Pls share - I'm worried about sending my daughter to IS

april_bbb

Hi,

I'm considering to send my daughter to study in IS, however, I have the following worries. Can any mamis that have sons/daughters that are now studying in IS share with me? Thank you in advance.

(1) Discipline problem - as a parent of a daughter---a bit worry about the discipline at IS since everybody around me told me that as IS is not as 'rigid' as local school, it's no good to let my daughter to study in IS. What do you think?

(2) Homework/assignments - is it true that the workload is not that heavy in IS but at the same time the kids can learn the knowledge?

(3) Studying abroad - are you all considering to send your kids to study abroad in the future? or will that be difficult for IS graduates to study in local Universities?

(4) Miscellaneous fee - will there be lots of misc. fee for IS apart from monthly school fee?

Thank you very much.

franceslaw

I think IS is good to train a child independent learning, and analytical skills. Regarding discipline, they are not as rigid, it depends on what, IS teachers respect individual, they can voices out their views, but teachers are usually guide them in their thinking. They respect individuality, they train a child thinking they are dependent.

They have less homework, most of the homework they do at school, in class time, therefore, when they get home, they have more time to enjoy themselves and develop other skills.

One thing I am not so happy is their chinese will deteriorte, no matter how often they speak in the house, their Chinese will not be good, and Chinese child most of them do not have an interest to learn the language.

kathiema

april_bbb 寫道:
Hi,

I'm considering to send my daughter to study in IS, however, I have the following worries. Can any mamis that have sons/daughters that are now studying in IS share with me? Thank you in advance.

(1) Discipline problem - as a parent of a daughter---a bit worry about the discipline at IS since everybody around me told me that as IS is not as 'rigid' as local school, it's no good to let my daughter to study in IS. What do you think?

(2) Homework/assignments - is it true that the workload is not that heavy in IS but at the same time the kids can learn the knowledge?

(3) Studying abroad - are you all considering to send your kids to study abroad in the future? or will that be difficult for IS graduates to study in local Universities?

(4) Miscellaneous fee - will there be lots of misc. fee for IS apart from monthly school fee?

Thank you very much.

To april_bbb,

To my opinion:

(1) Being 'rigid' to children doesn't mean that you will have 'disciplined children'.

(2) Not sure about the other IS, in SJS, children need to do a lot of work in school, guided reading, writing, research, etc. both  individual and group.

(3) There is no problem of sending IS children to local uni, my chidren studied in IS, then go to local uni.

(4) In ESF primary schools, parents need to pay outing fees, for hiring buses, lunches, camps and in upper years, bring your own stationary.  Actually, in secondary schools, parents save a lot of money because text books are provided by school.

april_bbb

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reply.

kathiema, I agree with you that 'Being 'rigid' to children doesn't mean that you will have 'disciplined children'. For sending kids to local U, what's the channel? Although it's too early for me to ask as my daughter is only 1.5 years old, just want to get an idea of this.

kathiema, did your child / children study in SJS? Is it a good school? I'm also living in Shatin.

franceslaw, how about you? Which IS are your children stuyding currently?

thanks for sharing.

kathiema

To april_bbb,

There are JUPAS & Non-JUPAS Admission Schemes.  Students from international schools enter local uni by Non-JUPAS, http://www.hku.hk/admission/nonjupas.htm.  My children have no problem of studying in uni.  Their chinese is not as good as local students but their English and they are more confident especially when they have presentations.  

Don't worry too much, I have no regret of sending my children to SJS and SC.  But the only pity is their chinese isn't that good.  ESF schools will have more mandarin lessons in the coming year.

WYmom

kathiema 寫道:
To april_bbb,

There are JUPAS & Non-JUPAS Admission Schemes.  Students from international schools enter local uni by Non-JUPAS, http://www.hku.hk/admission/nonjupas.htm.  My children have no problem of studying in uni.  Their chinese is not as good as local students but their English and they are more confident especially when they have presentations.  

Don't worry too much, I have no regret of sending my children to SJS and SC.  But the only pity is their chinese isn't that good.  ESF schools will have more mandarin lessons in the coming year.

Kathiema,

Have your children entered Universities already?  Local or overseas?

As there is not enough Chinese learning at SC, have you sent your children to after school Chinese class then?  Are they taking paper A2 or B for Chinese language in IBD exam?  Pls give me some advice.  Thanks a lot.

kathiema

To WYmom,

My elder one is studying Master Degree in Translation (English/Chinese) in CUHK, my second one is the first year in HKU.  Comparing their chinese level to local students, my children are way behind, i believe.  They chose Chinese as Second Lang, ie, easier to them.  They did well.  I've never sent my children to have extra lessons in chinese, english, maths..etc. they joined sports e.g. sailing, rugby, basketball... as their after school activities.

To my experience, most IS kids wont like to study chinese when they grow older.  Therefore, family plays a very important role.  They can expose to more chinese enviorment e.g. join some community services e.g. YMCA to help people in China...

dontdont

kathiema, may i ask you which IS your children studied before? Thank you!

kathiema

dontdont 寫道:
kathiema, may i ask you which IS your children studied before? Thank you!

SJS & SC.

inho

Dear kathiema,

It is commonly known that ESF is non-selective in recruiting students but children must be fleunt in English. It is even said that children in ESF speak English just like native speakers. On the other hand, parents may send their kids to ESF kinders (Tsing Yi, Sheung Wan and Abacus) as a way to ESF schools. However, they are with us for some years only. May I know how your children attained so high English level to be admitted ESF school?   

inho      

kathiema

To inho,

We just applied as everybody did.  It was many years ago though.  

It's true that sending children to ESF kindies will get higher priority of getting in ESF primary schools.  

I am not really agreed that the English proficiency of all ESF students is up to native English speaker's standard.  But that's true their verbal English is very good.  Written English, well, all depends, every child is different.  I dont like to compare them.  

It's a good decision of sending my children to IS because their thinking, I can tell, it's totally different from local schools students.  I am working with both IS & local students but I am not an expert.  I am trying my best to accommodate their differences and needs.

inho

Hi kathiema,

Thanks for your sharing. It is so nice that the children studied in and graduated from ESF schools!
How is the decision about their university and post-graduate studies? Is this your idea to let them study in local universities or go abroad? Or you let them to make up their mind? May I have your ideas about the considerations of children's university education? How would you compare, for an international school graduate, study in local universities and study in foreign ones ?

Sorry for so many questions and thanks for your attention.

inho   

kathiema

To inho,

That's their decision to stay in HK for uni and which areas they want to study.  My children got accepted by a few overseas universities but they didn't want to go.  Studying in HK definitely is cheaper than overseas.  My elder one is now studying part-time master in CUHK and also working part-time.  That's also a good experience too.  I think, many people will agree, HK has more job opportunities etc.    Studying in local uni gives them a better opportunity to be familiar with HK market and maybe even China.  As you know, students from IS have better English proficiency and wider thinking (I don't mean local students' dont but IS students have more opportunities to express their view).  Of course, if you have funds, sending children overseas is also a good choice.  Children can be more dependent. That also depends on the youngsters and their peers.  

I don't want to compare the individual from studying locally and overseas.  As I said before, every child is different.  I will look at the whole person not from which school or uni he/she is from.

dontdont

thx kathiema

inho

Hi kathiema,

We don't need to make a comparison. In fact, students studying in local universities, especially in CUHK, can benefits more from Chinese culture. When I lingered around CU, I found that there were many mandarin people. Students learning in Hong Kong have ample opportunities to make connections with China. On the other hand, they can also join some acitivites to go overseas, e.g. exchange programme. Of course, students going overseas to further studies have some other benefits.

I enjoy having your sharing and I expect to learn more from your exprience in this forum.

inho

      

  

april_bbb

Hi kathiema,

Thank you so much for your sharing. You did provide valuable info to us.

Would you mind telling me whether the 'activity costs' or 'misc costs' are high for kids studying in IS?

And I would like to know when you said their Chinese level is not that good, do you mean that their written Chinese is not so good, however, their spoken mandarin is ok?

Since I'm now considering RC and SJS, so can you tell me your general opinion to SJS?

Thanks a lot.  

kathiema

To april_bbb,

In SJS, you only need to pay for their outings, e.g. Science Museum, Botanical Garden, etc. usually it's once a term.  Upper years will go to overnight camps once a year, & you need to pay too, depends on which year group and where they are going to.  School fair--will ask you to donate food, toys & buy raffle tickets but not compulsory.

Costs for after school activities - all depends on parents.  If activities are organised by school, no charge.  If they are organised by outside companies, depends on what you join.

Chinese level - most of them can speak cantonese, some are mandarin speakers.  Of course, many parents send their child to extra lessons, ie, need to pay extra money.  But they wont speak mandarin in school unless it's mandarin lesson.

RC is a new school, of course, their facilities are new.  But mind you, it's too new, need to give them more time.  They have more chiness lessons.  SJS is 19 years old but the prinicipal is new (3 yrs) and many teachers are new too.  There are lots of changes too, e.g. change to PYP and to be one of the pilot schools of new mandarin schedule....

Again, this is parents' choice of sending you own child to which school.  Maybe you should arrange a school visit in order to find out more about the schools.  Try to go when nearly school finishes and talk to some of the parents.  

WYmom

kathiema,

As I know, Shatin College students will still join ICGSE exam at Year 11 and then continue IBD thereafter while RC adopts MYP and IBD.  As we are not very familar with MYP, can you advise me which way is better?  Is SC very exam oriented?  Is the cirriculum very vigorous?

Many thanks.

kathiema

To WYmom,

I am not familiar with MYP, you may check this http://www.ibo.org/diploma/.  SC didn't have MYP when my children were there.  I am more familiar with PYP but it's difficult to explain in short.  PYP, MYP & IB provide boarder curriculum for children.  Children need to think from different aspects.  I think it's quite good for children but it's hard work.
SC is not exam oriented. They have quite a few tests, assessments.  Again, ESF secondary schools are swapping to MYP gradually, there maybe more assesements.

WYmom

kathiema,

Thanks for your advice.  I just wonder if SC's current way of teaching also encourage students to think from different aspects, just like MYP.  Can you please advise further?

I know MYP is good, yet it is so new that no one knows if it works well.  We cannot wait as my daughter is going to be Year 7 next year.

Thanks a lot.