Singapore International School

EEPhoon

Thanking for sharing with us. Congratulation to you as your kid is excellent. He is 2-3 levels  higher that SIS standard.
You are a great mother as you choose a right school for your son. No much homework, no much stress but could develop such an excellent kids.  
Now then , I undertand why SIS is not up to your expectation.   

I admire you veru much!

一條毛

Leehoma001,

It is a surprise that you admitted that you don't know exactly what kinds of things your kid has learnt from school. Correct me if I am wrong, this shows that you don't know the curriculum or syllabus of the school your kid is attending. If that is the case, can I trust what you have posted previously?

一條毛

Leehoma001,

One thing that I totally agree wtih you: kids can learn lots of thing by self reading. My son who is in PY1 of SIS knows most of the scientifc knowledge discribed by EEPhoon and much more. To name you a few: how fossil is formed, what are the different kind of volcanos, Mt Everest is a fold mountain, what is the differences between crocodile and alligator, different kinds of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic) etc......However, I am sure that these are not learned from school since I receive E-mail from his class teacher almost every week to inform me what is happening in the class.

leehoma001 寫道:
My kid is now studying at year 2 of ESF, therefore I can only tell about year 1 and 2.

Homework:
For year 1 -
- read one English book per day according to the kid's reading level
- read one more difficult English book together with parents per week
- do a few lines of Chinese writing once per week

For year 2 up to  now
- read one English book per day and write a short comment about the book
- read one more difficult English book together with the parents per week
- do a few lines of Chinese writing once per week
- do one page of homework once per week, it may be to draw some objects at home when talking about shapes at school, draw a plant with labels when talking about plants at school, draw both sides of different coins and go to buy things with the same value and then draw the things that have bought, cut a fruit into half and portrait the fruit, do some measurements... etc.

For both year 1 and year 2, there will be no formal test nor any formal exams. There will be two assessments per year.  The teacher will ask the students one by one to conduct individual assessement by the teacher himself/herself while the other kids are doing some other activities during the lesson.  Of course the kids will not be ranked.


It is difficult to tell exactly what kinds of things my kid has learnt from school. However, my kid (in year 2 equivalent to P1 of SIS) has already known most of the science knowledge as described by EEPhoon. I don't know whether my kid learnt them at school or by his own reading as my kid likes to read the series of science and encyclopedia books I purchased by himself  and he always tells me somethings that I haven't read or heard before.





[quote]
thankful 寫道:
leehoma001,

I remember seeing you mentioned in one of the threads that your kid is studying in ESF.  Could you please tell us what sort of homework he is having on a daily basis and what sort of things he is learning in school?  Thanks![quote]

一條毛

Thankful

I know it is hard to believe, but I have told you the truth. My son started to read for himself since he is 3. Now, we go to public library from time to time to borrow books. My wife buys books for him whenever she thinks it is value for money no matter it is story book or science book. One of my son's favourite books are Pocket Scientist (which is divided into red book and blue book) published by Usborne. I agree with you that I am asking for trouble and congratulation that you are the winner!

thankful 寫道:
一條毛

Just tell me that you are kidding only - I'm 45 years old and I still don't know any of the things that you mentioned.  By the way, you are really asking for trouble.  I'm sure that leehoma001 will tell you that her new born baby already knows all these things.  So in order to pre-empt her rebuke, I would now declare that my kid (who is conceived this very instant) knows everything already.  So my kid is the winner!!![quote]
一條毛 寫道:
Leehoma001,

One thing that I totally agree wtih you: kids can learn lots of thing by self reading. My son who is in PY1 of SIS knows most of the scientifc knowledge discribed by EEPhoon and much more. To name you a few: how fossil is formed, what are the different kind of volcanos, Mt Everest is a fold mountain, what is the differences between crocodile and alligator, different kinds of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic) etc......However, I am sure that these are not learned from school since I receive E-mail from his class teacher almost every week to inform me what is happening in the class.
[quote]
leehoma001 寫道:
My kid is now studying at year 2 of ESF, therefore I can only tell about year 1 and 2.

Homework:
For year 1 -
- read one English book per day according to the kid's reading level
- read one more difficult English book together with parents per week
- do a few lines of Chinese writing once per week

For year 2 up to  now
- read one English book per day and write a short comment about the book
- read one more difficult English book together with the parents per week
- do a few lines of Chinese writing once per week
- do one page of homework once per week, it may be to draw some objects at home when talking about shapes at school, draw a plant with labels when talking about plants at school, draw both sides of different coins and go to buy things with the same value and then draw the things that have bought, cut a fruit into half and portrait the fruit, do some measurements... etc.

For both year 1 and year 2, there will be no formal test nor any formal exams. There will be two assessments per year.  The teacher will ask the students one by one to conduct individual assessement by the teacher himself/herself while the other kids are doing some other activities during the lesson.  Of course the kids will not be ranked.


It is difficult to tell exactly what kinds of things my kid has learnt from school. However, my kid (in year 2 equivalent to P1 of SIS) has already known most of the science knowledge as described by EEPhoon. I don't know whether my kid learnt them at school or by his own reading as my kid likes to read the series of science and encyclopedia books I purchased by himself  and he always tells me somethings that I haven't read or heard before.





[quote]
thankful 寫道:
leehoma001,

I remember seeing you mentioned in one of the threads that your kid is studying in ESF.  Could you please tell us what sort of homework he is having on a daily basis and what sort of things he is learning in school?  Thanks![quote]

[/quote][/quote]

cfanny

EEPhoon,

You mentioned you kid in in a higher Chinese class.
Did u mean that he attended the Chinese class with the Grade 3 students?

Thanks!

WYmom

leehoma001 寫道:

Unlike those traditoanl local school as well as SIS,  ESF doesn't give us a detailed syallubus nor a detailed description of its curriculum. There are no text books, no test or exam papers and the homework I mentioned before was so limited. What ESF gave us is a just a very very brief decription of the study focus for the coming week at its web.

However, I trust ESF's system very much from its good track records and also from the daily interaction with my kid and I know pretty well whether my kid can learn something from school.

leehoma001,

I disagree with you, ESF do give a detail cirriculum map at the beginning of each term, and they have systematic guidelines for parents to follow for English and Maths.  My daughter's school even has weekly report to parents on what have been taught in each grade.

Guess you may have missed these.

Allow me to say something - it is not very meaningful to compare what exactly has each kid learnt at different school, in fact, now the kids can easily get a lot of info. by just pressing the search key on internet.  The most important thing we expect from school is the development of strong initiative and confidence to learn by the kids themselves.  I don't mind my kids learn less technical words but I am very glad that they are very eager to search for more info. and do more analysis on their own initiative.  In this aspect, ESF can meet my expectations.

I also know kids studying in SIS, they are Singaporeans and they enter this school naturally.  It is good for us to exchange info. and interact with kids in different schools so that we all learn from each other.  

Hope you relax more.

NichoB

emily06

I think that almost all ISs would give out summaried syllabus to parents in the beginning of the school year --- at least this is what I know of.

I think the ESF did and still does follow the British curriculum. I have friends with children in the ESF schools too. I do not know whether it is merely the individual teachers, but my friends were directed to a certain british website for information of the curriculum.

The information on the internet is very brief and simple but I remember seeing a thick handbook (shown to me by a teacher) showing very detail description of what the children would be learning throughtout the year. I think the handbook is not supposed to be given out (or may be even shown) to parents but if parents ask, I am sure the school would (and should) at least give a summarised syllabus to parents.

I remember that the handbook was very detail, listing what is to be taught, at what time. For example, they have very clear guidelines as to when the children would be learning, say, multiplication, and when division would be introduced.

I think if parents really want to know, they can always talk to the school.

leehoma001, I enjoy reading your posts since you are always so generous in sharing your views and information you have.

I think we all know that the ESF and SIS are different. It is very diffucult to compare 2 totally different things. Like some people prefer BMW, but others might still stick to Mercedes.

Everyone has their own criteriors, and thus would have different choices.

In my opinion, both BMW and Mercedes are nice cars; and likewise, both ESF and SIS are good schools. I think there must be reasons why they all co-exist here. And the good thing about the present Hong Kong is that, we can still have choices.

一條毛

Leehoma001

Calm down, I have admitted that thankful's kid is the winner. Wouldn't you agree?
Smile!

[quote]
leehoma001 寫道:
My kid now seldom reads the two pocket science books published by Usborne as he already finished reading them half year ago.  He is now interesting in reading a series of student encyclopidea containing 20+ books as I mentioned before.

一條毛

leehoma001

I think you better carry out again a  more detail, in depth research about the teaching method, curriculum and administration of the schools of ESF to find out why they can produce students with quite even and high academic results among the different schools. May be you need to consult education psychologist again as well.

leehoma001 寫道:

It is true that QBS or ESF primary follows the British curriculum.  However, I don't know whether it is exactly the same or have some modifications as QBS doesn't give me the details nor asks the parents to check on the UK websites.

[/quote]

一條毛

emily06

I totally agree with you. I chose SIS not because she is better than any other schools (including ESF) but that I think SIS is more suitable to my kid and she can provide education to him up to my expectation. Most of the international schools in Hong Kong are good schools. Another good thing still exists in Hong Kong is that we can still express ourselves freely.

I think we all know that the ESF and SIS are different. It is very diffucult to compare 2 totally different things. Like some people prefer BMW, but others might still stick to Mercedes.

Everyone has their own criteriors, and thus would have different choices.

In my opinion, both BMW and Mercedes are nice cars; and likewise, both ESF and SIS are good schools. I think there must be reasons why they all co-exist here. And the good thing about the present Hong Kong is that, we can still have choices.

CY-mother

hi

最近才有空回應各位關於仔仔在學校情況, 仔仔己適應學校生活, 但最近仔仔好唔開心, 常說沒有同學同佢玩, 好lonely, (之前佢本來說有好多朋友的, 但近這一個月就話只有一個肯同佢玩), 我都有d擔心可能是佢英文問題令到這情況出現...我就鼓勵佢主動d, 佢說有, 但沒人so 佢,  我的心聽到佢這樣說都心痛...

佢這幾日都有這樣說, 又要我問老師, 我昨晚都sent email 了解情況, 現等待回覆.



:cry: