notification already?

MomAC

回復 elock 的帖子

You got the result for 1st interview already?