Any comments about ISF?

hkparent

原帖由 WKDRB 於 14-01-22 發表
你看不出有大問題，但我朋友的孩子在ISF讀得不錯，卻努力轉校，用腳來表示不滿。我朋友不是很奄尖的人，但 ...

But ISF's average IB score is improving year by year.

From the sharing of different parents, CKY and ISF look similar and one of the common problems is students find it not easy to change to either a LS or an IS. Because they don't follow a particular curriculum, they are unique. That's a dilemma.

HKTHK

回覆 WKDRB 的帖子

Of course there are issues in the Secondary School.  I already said it is a work in progress, i.e. it is not ready yet.  Given your history here, your 動機 is highly suspect.  You have zero credibility.

poonseelai

hkparent 發表於 14-1-22 23:07
But ISF's average IB score is improving year by year.

From the sharing of different parents, CKY an ...

CKY secondary students take GSCE whereas ISF is IB MYP.  These are not unique.

caa

HKTHK 發表於 14-1-22 23:12
回覆 WKDRB 的帖子

Of course there are issues in the Secondary School.  I already said it is a work  ...

What issues do you think secondary has? About curriculum or teachers?

HKTHK

回覆 caa 的帖子

In the old days, both.  The curriculum is supposed to take kids from K3 to IB DP, with most taking Chinese A and English A.  That is a very difficult challenge and not something that has been done before.  Even today, not many schools make such an attempt with the exception of CKY and maybe VSA.  It takes time to build that whole curriculum up and the early classes basically became guinea pigs.  The school is only 10 years old this year and for the children who started in Grade 1 and are in secondary today, they basically joined a school with no history.  Not sure why anyone who joined a 2 year old school with no history would think it is not an experiment but they probably cannot analyze themselves out of a paper bag.  The school also went through a very tough period after the departure of its first principal.  Given all these historical problems, the early classes suffered.

The curriculum in secondary is still being worked on and I would imagine it would take more iterations to get the transition from primary to MYP to DP right.  The primary curriculum is robust now especially on the Chinese side.  The school also experiments with its curriculum, sometimes with several classes and sometimes for the whole grade for a year, and then settle on what works best and this takes time.  In primary, the next upgrade needed is in the English curriculum and a vice principal just joined to take that lead.

As for faculty, it is improving over time and we are happy with the teachers we have had so far but we may just be lucky.  There are parents who are very unhappy about teachers as well.  It is difficult to recruit IB qualified teachers since there is keen competition amongst schools in HK and also other IS abroad.  In the early days, ISF simply didn't have the clout to get good teachers.  Who wants to work for a new IB school with unproven curriculum and administration (the first principal has bilingual immersion but not IB DP background)?  The principals now, both head of school and secondary, are experienced IB DP educators.  These are the type of administrators that IB teachers want to work for.

AEteam

Thanks for all the comments.  I guess different people have different views and standards.  However, it is good to have diversified opinions.  My child is gifted.  He has obtained an offer from CDNIS and ISF, we are thinking if these schools are good for him or we should just let him go to the local stream and enter him in the lucky draw for St Joseph / Wah Yan.  We want our son to be good in both English and Chinese.  Given that he likes to read and learn new things, we think an academic school will be more suitable.  We are worried that the local schools might be too harsh on him and is not good for his development.  However, we are also worried that IS might not be good for him in terms of academic.  It's kind of a dilemma here.  we could not even make up our minds on local or international stream, let alone which school should we go to........Sigh, it is too difficult to make decision.

caa

回覆 HKTHK 的帖子

As you said secondary is still being built on, do you think existing students of secondary especially those at higher grades are still guinea pigs? And if English of primary school still needs improvements, are existing and esp upper primary students still also guinea pigs?

HKTHK

回覆 caa 的帖子

In higher grades, yes, I would say so.  In primary, there will always be fine tuning.  You will have to decide whether you like a school that experiments with its curriculum to make it better.

caa

HKTHK 發表於 14-1-23 10:22
回覆 caa 的帖子

In higher grades, yes, I would say so.  In primary, there will always be fine tunin ...

Wow what a comment! It would be quite disturbing to higher grade parents (if I were them) as lower grade parents kind of 劃清界線. I wonder if this is really one "whole" school. From public information, existing principal and secondary head joined more than 3 or 4 years ago, which is not really a short time. Do you have any insights as to why the school focuses on improving lower grades' curriculum but not higher grades'?

HKTHK

回覆 caa 的帖子

You seem to think there is something wrong with being guinea pigs.  I don't see things that way and pretty sure this does not come as a surprise to senior secondary parents.  If you are working in a start-up, do you expect things to run perfectly?  This is the reason why the school has considerably more teachers than justified in senior secondary given the size of their graduating class

cowmoon

回覆 AEteam 的帖子

You may consider to take the ISF offer and still take the lucky draw for local schools next year. Some students do switch to local stream in grade 1. ISF provides a very good Mandarin curriculum in foundation year.

cowmoon

HKTHK 發表於 14-1-23 01:26
回覆 caa 的帖子

In the old days, both.  The curriculum is supposed to take kids from K3 to IB DP, w ...

Continuous review and fine-tuning of curriculum are very normal in all international schools. If the schools have set up dedicated positions for "Head of Curriculum" for different subjects, people are expecting improvement in curriculum year over year, right?

But the changes are continuous and must  align with the  students' readiness. A good school is one that looks into the learning needs for students and provide differentiated instructions.

caa

回覆 HKTHK 的帖子

You are kind of contradicting while you commented "Not sure why anyone who joined a 2 year old school with no history would think it is not an experiment......the earlier classes suffered." and then went on to saying "You seem to think there is something wrong with being guinea pigs.  I don't see things that way".

Maybe I am wrong, but I just think why must a new school be destined to struggle or fail to deliver its vision and mission at startup? Actually IB is not a new thing in the world or even in HK . In addition, aren't there plenty of research studies etc. on teaching if one looks around with a global perspective? Why would a school open its door to accept students (who only live once) if it has not yet been well prepared and is still "experiencing"? I believe the school has never made any represention to any parents (including those in higher grades) that it is an "experiment". I guess given it short history, parents of higher grades put their kids in ISF based on its stated vision and mission. If it fails to deliver its stated vision and mission, then parents surely should be entitled to be "surprised".

shadeslayer

However, we are also worried that IS might not be good for him in terms of academic.

Xxxxc

Why do you think that way?  If you look at top IS, their university placements have been very good. Do you think they all got in without a solid academic foundation?  What do they got into Ivy and Oxbridge with?

HKTHK

回覆 caa 的帖子

Those statements are not contradictory.  You are mixing up the then and now.  

A school should only open its door when perfect?  Start-ups should only start service when perfect?  I don't know what world you live in.  But I would love to know which school is perfect in HK or the world.

annie40

回覆 WKDRB 的帖子

每间学校总有人读得非常挟意, 有人非常痛苦, 我的那间开学五个月, 同级已有第三位孩子因吸毒而被劝退了, 而我却依然是位满足的家长, 只是等离校的孩子和父母担心,邻居男孩子是同校师兄, PG是45, 如无意外, 今年入中大医科. 令郎念的那间, 也有老是数落学校的家长们, 我是左耳入, 右耳出算了.  不当一回事!

你朋友是很合理的家长, 人以群分, 我是真心相信你的评价的.

从来是很大路的人, 看事情只看大纲领方向,  看管理层, 看学生态度, 看图书馆, 其他家长的各类回响, 难免会带点个人化的sentimental.可以留意, 存档来参考, 却时刻警惕不能以偏盖全.

ISF 是一间对学习中文很有前瞻性的学校, 难免被怀疑英文水平, 而这类怀疑是十分合理的. 因此他的总IB 分有可能被英语水平拖低也正常. 如果有天ISF 的IB 平均分比CIS 高, 而billigual diploma (english A + chiense A) , 又高于60% 以上, 便是教育圈的重大成就, 其他学校应于向之取经了..

念ISF 家长所求的, 中文是重大部分, 未必全然跟ESF, GSIS, CIS 的教育课程的期盼相等. 因此用ESF或主流IS 的脑袋来评估ISF 而发现不少: 人有我无, 人无我有的差异条件, 亦是很合理!

annie40

WKDRB  我的分析力這裡有誰能及，有何supporting evidence來質疑我的credibility!  發表於 昨天 23:28
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算你全部的是高见, 也请接纳我的低见.

有家长喜欢孩子的英语超超班, 中文写少少就得勒.
有家长喜欢孩子的中文有文学修养, 英文能沟通便好
有家长中英两边要极好,是真的学贯中西
有家长两者不要, 只想孩子懂得'发达之道'

孩子快乐, 父母安乐, 没有必要的方程式!!!

HKTHK

"我的分析力這裡有誰能及，有何supporting evidence來質疑我的credibility"

Just as mentally disturbed as before.