Any comments about ISF?

AEteam

Please share your experience

JMSS

i want to know too

poonseelai

There are in fact loads of discussions about ISF in this forum. Have you checked?

HKTHK

回覆 AEteam 的帖子

Why don't you read the old posts first and then come back with specific questions?  There are several ISF parents here

elock

I think you have to access the forum through a computer in order to search and read the old posts.  The phone app does not carry this feature.
There are lots of discussions about ISF.
What exactly do you want to know?

lw1123

I want to know more abt ISF too.. Would highly appreciate if the isf parents could answer.
1. 70% chi and 30% eng at primary right, will the kids mostly prefer to speak mandarin at home? What abt with their friends at school?
2. Is that 30% English enough for speaking fluently?
3. 師資如何？
4. 功課多嗎？still have time to play?
5. Do u think it's a happy school?
6. What kind of kids (personality, behavior) are their preference?

Million thanks for the reply

elock

回覆 lw1123 的帖子

Hi, by flipping through old posts or even posts to be here, you will see a variety of comments.
If I were you, I will utilize information that apply to students recently enrolled to lower grades of this school rather than those who are already in the secondary school.  Reasons?  This school is relatively young.  Changes are on-going.  Students who studied here long time ago will tell you their primary years are very free, in terms of homework or study.  If you ask the same question to newly admitted students, you will probably get a different answer.

Personally, I have the following comments, but I can assure you there will be parents who will object my view.
Anyway, here it is:
(a) 70% Mandarin, 30% English - not true because not all 30% is purely English.  This 30% includes the art and sports subjects which aren't taught in English.
(b) English will be poor then?  Yes, this is in fact true.  Many private tutors do have the same comments about students from this school.  You may see the English skills of some primary students seem quite good.  You should dig further.  Either the students are using English as first language at home, or they have private tutors in this subject.  Tutoring has been quite popular for lower grades students now, mostly in Mandarin and English.
(c) Composition of students.  There are quite a number of students with Mandarin as first language.  Caucasians are definitely the minority.  So, in a sense, to those Mandarin as first language students, this school is teaching using their mother tongue (母語教學).
(d) School itself.  Definitely an academic school.  It's not really that well-balanced if you hope the school is also keen on sports, arts, and/or music.  You may see on the website there are trophies achieved by the students.  Yes, but they are representing the school.  They are representing themselves.  You must be able to live with the slow and sometimes sloppy administrative work of this school.  Very often, the definitive details of certain event is given almost at the last moment.  From the mouth of parents who admitted this year, they said during the interview, the interviewer was asking how flexible the parents' working hours are.  If you look at this from a good way, the school may be wondering if you can join the volunteer work during school time.  If you look at it in a different way, the school will prefer a non-working parent at home to guide the student's academic progress.  Personally, my experience tells me that this school is not too suitable for working parents with fixed hours, unless you have reliable adults who can look after the academic part when you are at work.
(e) Teachers quality.  This really depends which teachers your kid meet.  Some are nice, and some are mean.  It's really hard to say if the overall standard is good or bad.

Overall, the school is good and the students are generally nice.  If learning Mandarin is your keen objective, then this school is definitely for you.  Mind you that there is no "win win" situation.  You will Mandarin, you lose English.
Lastly, this school is considered as private school and not international school.  There is a difference in the definition between the two.  ISF stands very well in between local school and international school in terms of work load.  Anyway, I hope this give you an insight of this school from one the insider.  Good luck.

donut012

If you are a local hong kong family, you need to think carefully before enrolling your kid into ISF. Their mandarin curriculum is very demanding and it's really not easy if your mother tongue is not Mandarin and you don't have support at home. And you need to be prepared that their English standard will not be as high as other international schools. Almost all students have two tutors (Mandarin and English).

HKTHK

回覆 lw1123 的帖子

You will get quite a diverse spectrum of opinions so take each one with a grain of salt.  There are enough ISF parents here that you can get a decent feel without relying on "i heard from such and such friend" hearsay.  The situation is also very different between lower and higher grades.  The secondary school is still very much a work in progress while the primary school has worked out a lot of kinks and is pretty solid.
1) Kids will speak to each other in PTH and English and switch at will.  At home, you can speak whatever you like since it is very diverse from Cantonese, PTH, English to Spanish, Japanese, …..

2)  Yes, almost all speak English fluently.  But speaking is the easy part.  The English curriculum is OK though not as strong as the Chinese.  Reading level of students vary.  The best English readers will be on par with the best students in IS and the best Chinese readers will be on par with the best readers in LS.  There are students who has solid preference for one language and there are some who read English at IS level and Chinese at LS level.  It really depends on the family and the child.  English will be behind in early primary relative to IS.  Children will catch up and if you want to learn more, you should read up on bilingual immersion research yourself.



3)  There are very good teachers and not so good teachers.  Kind of depends on your luck.  Expect native speakers from China and Taiwan in Chinese and native speakers from Australia, NZ and the US in English.  The Chinese teachers are of quite high standard and the English teachers are decent though not as consistent.

4)  We don't do tutorials at all and have time for non-academic activities.  HW is hardly ever over 1 hour on weekdays

5)  What does happy school mean anyway?  It is quite an academic school and is demanding from a language perspective.  It is not one that encourage students to get tutorial or high marks (since there really aren't scores anyway).  The non-academic side is work in progress and the school is taking a look at over-hauling a lot of those programs now.

HKTHK

回覆 donut012 的帖子

Are your opinions based on your own experience or hearsay?

elock

Agreed 100%.
Even though the school says one does not need to know Mandarin in order to get into Foundation Year, even the Caucasian students are actually from bilingual kindergartens.  Yes, one may still get admitted without knowing Mandarin, but you aren't at similar starting point as your classmates. Guess what will then happen!!

HKTHK

回覆 elock 的帖子

I am really not sure one can get in these days without knowing some Mandarin.  It was possible a few years ago and I do know several kids who didn't know a word of Mandarin when they started Foundation.  Not sure if this is good or bad though.  Bilingual immersion need native speakers of both languages so the school does need native English speakers.  At the same time, it is difficult for the teachers to teach Chinese when you have some child who doesn't know a word and some who can read simple books on their own.

donut012

My niece goes to ISF so I guess you can say it's somewhat personal experience.

caa

WKDRB 發表於 14-1-22 12:54
簡單地回答你ISF是間怎樣的學校：
「在中學部，不少父母正努力為子女轉校」

可否透露少少辦學手法有什麼問題?

HKTHK

回覆 WKDRB 的帖子

Very long response that doesn't answer the question, 辦學手法有什麼問題?

annie40

回覆 WKDRB 的帖子

各類父母對孩子的學業期望各有不同，曾見識有家長認為讀oxbrige是委屈了她的孩子呢！人比人容易比死人，學校亦如是。
總括了解，這間學校算是新校，在努力中，師資高，各方面配套完善，課程在改革，收生趨向嚴格，我看不出有何大問題！

註：本人不是ISF家長，只認識一些就讀家庭和幾位教師朋友。