ESF(Quarry Bay School)

heinrichma

My son is just accepted by Primary One of the ESF(Quarry Bay School), anyone can give me some comments or information on the school?
Thanks.

Mich

Hi,

When did u receive the acceptance letter?

shcs

heinrichma,

may i know which kinder. your son attended?
QBS is quite good!

heinrichma

Mich,
The acceptance letter was dated 27 January 06.

Shcs,
My son is attending the Victoria Kidergarten now.

mrs_ho

My daughter has been studying in QBS since Sept 05, so far she's really happy about her school life and she's made a lot of friends. Though I'm not sure what exactly she has learnt academically because the style of international school is very different from the local schools, I know this is the right school for my daughter.

QBS is a multi-cultural school, my girl's class includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, British and Indian, which I believe could provide valuable experience to kids.

heinrichma 寫道:
My son is just accepted by Primary One of the ESF(Quarry Bay School), anyone can give me some comments or information on the school?
Thanks.

heinrichma

Mrs_ho,
May I know how frequent is the Chinese lesson? Are they using the Simplified Characters?
Thanks.

mrs_ho

They have Mandarin class once a week (teaching simplified Chinese), usually they need to write a page of simple charactors as their weekly homework.

heinrichma 寫道:
Mrs_ho,
May I know how frequent is the Chinese lesson? Are they using the Simplified Characters?
Thanks.

FANDA

HI HEINRICHMA,

MY SON WAS ALSO ACCEPTED BY P1 QBS, DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY APPLICANTS THIS YEAR ?  HOW MANY P1 CLASS IN QBS?  WHEN WAS YOUR INTERVIEW DATE?

cilla

heinrichma,

Which Victoria is your son studying?  International class?  When is his interview date?

Cilla

BarbieKaWai2005

Hi,heinrichma :

I  also want to send my daughter to Victoria
Kindergarten, isn't it difficult to enroll?  Any special requirements or scorings that we have to meet.



  

tea007

Hi mrs_ho!

I am also interested to know more about P.1 classes in QBS.  

I heard that in ESF primary schools, they actually complete teaching phonics in Primary 1, and a typical student can read an English story book by himself or herself by the end of P1.  Is that also what you or your daughter experienced?  Are they ranking the levels of story books by some colour codes?

Further, in a class of 30 students, how many of them are local Chinese?  I just wonder whether they are designing their Chinese classes (both oral Mandarin and written Chinese) to fit expatriate students and students from Chinese families.  I guess it is not easy to strike a right balance.

Generally, are the teachers at QBS kind to the students?  Are the teachers as highly qualified as those at Victoria kindergarten?

Many thanks for sharing your experience.

heinrichma

BarbieKaWai2005 & Cilla,
The application period for Victoria is around September to November each year.  Just send them an application during the period specified.  I could not remember clearly about the interview procedure of Victoria because it was already 3 years ago.  It was a group interview with about 6 kids.  Parents were sitting behind the kids and the teachers (One spoke Cantonese and the other spoke English) would approach each kid and his parents for an short interview.  I am not sure whether Victoria is still using this kind of approach during the interview.

FANDA,
Congratulations.
Our interview day was on 27 Jan.  How about you? Which kindergarten is your kid attending?

mrs_ho

Dear tea007,

I was told that ESF is using phonics but I'm sure it's different from the phonics taught in Victoria (my girl studied K1 and K2 in Victoria). It's hard to comment on the English standard as all kids are different, right? My girl can read a simple book by herself but some other kids in her class can read higher level books. Yes QBS is using color code for story books but the teachers are not willing to disclose the color levels.

In my girls class (year 1) there are around 15 Chinese out of 30 kids. All kids need to take the Mandarin class at the same pace.

I don't know about the teachers' qualification but i remember I've read about this information somewhere, probably in QBS website. I won't worry about the qualification of ESF teachers. And honestly I don't think that Victoria's teachers are highly qualified...........

tea007 寫道:
Hi mrs_ho!

I am also interested to know more about P.1 classes in QBS.  

I heard that in ESF primary schools, they actually complete teaching phonics in Primary 1, and a typical student can read an English story book by himself or herself by the end of P1.  Is that also what you or your daughter experienced?  Are they ranking the levels of story books by some colour codes?

Further, in a class of 30 students, how many of them are local Chinese?  I just wonder whether they are designing their Chinese classes (both oral Mandarin and written Chinese) to fit expatriate students and students from Chinese families.  I guess it is not easy to strike a right balance.

Generally, are the teachers at QBS kind to the students?  Are the teachers as highly qualified as those at Victoria kindergarten?

Many thanks for sharing your experience.

tea007

Hi mrs_ho

Thanks very much for sharing with us.

By the way, does that mean QBS (and other ESF primary schools) do not teach any written Chinese?  Presumably, when they teach Mandarin, they must have something in writing for the kids to read.  So, at least they teach reading in Chinese, right?  

How have you been teaching your daughter written Chinese, by private tutor?

Thanks again.

mrs_ho

QBS is teaching written Chinese as well but in simplified style instead of the traditional style we use in HK, but I think that's alright as everyone in China is using simplified Chinese now.

I bought a lot of Chinese copy books and exercise for my girl to do at home, I make her do it daily as a habit though she doesn't like it much. I recently sent her to a Chinese class once a week (2 hours), the teacher teaches my girl to do some simple exercise like making or re-phrasing sentences.

I know some kids are taking classes in "Better Chinese" to learn Mandarin and some are attending QBS's after school Mandarin classes but I don't have details on these.

Dear Y2KChild, I remember your son is attending Better Chinese, would you please give some advice to tea007 please?

tea007 寫道:
Hi mrs_ho

Thanks very much for sharing with us.

By the way, does that mean QBS (and other ESF primary schools) do not teach any written Chinese?  Presumably, when they teach Mandarin, they must have something in writing for the kids to read.  So, at least they teach reading in Chinese, right?  

How have you been teaching your daughter written Chinese, by private tutor?

Thanks again.