Want help? Not being accepted by ESF?

King'sMom

Have chat with my child's class teacher today and she says my child is at the bottom of the waitlist. She has also mentioned that one of their students with 2 years at SW Kinder is also on the waitlist too. So for those parents who want to send their children to ESF Primary have to be cleared that not all of ESF Kinder students can be allocated a place at ESF Primary. She suggests me to try other IS like Starters, Small World or Kiangsu & Chekiang. The class teacher is so kind and helpful. But unfortunately, she can't do much for us at this stage...as the list is really long. She says other ESF Primary may call the waitlist if they still have places. I think Quarry Bay is the one with less competitive. My favourite shool, Kennedy is too hot this year..as it covers too large allocation zone, starting from Mid-levels to Western District like Belchers, Bel-Air....Anyway, I hope I can find one IS for my child eventually.

Never think about it is so difficult to find an IS as same as local schools.

OKmom

King's mom,

Sorry to hear your case.....You mentioned that even a kid who has been in ESF kindy for 2 yrs failed to get a P.1 seat, may I know which ESF primary school did he apply for? And, did your teacher tell the reason why he was not successful (is it because of English fluency or immaturity)? Pls share....

[ 本帖最後由 OKmom 於 09-3-12 13:16 編輯 ]

King'sMom

原帖由 OKmom 於 09-3-12 13:10 發表
King's mom,

Sorry to hear your case.....You mentioned that even a kid who has been in ESF kindy for 2 yrs failed to get a P.1 seat, may I know which ESF primary school did he apply for? And, did your ...

OKmom,

I haven't asked them further. She just said that student has passed the interview but is on the waitlist.

I just have a chat with other International Kindergarten about my case and they said it's too strange for ESF to pass my child's interview but not to give him any places for Primary. This is not their way to handling the applications. I believe they have made some mistakes on processing the applications this year...anyway, my child is so unlucky.

OKmom

原帖由 King'sMom 於 09-3-12 14:15 發表


OKmom,

I haven't asked them further. She just said that student has passed the interview but is on the waitlist.

I just have a chat with other International Kindergarten about my case and they sai ...

It sounds very strange, in the past I thought that ESF school would always offer a place when a student has passed an interview. It seems that they have changed their policy this year,.....your case is very unfortunate.

Hope your search for a suitable IS goes smooth.

popolung

原帖由 King'sMom 於 09-3-12 14:15 發表


OKmom,

I haven't asked them further. She just said that student has passed the interview but is on the waitlist.

I just have a chat with other International Kindergarten about my case and they sai ...

Beside the ESF school. you should also try to call ESF Center (in Stubbs Road) to check on your case, if you think you case is happened because of a mistake only. Good Luck.

dwvmbb

Sorry to hear Kingsmom's case. Your case stimulates me to think again whether I should accept the KG offer from ESF. Be frank, at this moment, I still prefer letting my girl study in international stream as I wish her to be more creative and all-rounded and most importantly-have a happier school life. But it is very frustrated that if I go through the two-years KG and cannot get a place in their yr 1 after all. Though I realized that rule of game well before I accepted this offer, I was given to understand that the chance of no through-train was not too high. After reading Kingmom's case, I can imagine how helpless and uncertain the parents are. Under the current economic situation, I do expect by the time when my girl is promoted to Year 1, the competition for a place in ESF will be very keen. The situation may be even worse since a lot of babies were born in year 2006. I feel very uncomfortable about the uncertainity as we are just cat 2 applicant. On the other hand, my child is also accepted by some good local KGs including St Cat. I am just thinking if I go for St. Cat, I can still have chance to go for ISs (maybe those PIS or Victoria etc) and need not give up a good chance to study in some good DSS or aided local schools. Coming back to the dilemma again!

oooray

原帖由 dwvmbb 於 09-3-14 15:11 發表
Sorry to hear Kingsmom's case. Your case stimulates me to think again whether I should accept the KG offer from ESF. Be frank, at this moment, I still prefer letting my girl study in international str ...

If ESF primary remains your target, there is no point for a cat 2 parent to give up ESF Kinda offer today because you will have a much lower priority when u are applying ESF primary or RC & DC (at least behind all 4 ESF kinda students).
Of course, you are still thinking of non ESF IS or back to local stream, accepting the current ESF kinda offer may not be helpful.
As a cat 2 parents, you should learnt how competitive for a place in ESF primary in this forum.
For DC, ESF kinda still have the chance for 1st round interview;
RC seems to interview all applicants this year but they may not grant interview for every applicants 2 years later if more and more applicants are there. Then, status of a ESF kinda student will be very helpful.

kcpapa

I am a Cat 2 parent and my daughter is studying in ESF KG.  At the day when we applied ESF KG, we were told that almost 99% of the KG students can go into the primary school of ESF.  Unfortunately, after almost 2 years, what we were told is just the opposite.  The chance to go into ESF Primary will be very slim and should not have too optimistic expectation.  We are quite shocked!!  

We have applied RC, of course CWB and other IS.  After 3 months of worrying, everything is over and we have been admitted by RC, and other IS.  Recently, we were informed to attend interview in SJS instead of CWB.   

In fact during this hard time, the school teachers have tried their best to communicate with RC and other ESF Primary school, we can see there is a priority of ESF KG student.  

I do not know how severe would be in coming year, but the trend we can see would be ESF KG student should have a priority in ESF Primary (Including DC and RC).  If the competition is becoming more knee, the chance of Non-ESF KG Cat 2 students to go in ESF primary should be getting more slim.

popolung

原帖由 kcpapa 於 09-3-14 23:29 發表
I am a Cat 2 parent and my daughter is studying in ESF KG.  At the day when we applied ESF KG, we were told that almost 99% of the KG students can go into the primary school of ESF.  Unfortunately, af ...

Good luck to your kid's SJS interview. Though I know it may be far away, SJS is a very good school. and Shatin College is one of the best secondary school in ESF too.

Also if your kid want to come back to study in CWBS, take the SJS first and then wait till the 2009 term begin, miracle will happen. At least you have a seat in ESF school already by then.

cchan0311

Hi

I live in The Waterfront (Kowloon Station) and should apply Kowloon Junior School according to the catchment zone.  I found from the KJS website that there are 150 places in year 1, can anyone advise whether competition to P1 is keen in this school?

popolung

原帖由 cchan0311 於 09-3-18 14:38 發表
Hi

I live in The Waterfront (Kowloon Station) and should apply Kowloon Junior School according to the catchment zone.  I found from the KJS website that there are 150 places in year 1, can anyone adv ...

very, very competitive. Questions:

1. Are you Cat 1 or Cat 2?

2. Do your kid in ESF Kinder or other?

cchan0311

原帖由 popolung 於 09-3-18 14:46 發表


very, very competitive. Questions:

1. Are you Cat 1 or Cat 2?

2. Do your kid in ESF Kinder or other?

My son now is in ESF TY K1 and should be in Cat 2 although we hold canadian passport.

avalyl

What is the different between Cat 1 and Cat 2?  

原帖由 cchan0311 於 09-3-18 15:22 發表


My son now is in ESF TY K1 and should be in Cat 2 although we hold canadian passport.

Onsen

Did you talk to your ESF Kg teacher about RC?  I heard that all children at YMCA International who applied to RC got admitted this year, a 100% success rate.  That would be unfair to ESF kindergarten's applicants if they are in the equal footing.  Approach RC again, if you already did, and asked them why?

原帖由 King'sMom 於 09-3-12 12:26 發表
Have chat with my child's class teacher today and she says my child is at the bottom of the waitlist. She has also mentioned that one of their students with 2 years at SW Kinder is also on the waitlis ...

hkufrankie

Cat 1: Native English Speaker (children can't speak in Chinese)
Cat 2: Fluent Eng speaker who can also speak Chinese.]原帖由 avalyl 於 09-3-18 15:58 發表
What is the different between Cat 1 and Cat 2?  



[/quote]

popolung

原帖由 hkufrankie 於 09-3-18 18:51 發表
Cat 1: Native English Speaker (children can't speak in Chinese)
Cat 2: Fluent Eng speaker who can also speak Chinese.]原帖由 avalyl 於 09-3-18 15:58 發表 http://forum.edu-kingdom.com/images/common/bac ...

sound like we need to put a FAQ here for the Cat 1 / 2 thing:

http://www.esf.edu.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=1039&langNo=1

Admissions criteria

Places will be offered to successful applicants subject to availability.

Only one application may be submitted per student.
Students can only apply to the school in their zone (except Year One and Seven students applying during central applications).

Students must be able to cope with an English-medium curriculum. Please see language requirements

We prioritise applications by category (see below) and by date of application.

Applicants in category one will be invited for interview before those in category two, regardless of the date of application.

Category One

Children who speak English as a first or alternative language but do not speak Cantonese and/or read and write Chinese characters.

Category Two

Children who can access the local system but who also meet ESF's entrance requirements.

Within each category priority will be given to students who:

are siblings of children already attending an ESF school;
are attending an ESF Educational Services Ltd Kindergarten (for Year One only);
are former students returning from a period overseas;
have a parent who is a full-time employee of ESF;
are the children of former ESF students.

[ 本帖最後由 popolung 於 09-3-18 21:15 編輯 ]

sillybabyq

If my son is chinese but he can speak English only, Will he classify as Cat 1?

popolung

原帖由 sillybabyq 於 09-3-19 01:03 發表
If my son is chinese but he can speak English only, Will he classify as Cat 1?

Does he has an overseas passport? Can he speak Cantonese?

With oversea passport can prove your kid to be Cat 1, but if he can speak Cantonese then most likely will be put into Cat 2.

kcpapa

I know a Cat 1 student in Abacus who is holding CHINESE passport, but he can only speak English and Mandarin.  The key point is whether the kid can speak Cantonese, but not the nationality.  ESF supposed kids can speak Cantonese are able to fit into local stream, so they are not necessarily having IS education, then no pirority will be given.  About 2 years ago when we applied ESF KG, in fact, there was Cat 3 who are not Local Chinese nor Native English Speakers as Japanese, Korean....  But Cat 3 has been cancelled and Kids in Cat 3 will be regarded as Cat 1.  Admission will be give if the English level can satify the ESF requirement.

Be smart in filling the form.  Some foreign passport "local HKG" holder speak only English.  So Cat 1.

popolung

原帖由 kcpapa 於 09-3-19 13:29 發表
Be smart in filling the form.  Some foreign passport "local HKG" holder speak only English.  So Cat 1.

Well, you can do that. But there are some ESF schools I heard that will try to test Cat 1 students if they can speak Cantonese. If yes, failed. So take your own risk if you do that. Of course somehow it is very hard this year to "be honest"!

Also, if we start to tell lies in the form since they are only 4, what are we supposed to do in the future? What if our kid tell lies to us?