ISF offer

HKTHK

We shall see. Much will depends on the details and how it is implemented. But certainly heading down the right path

momo_cheung

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hong0706

HKTHK 發表於 15-3-26 14:05
回覆 hong0706 的帖子

1) Pretty much yes but I won't say for all especially Mandarin speaking famili ...

Thanks, we are a local hong kong family with kid now in an english speaking kinder. Do you think with that background he could attain a near native standard of english in ISF.

Also, i heard from friends that homework is heavy, mainly due to the chinese component (one subject taught in both languages), What do you think?

Choyonyi

One hour per day for Grade 1 excluding home reading.

15-3-26 19:38 上傳

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kfy

hong0706 發表於 15-3-26 18:07
Thanks, we are a local hong kong family with kid now in an english speaking kinder. Do you think wit ...

我們也是本地家庭。如 HKTHK 說，fluency of spoken English 是可以達到，而我（或者其他孩子比較大的家長）關心的，相信不再是 spoken English 的 fluency or accent，而是 reading and writing. 正如孩子講廣東話和普通話皆流利，不等於中文成績好。

ISF 要求學生的中文達到本地學校水準，以功課量計，小學三年級每星期的中文功課非常 regular：一次抄詞語，一次抄段落，weekend 寫一篇周記／文章，一次默書（就是默抄了的詞語和段落），和 local school 相比，這已是 minimal 了。中文是難學的，如果中文對你來說不太重要，只要求識講，就不要讓孩子辛苦去學了，讀其他 IS 會更好，可放多了時間在英文上，也輕鬆一點。

fatcni

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So may I know the way teachers teach are more rigid or give room for students to think and understand? The reason I sent my child to IS is because I like the understanding and discussions in class so that students are exposed to critical thinking and presentable. I wonder if ISF teachers teach like local school or like IS?!

fatcni

And just want to clarify, what's the difference between ISF and IS?!

HKTHK

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Cross between IS and LS

Birkin

ISF has been granted accreditation by the Council of International Schools since 2014, so it is officially an international school. It is only not classified as such according to the HK government's requirements.

wywy0b0j

回覆 fatcni 的帖子

I think the school really encourage kids to read and explore by themselves. Even at Foundation year, kids are doing research by themselves (guided by teachers) and writing little books about the animals/insects that they like. I was amazed about how much my son know about cheetah, and he learnt those from the books in he read in the classroom (there is a little library in the classrooms) and other books he borrowed from the school library. So he drew a picture of the cheetah, wrote down the facts in Pinyin and Chinese charaters, which was pretty impressive in my view.

My son is a native Chinese speaker, so he only spends 5-10mins on the reading homework. But for those pure non-Chinese families, I can see Chinese being a big challenge.

Chanccg

In my view, it is not a good school as it becomes too commercial. It is very result orientated. It doesn't care about yr child that much unless they are top student.
For example, last year only 2 students from each class got the chance to get their graduation certificate during the so called graduation ceremony, the others hv to sit there, what is the logic of it.
In addition, I heard from other parent that their children got head injured during recess and school just called parent to collect their child. Finally the child had to stay in hospital for a week and had to rest for a month. The worst was that not a single call from schoo to check on their child.
That would be my comment on ISF

minimini

原帖由 Chanccg 於 15-05-03 發表
In my view, it is not a good school as it becomes too commercial. It is very result orientated. It d ...

Can other existing parents share what do think about ISF?

Atticus

原帖由 Chanccg 於 15-05-03 發表
In my view, it is not a good school as it becomes too commercial. It is very result orientated. It d ...

We have the same feeling - the school is very results-oriented and seems to put its own interests ahead of their students'. It's all about what benefits you and your kids can bring the school, either in terms of real money or whether you/your kids can help the school to build its reputation to become a first-tier international school in HK. They talk about the 8 virtues + one (八智一德) all the time but I honestly wish they would talk less and do more to show the parents and the students that they really do mean it.

Woojba

Would welcome more comments good and bad, so far the volatility in comments about the school is the highest we've seen, thanks

gthchau

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Hi Factcni

Could you share more about YCIS? I am a mom of a 1 year old kids and I wanna to send him to YCIS. I thought it was good after going to the "breifing section", as it focus on freedom and character buidling. The teacher said "leave the academic to the school, and we parents can enjoy the playtime with the kids". It seems that the students there got a pretty good result in IB exam, right ?

Please kindly share your view to me, anything about that schools, as I am looking for a school where my kids can stay till graduate. Thanks a lot.

mikimoto12

Atticus 發表於 15-5-3 20:48
We have the same feeling - the school is very results-oriented and seems to put its own interests ah ...

This is exactly my feeling about ISF. ISF's values and culture are very problematic. It instills in children wrong values that do not prepare them well for the modern society.  In addition, while ISF teaches significantly more Chinese than other international schools, its students still do not achieve native-level reading and writing proficiency in Chinese, and their English levels lag behind other international schools. Many parents choose to transfer their children out of ISF in the 4th or 5th grade to go to other real international schools so that their children can catch up in their English levels and get ready for university.  After that, whatever Chinese they may have learned in earlier years deteriorates anyway. All in all, it's not worth it.

Atticus

That is not exactly what I said and I definitely do not agree with your comments. Not sure where you got your ideas from but the majority of the ISF students that I have come across can speak close to native-speaking Mandarin and can read and write Chinese just like any other student from a typical local school in HK (in fact, I would say better as ISF students do not need to translate Cantonese into proper written Chinese when they write) and their English is of a very high standard, probably on par with an average student from other international schools. I don't have an issue with ISF's primary curriculum, I just don't really like their management style.

HKTHK

Always find comments on ISF fascinating to read especially by non-parents  

mikimoto12

Atticus 發表於 15-5-4 18:20
That is not exactly what I said and I definitely do not agree with your comments. Not sure where you ...

Sorry if you found my previous post not clear. I meant I share your feeling that the school is primarily focused on its own interests rather than the best interests of the students.

The comments regarding the curriculum were my own and not yours.  The ISF students I have come across are like what I previously described, and their parents have transferred them out.  This is not ISF's fault either--it's simply what eventually happens with a "bilingual" education.  

21Ckid

YCIS cannot get you anything close to english standard of most IS (unless you have substantial tuitions outside) as they encourage the use of cantonese as mother tongue. For this reason alone, i would rule this out.

ISF, to put it bluntly, primarily caters for the high performers and the rich. If you are neither, think twice. I think they are only one or two step short of kicking the low performers out of school, and in any event, these students may not have a good school life (just like some students in St. Pxxx Cxxxx).

But given the ample resources of the school and its focus on the high performers, if your kid is one, then he or she is much more likely to shine than in YCIS or most other schools.