victoria shanghai academy

MPSVIC

I really appreciate for your suggestion.  I am not a student, rather, I am a parent.  VSA was good in the past.  But not since it started with the new site.  To be very honest, from what I heard from my kid and his/her peers, everything is degrading.  There was millions of deficit the school is suffering but the hike of school fee mainly is for the increase of staff salary which is over 40%.  This is nuts.

原帖由 poonseelai 於 11-9-7 16:20 發表


I see, you are a VSA parent.  Two challenging years are ahead of you and your child.  I wish your kid good luck with the DP and the exam.

Seems your main concern is with the math subject.  Perhaps  ...

slamai

I'm not sure what kind of deficit you refer to though there was a significant capital expenditure in respect of the new sports hall during the past year on top of VSA's normal operating expenses. If you mention the deterioration of teaching (which I don't consider to be categorical) since moving to the new campus, it should rather be due to the increasing number of IB schools in Hong Kong during these recent years which has drawn experienced IB teachers from VSA to other IB and/or international schools, bearing in mind that VSA is the first through-train (PYP, MYP and DP) IB world school in Hong Kong. I understand that the remuneration of VSA academic staff is not as good as some other IB/international schools and, in order to retain those valuable human resources, VSA has chosen to drastically increase its tuition fees. The unpopular maths teacher you mentioned in an earlier post probably reflects the current situation that VSA has to retain some teaching staff even though their performance may not be very satisfactory from the students' and parents' perspectives.  Anyhow, every school has good and bad teachers (even in schools recruiting top students). Its sometimes a matter of luck whether our kids have good teachers in the new school year.  As a DP student, your kid should be more independent and also seek the help of his/her classmates who may be academically more capable. As the DP examination is an external one, students should work together, e.g. sharing notes, exam papers, study guides, etc. in their preparation rather than just study on their own individually. Nevertheless, given that VSA's DP students have MYP experience, they have an advantage over those DP students taking IGCSE at the end of their year 11, say in ESF schools. I hope the above is of assistance.

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-8 11:15 發表
I really appreciate for your suggestion.  I am not a student, rather, I am a parent.  VSA was good in the past.  But not since it started with the new site.  To be very honest, from what I heard from  ...

MPSVIC

Sounds like you are working at VSA to me.  About the deficit, I believe it is the overall deficit and I am not sure what Khoong was referring when she stated on he letter to parents requesting for school fee increment.  It is not an IS and we should not compare it with other IS or under such catagory.  Teaching quality is one issue, how management deals with it is another.  I am very disappointed as no one there seems to care much at all about students' development.  My kid is rather independent on his group study and project.  What you say has been done by him.  But when u think a teacher should carry out a proper role in teaching while he is not, I dun think u will be happy about it.  When students try to sort help from him, he does pay much attention on the problem or his problems at all.  We have a very clear picture about what's going on inside and what I speak out here is a solid fact.  How can u ask a class to sit for a test when teacher only finishes the first 2 pages of the chapter and expects everyone understands?  Is that really a matter of being independent or the teacher is being lazy?  School work is tremendous, and can u believe a kid at VSA needs to work till 11 from 430 every day and almost whole day during weekends?  If this only happens to my kid, I will worry abt his competency.  But this actually happens to every other one, what is it?  One of a student's parent actually meets the principal and discuss about this and the consequence is a promise from the principal that he will not expect student to spend over 2hours each day on homework but do u think it is implemented?  Let me tell you this student is a top one in the grade.  There is a lousy management who really doesn't know how to develop the school in terms of budgeting, quality of teachers, student developements, etc.  Y kids need to work so late every day?  Y it spends so much, as I said over 40%, on salary increment when there is such a deficit?  I dun think I /u will get any satisfactory answers at all.  Over 50% DP students' parents oppose such hike who consider unacceptable.  From students' point of view, a lot of complaints go around and there is no way out for them.  It is such a 'gift' from the so called management.  By the way, do u wanna know what comments those teachers who left school this year made?  I think u can figure it out by now.

原帖由 slamai 於 11-9-9 09:46 發表
I'm not sure what kind of deficit you refer to though there was a significant capital expenditure in respect of the new sports hall during the past year on top of VSA's normal operating expenses. If y ...

poonseelai

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-9 23:29 發表
Sounds like you are working at VSA to me.  About the deficit, I believe it is the overall deficit and I am not sure what Khoong was referring when she stated on he letter to parents requesting for sch ...

Does anyone have information about workload of other schools running DP in HK? Are DP students generally expected to spend long hours doing homework everyday or is VSA's workload unreasonably high?  

The son of my friend who studied all the way from playgroup to DP in Victoria attended the DP exam this May.  My friend said it was really hard work in those 2 years, and when her son got the result he thought it's worth it.

mattsmum

430 to 11.? This is a short period. Those working on igcse take even a longer periods. DP is never an easy course.

[ 本帖最後由 mattsmum 於 11-9-10 16:22 編輯 ]

MPSVIC

I think you are speaking outta theory.  I bet when u see how kids are working like, u will fire exactly the same as I do.  Ur kids are not taking the same school or working like that so that u think it is alright but there may be a day in the future u will perceive what it is like working that many hours per day for the whole year when ur kid experience it.  If you compare this issue with other traditional schools among the same grade in Hong Kong, u will find it is uncommon.  If you think this is a good way to train HK students, I wouldnt doubt there is no creativity amongs kids here as time is totally looted by some redudant school works.  I hope ur not a teacher.  U think I am protecting those kids?  U are wrong, and as a matter of fact, I want them to explore more outside school works, but there are only 24 hours a day.  I want the kids to work more apart from text.  Unfortunately, this is not the environment to provide.  Please remember too much workload for any kid will kill their imagination and the power of being creative.

原帖由 Annie123 於 11-9-10 08:13 發表
I guess it is not uncommon for students to work long hours, no matter what curriculum. Workload itself is one issue, time management is another thing that some students might find it a challenge.

mattsmum

What you say is absolutely right. Unfortunately, this is not the ibdp as I heard from other IS.
Conversation:
First year ibdp:
sept oct-  why i take ibdp? It is a lot of hard work

Christmas- it is getting better now, i know how to handle it, but it is a hard.

Summer- I really really hate ib, I will never take it if I knew.

Second year of ibdp- spring- I am getting used to it.

First year in university:
Sept- dear teacher, I am writing to you because I find out that ibdp had me a lot, I can even skip some courses in university. I love ib!

This is what I heard from an ib coordinator. Ib is never easy. It needs a lot of hard work.

Noted that 334 students also complaint about going back to school in this summer holiday.

[ 本帖最後由 mattsmum 於 11-9-11 11:26 編輯 ]

Radiomama

Agree no more! IBDP is not easy.  My colleague's son studies at LPC for the second year and he works extremely hard for the course and the coming exam.

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-10 15:36 發表
430 to 11.? This is a short period. Those working on igcse take even a longer periods. DP is never an easy course.

MPSVIC

Thanks for your info.  But I think it is the fake responsibility that management is trying to show parents and the way they spend after a huge deficit was disclosed.  Besides, it is the quality of those unreasonable teachers that really pisses me off!  Just like I am paying the price for Pennisula hotel buffet but it ends up I am eating something made in china!

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-11 03:24 發表
What you say is absolutely right. Unfortunately, this is not the ibdp as I heard from other IS.
Conversation:
First year ibdp:
sept oct-  why i take ibdp? It is a lot of hard work

Christmas- it is  ...

mattsmum

it is a terrible thing that there are teachers not good enough as teachers played such an important role in this last round of work.you have to figure out how to help the child to go through this tough time.

IBDP is difficult and expensive. Parents should know before they choose.

here are the data collected  over the years( name, fee per month, average score),

HK/China:

上海中学        10313        37
CxS        16400        36.6
CDxxS        12600        34.7
ExF         9710        34.3
Yx        13858        34
Dulwixh shanghai        22148        34(2009)
FxS        13100         33
KCxS        8200        33
VxA        12000        32.6
Rx        10290        32.6 (2010)

UK
Nxrth London Collegiate
17000        40
Sevenxaks 24400 39.30
Bedfxrd 19270        38.00
Malvxrn College        24400        35.30
King Willixm's  17,631        32.60

[ 本帖最後由 mattsmum 於 11-9-12 19:15 編輯 ]

slamai

A lot of homework from local schools can be considered to be redundant because of repetitiveness.  I don't think this is the case of VSA.

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-11 09:23 發表
I think you are speaking outta theory.  I bet when u see how kids are working like, u will fire exactly the same as I do.  Ur kids are not taking the same school or working like that so that u think i ...

slamai

Can't agree more.

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-10 15:36 發表
430 to 11.? This is a short period. Those working on igcse take even a longer periods. DP is never an easy course.

slamai

I'm a 2nd year DP parent!

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-9 23:29 發表
Sounds like you are working at VSA to me.  About the deficit, I believe it is the overall deficit and I am not sure what Khoong was referring when she stated on he letter to parents requesting for sch ...

MPSVIC

well, sounds like you dun seem to notice how much workload your kid has or he/she does not care about working on it at all.  I mean if you do, u should be able to notice how much time he/she needs to spend every day on his desk.  What you said about redundancy has been obsolete for those locals somehow.  I noticed it cos I have another kid studying at a prestigious school in Hong Kong and workload there is very reasonable and variety of activities are given to kids in order to let them learn and being creative at the same time.  Homework is never heavy which is what the school tries to do all the time, and kids there r so happy there!  Does VSA provide the same thing?  I honestly suggest you to pay more attention to your kid esp on his workload and health.  I understand u may be busy at work and that's probably y u miss a lot and can only tell me based on theory.  Good luck!

原帖由 slamai 於 11-9-14 09:03 發表
A lot of homework from local schools can be considered to be redundant because of repetitiveness.  I don't think this is the case of VSA.

MPSVIC

Agree no more.  But wat I am trying to emphazie is this school fee hike in this year, I mean over 40% increase of staff salary comes outta school fee increment.  Staff qualify has never been this worse.  Management is lousy and chaotic.  A lot of school works of students look productive but u can hardly find it is so.  Students do research works in these days basically from internet, and frankly it is a process of cut and paste.  Do students really learn much from this mode of learning?  Esp when they need to meet deadline of handing in assignments, do they care or know what they are doing?  I strongly doutbt it.  Dun u? The worst thing I heard is some teachers practically do not teach much and not very care if students understand or not.  Students came to him, but that will only worsen off. haha!   Terrible school!

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-11 03:24 發表
What you say is absolutely right. Unfortunately, this is not the ibdp as I heard from other IS.
Conversation:
First year ibdp:
sept oct-  why i take ibdp? It is a lot of hard work

Christmas- it is  ...

poonseelai

原帖由 MPSVIC 於 11-9-15 09:48 發表
Agree no more.  But wat I am trying to emphazie is this school fee hike in this year, I mean over 40% increase of staff salary comes outta school fee increment.  Staff qualify has never been this wors ...

MPSVIC

I note that you are unhappy about the school in a number of ways, you think it will be difficult for your kid to move to other schools after having spent such a long time at the school and you believe that management is not going to listen & improve.  So, what would be your next move, in particular, your kid is now in the last 2 years of secondary school preparing for entrance to universities?  I'm not sure whether your kid is aware of your unhappiness about the school, and if he/she does, will this affect his/her study in a negative way.  

There is a Chinese saying: 山不轉路轉,路不轉人轉,人不轉心轉.  In your opinion, is there any good thing that VSA can provide to your kid in the coming 2 years? Hope you will try to make best use of the good things to help your kid.

mattsmum

這幾年多了好多IB學校，人人都要請IB老師。如果我是老師會把頭放出去給人獵。通賬又高，港元還跟美元貶值不少，如何留著IB老師？

MPSVIC

To be very honest to you, it is not just my kid who feel helpless when it comes to issues like teaching quality, workload (but this year, so far at least, is not as worse as last year's cos the PP last year is very demanding to a point they all need to take care of ordinary schoolwork as well as making sure periodic deadlines of this particular project is met. ) Yes, there is no way out those kids as far as my kid told me.  Most of his classmates already left abroad.  Comments from them is 早走早著！This tells parents how disappointed students are at VSA.  My kid is very good at the grades but it is just not fair when he tries to learn, tries to grasp as much as he can, teachers are being lazy and irresponsible regardless the unreasonable increase of school fee for the years to come...... I appreciate for your concern and care, I do!  Have a good life.

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-15 14:27 發表
這幾年多了好多IB學校，人人都要請IB老師。如果我是老師會把頭放出去給人獵。通賬又高，港元還跟美元貶值不少，如何留著IB老師？

MPSVIC

Then y dun we increase salary of those IB teachers 1000% and make even equivalent to the one of university professor?  Does it sound fair to you?  To me, education quality is not something we measure in nominal value.  If your good, ur worthy the pay.  But if this essential requirement of being a teacher is not able to be accomplished, I suggest he/she should go.  This is a very simple example to you if u understand what I have been saying.  We pay this much but quality of teacher is way off from wat we expect after the increase of fee.  Let me ask u, if you go to buy a mercedes for $2mil, do u expect it runs like a fiat?  That's the point and I hope u see how serious it can affect kids' education in the long run rather than considering inflation which I have already taken into account.
/

原帖由 mattsmum 於 11-9-15 14:27 發表
這幾年多了好多IB學校，人人都要請IB老師。如果我是老師會把頭放出去給人獵。通賬又高，港元還跟美元貶值不少，如何留著IB老師？