Desperately Need HELP & Advice: ESF Kindergarten to ESF Year 1

7399

My daughter is now at K2 at ESF WKS. We only applied SJS & RC for Year 1.  It is such an unfortunate that both schools are putting her on wait list. I have spoke to the principal about our situation but seems he can't do anything or offer any alternative. He said he doesn't have control on the primary admission. He said places are become available in June in most cases but of course no guarantee.
Are there any parents here had a similar experience before? Can you please share to me what are the alternatives for my daughter apart from finding her a seat at local Kindergarten?
We are local Hongkonger without foreign passport.

hollywhy

You can try Anfield Intl kindergarten which has k3. The k3 class is for those who can't get a place in grade one and you can apply for esf grade two next year.

964000

Is yours small b? I know it's not helpful but it's true, I believe you will get a spot at the end, but need to wait. Many people hold both SJS and RC probably will release the spots.

FattyDaddy

7399 發表於 16-2-25 21:31
It is such an unfortunate that both schools are putting her on wait list ...

It depends on what you mean by wait list. If your daughter has passed the interview and now on the wait list for a place, then you can relax a bit because her chances are very good, between now and July it is very likely that a place will become available. If she is on the wait list for an interview, then the chances are obviously slimmer, but the schools do hold additional rounds of interviews from March onwards and since your daughter has kindergarten priority she'll be called for interviews ahead of those who don't have any priority.

The fact to remember is, at the end of the day over 90% of ESF kindergarten children do proceed to ESF primary schools, and many of those who don't are because they have other offers elsewhere. Of course there will be a small percentage who are left without an ESF primary place to go to, in that case you may consider to (1) let your child repeat K2 if that is offered by the kindergarten (I know of some real cases who actually did that), or (2) switch to K3 in a local kindergarten, or (3) try other international primary schools.

ESF Kindergarten Principals are quite open and approachable, so if you have already consulted your daughter's Principal then you have heard almost everything there is to hear :)

964000

原帖由 7399 於 16-02-25 發表
My daughter is now at K2 at ESF WKS. We only applied SJS & RC for Year 1.  It is such an unfortunate ...

So have you done interview yet?

keiasahi

原帖由 7399 於 16-02-25 發表
My daughter is now at K2 at ESF WKS. We only applied SJS & RC for Year 1.  It is such an unfortunate ...

Pmed

7399

My daughter is a big girl. She is one of the eldest in her class.
We attended the interview at RC but not with SJS.
I understand SJS needs to admit at least 70% of foreign passport holder. Since we are local without foreign passport, i guess that why we didn't even have the interview opportunity at SJS.
I am afraid local Kindergarten might not be an alternative. I want my daughter to stay at IS as I hate to see her being spoon-fed for knowledge. I also afraid she is not competitive compare to other who are studying at local Kindergarten. She basically can't read or write in both English and Chinese.
It's indeed very frustrating. Any advice / comments are highly appreciated.

evawyma

回覆 7399 的帖子

Can she write english alphabets? or read simple english words like "the", "I", "this" etc?

My daughter was born in Nov 2011 and in K2 of a private local kg now. Her school is a happy one but she still can read simple english words, write all upper case aphabets and simple chinese words. If yours shifts to a local kg, she will have a painful start.

fundad

原帖由 7399 於 16-02-26 發表
本帖最後由 7399 於 16-2-26 09:42 編輯

My daughter is a big girl. She is one of the eldest in her  ...

I think your status is much better than some studying at ESF kinders, who are even got rejected by RC.  As far as I know,  quite a number of ESF kinder students got rejected this year comparing with last year.

MrsGM

RC and SJS deadline was 24/2. You should be receiving a call soon from either or both schools regarding a chance for interview. I know someone who was in waitlist received a call from SJS this morning. Keep ur phone close to you. Good luck.

MrsGM

You may also call the school and ask them. Take the initiative. All the best!

little-pig-pig

I wonder does SJS only give offer to foreign passport holders this year? Any non-foreign passport holders also get the offer from SJS?

964000

原帖由 little-pig-pig 於 16-02-26 發表
I wonder does SJS only give offer to foreign passport holders this year? Any non-foreign passport ho ...

Are u in WKS ESF now? I wish to know the latest status too .

luckyveronique

From what the SJS newsletter said, there was about 50% interviewees got sibling priority. So the big problem I guess is not local passport holder or not, it might because SJS has many big families

oooray

原帖由 7399 於 16-02-26 發表
本帖最後由 7399 於 16-2-26 09:42 編輯

My daughter is a big girl. She is one of the eldest in her  ...

It is weird to hear that an WKS student not having an interview chance in SJS. Did your daughter just join WKS from K2(not starting from K1)? There are not much things you can do at this moment other than waiting patiently. Even if you have been trying to avoid local education, a K3 place is still a feasible plan B. Try not to do some research of nearby K3 places with good quality and secure a place before it is too late.
If u have not had any good news by summer holiday, think about applying other IS (queues have already been there and may need to wait for months to years until spots are available).
Switching from IS to IS is not difficult, but from local school to IS is still feasible. No matter which school your daughter will be studying next year, keeping her English proficiency at high standard is a must to pass the intetview when IS offer is available.

c200

From SJS news letter
Year 1 Admissions 2016
Our Leadership Team and Year 1 teachers have spent much of the last two weeks welcoming the young children who will be joining us in Year 1 next school year.
We were able to organize the programme this year so that we could invite some of the teachers from our main feeder kindergartens, Wu Kai Sha and Tsing Yi, along to join us during the student interview sessions. This process worked very well and the kindergarten teacher’s knowledge of their students certainly assisted the admission process. It was pleasing to note that almost 70 of the 150 children we interviewed were younger brothers and sisters of current students. We have very strong family connections running through the school.

Birkin

7399 發表於 16-2-26 09:32
I understand SJS needs to admit at least 70% of foreign passport holder. Since we are local without foreign passport, i guess that why we didn't even have the interview opportunity at SJS ...

I don't think that's the issue - from what I can see, ESF students are very diverse, so it would be relatively easy for any ESF school to satisfy that 70% foreign passport holder threshold.  I think your daughter's case is purely a matter of luck (or, well, the lack of it).  As ESF kindy students (those with no other priorities) only rank no. 6 on their priority list, so my guess is the other applicants with a higher priority and those ESF kindy students who got a smaller application number by the random ballot were successful in their interviews, so SJS made them an offer and they had no more places to offer after the first round of interviews.  The deadline for acceptance of the first batch of offers was 24 February 2016, which means places are being released and SJS will continue to interview other applicants until all Year 1 places are filled up, so I would say your daughter still got a fairly good chance to be interviewed and offered a place by SJS.

In the meantime, in order to make yourselves feel better and more secure, I suggest that you apply to other local and international kindies for K3, so in the worst case scenario, your daughter still have somewhere to go after K2 whilst keep waiting for a place at RC, SJS or other international schools.

FattyDaddy

7399 發表於 16-2-26 09:32
We attended the interview at RC but not with SJS ...

So what is the outcome of the interview at RC? If your daughter has passed the interview and is on RC's waiting list for a place, then you should be laughing, because RC is typically treated as a backup (no offense, but rightly or wrongly that's the trend), and over the next few months places will definitely become available as people opt for what they think is better. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if your daughter will get a place even as soon as in the next few weeks because people who got offers from both the foundation schools (SJS, KJS, BHS etc) and the PIS schools (RC and DC) need to reply to ESF by this week and many may be giving up their RC offers.

SJS on the other hand is much more competitive because its catchment zone is huge, hence they tend to be more over-subscribed compared to the other foundation schools, you'll have to wait until the end of March to see if they're holding extra rounds of interviews and invite your child.

964000

原帖由 FattyDaddy 於 16-02-26 發表
So what is the outcome of the interview at RC? If your daughter has passed the interview and is on R ...

Yes, as I mention in my last post, I believe she will get a spot at the end in either SJS or RC, but the waiting period is daunting.

cherryjo416

My boy is also waiting list for RC. So while waiting we are considering the new school in taipo American School HK which will be opening up in Sept 2016.