RC Parents. Let's share.

kaplanmeier

Hello there,

I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me whether currently there are still some students from RC's and Pheonix's predecessor, namely the "Canadian Overseas International School" in RC? or they all graduated/left?  If there are still some, are they, on the average, of the same quality (academic as well as disciplinary) as those at the same age and studying at e.g. other ESF schools?

JennyL

原文章由 kaplanmeier 於 07-10-2 15:28 硐表
Hello there,

I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me whether currently there are still some students from RC's and Pheonix's predecessor, namely the "Canadian Overseas International School" in RC? or they all graduated/left?  If there are still some, are they, on the average, of the same quality (academic as well as disciplinary) as those at the same age and studying at e.g. other ESF schools?

Thanks for reminding me about Canadian Overseas IS. All I know is that it was closed down many years ago. Even Pheonix has been around for many years. I do not think I would ask around the campus which school a student was studying in that many years ago.

Did you mean that students at Canadian Overseas IS was poor in discipline and academically? Since you asked so specifically about this school but not other schools, do you have more information? Why don't you share what you know with us instead?

[ 本文章最後由 JennyL 於 07-10-2 21:26 編輯 ]

Fattymom

JennyL,

this is also the point I really concern about!!  I know that RC is a very good school; however, it's quite hard for me to overcome the feeling of cantonese speaking enviornment.  My kid is a pure chinese; however, he can speak english only. In his kinder, all children are used to speaking english.  I think this is not only matter of the language they use, but also the culture they tend to prefer AND may be the mentality of the parents.  My husband and also a RC parent notice that the kids in RC are not so active as other IS. (on the other hand, it means they don't play crazily). Please share.
*** I just want to share my feelings, and not to criticize any IS***

原文章由 JennyL 於 07-10-2 14:22 硐表


II know that there were quite a bunch of children who joined RC from local schools last year (ie 2006-2007). And it appears to me that those kids tend to hang out with kids with similar backgrounds (ie kids previously also from local schools). And then the rest of other Chinese children from other ISs, or Chinese children from other countries, ie the English speaking group, would hang out with English speaking kids. To be honest, the 2 groups would have quite different habits when we are talking about the language they speak. And they also have quite different interests: say different pop idols, different after school interests, et

kaplanmeier

原文章由 JennyL 於 07-10-2 21:18 硐表



Thanks for reminding me about Canadian Overseas IS. All I know is that it was closed down many years ago. Even Pheonix has been around for many years. I do not think I would ask around the campus w ...

Sorry if I misled you.  I particularly asked that school because, to the best of my knowledge, that Canadian one has been the only International School in Hong Kong that had closed and then somehow survived under another name.  I, however, could not find out any further information about that school, her culture, the academic achievement of her students, etc etera, not even a single good word or a single bad word.  

I was told that many years ago in Hong Kong quite a few international schools had been places for local school drop-outs, whenever their families could afford.  I perfectly understand that this is not the case now, but I could not tell whether that Canadian school was such a school or not.  I confessed that the doubt was not supported by any evidence, not even any word of mouth; it simply came from the fact that she had been "closed" unnaturally.

Thus, since Phoenix has inherited everything from that school,  and Renaissance inherits everything from Phoenix, I would like to know (1) whether such students all graduated/left, (2) if no, whether the number of such students is still significant, and (3) if yes, whether they are problematic students or they are normal students.

I understand that such questions may offend students/parents of that Canadian school but I just could not find a cleverer way to ask these silly questions.

Wingba

Hi everyone,

I put my girl in RC Yr. 1 this year hoping to give her a happy learning experience. Her kinder teacher said that she could do well in traditional school given the fact that she behaved well in class and was responsive and eager to take initiative. Yet we don't want to take part in the "lottery" and are tired of running around for DSS, and other enrollment iinterviews.

I do share with the concerns of other parents about how the kids behave and how they communicate with their peers at class, during lunch and recess. I remind my girl to speak in English in class because the teacher will not understand what they are talking about if they speak cantonese. My girl told me she did remind other classmates to speak in English but sometimes her classmates ignored her.

So I would plead for other RC Yr. 1 parents to remind your kids try  not to talk in cantonese at school as they have plenty of time to talk in cantonese after school.

I do agree when we put our kids in RC at an early stage they will be "modelled" more easily than an older kids and can mix with the foreign kids without any problem. My girl told me one of her group mate was a foreign kid and they seemed to have a good time together except the foreign kid might be a bit "crazy" when playing.

JennyL

原文章由 Fattymom 於 07-10-3 11:09 硐表
JennyL,

this is also the point I really concern about!!  I know that RC is a very good school; however, it's quite hard for me to overcome the feeling of cantonese speaking enviornment.  My kid is a  ...

Sorry for not replying earlier.
I hope I have not created unneccesary misunderstanding.
The Cantonese speaking group at RC is still very small. I do not have actual statistics but would share what I observe a bit later.

My initial intention was to share one interesting fact: some very local cantonese speaking children previously from local schools (and their parents) are quite unwilling to befriend with the english speaking children/parents (whether western or chinese). When I think about it now, I think this probably quite natural. Birds of feathers flock together. And I know this happens in other ISs too.

My elder child has recently done a statistical analysis of ethnicity (not nationality, and I am sure everyone knows the differences; and I need to stress such differences because of the significance) of students in his class as class work and he told me that around 50% are Chinese (which include Chinese people from HK, Taiwan, China, Canada, etc). For my younger child's class, I have not really counted but my observation would be that one third are non-chinese. Among the chinese children, more than half are english speaking (they are either from overseas or from other IS eg CWBS, HLYIS, JIS). One more interesting fact. I appears to me that the cantonese speaking girls (especially those in Years 3-6) tend be more unwilling to befriend with the english speaking kids. Boys, on the other hand, would very quickly mix with any boys: they care more whether they have playing buddies for basketball or soccer, etc. Now, this probably surprises many parents since most people think that girls are better in language. I think girls care more of their girls' talks of interests (and thus preferable choosing cantonese speaking friends). They probably prefer to discuss about Twins than Britney.

As an RC parent, I do not want to deny that there are cantonese speaking people. I know a lot of parents in ISs (whether RC or other ISs) tend to do so. Some people might think that by denying the cantonese speaking environment, it might in some way give people the impression that the IS is "better". It is noted that many parents are comparing the non-chinese population of different ISs. And IS parents are "tuning down" the actual chinese/cantonese population of the IS their children are in. I do not see how "fewer local chinese students" would lead to "a better school". But if you are really interested, RC does have quite high a percentage of non-Chinese when compared to many other ISs. Do not trust my words. Come see for yourself.

As a parent that have spent most of my life living in Hong Kong, I know the trend, culture and history of education in Hong Kong. It is just impossible to have nil cantonese speaking kids in any school at all. It is true that many ISs have rules at school saying that you are supposed to speak only English even after classes. Now, when you really think about it, would that be weird? If it really has to take a "rule" at school to ban Cantonese at school, would you still think the English environment is that "natural" or "voluntary"?

As far as I know, RC does not have such rule, explicitly. The students are supposed to speak English only in classrooms (now, this is a rule, I know) but outside the classroom, they are not banned from their own mother tongue (eg Cantonese, Japanese or others). But, with such lax language policy, I can still see that most asian children mainly speak English after class, so I think THAT is what we call a real natural language habit.

I have in the past read here on BK comments about the language environment of RC. More than a few times I have read that parents say they hear more Cantonese than English during their visits. I never bother to come forward to defend or clarify, but I have always wonder why the comments are so different from what I see.

Both of my children speak mainly English. I think the language issue is not a problem for us because, to be honest, the "English speaking population" is way huger than the "Canatonese speaking population". My children have no problem finding friends that can communicate well with them so they do not really need to tune to Cantonese in order to survive at school.

[ 本文章最後由 JennyL 於 07-10-5 10:22 編輯 ]

JennyL

原文章由 kaplanmeier 於 07-10-3 12:05 硐表

Sorry if I misled you.  I particularly asked that school because, to the best of my knowledge, that Canadian one has been the only International School in Hong Kong that had closed and then somehow  ...

You did not misled me.
In fact, I think I have misled you.
I really do not know anything about this Canadian Overseas IS. People come and go in ISs. Even with the present RC, only a very small minority were from Pheonix.
Taking care of 2 children is not easy. Recently, I do not even have time to come to BK more often to read about RC or other topics that I am interested and I think are useful.
To be honest I do not know much about Pheonix even. I do not think I need/care to know more about that Canadian Overseas International School which I think is totally unrelated to the present RC.

JennyL

[quote]
My husband and also a RC parent notice that the kids in RC are not so active as other IS. (on the other hand, it means they don't play crazily). Please share.
*** I just want to share my feelings, and not to criticize any IS***

You know, the other day, a friend complained to me that the 2 little boys (RC students) living next door are always playing very wildly downstairs at the park.
Very difficult to please everyone, right?
[/quote]


Really good to see that there are people who do not mind children playing "crazily" at school.
As a parent, I think the present order of RC is what I think very proper. I am taking the children to school everyday, and I find that while the school is really quite orderly, the children are playing happily in school.
They are definitely not "not active".  On the other hand, they are all very active. The school has many sports team, and plenty of space and support from the school regarding sports.
Primary children are always having fun outside the classrooms. Some smaller children love to quitely "practice" their hand-stand near the walls. Smaller children love playing tricycles at one part of the open areas. Girls would may be take a book outside and read; and some may simply be chatting with peers, discussing about "hot boys". Some children would play basketball in the morning or after school. Sometimes Peter Kenny or Max Muller would come and play with them. (It is actually quite common to see Peter Kenny in his own set of RC PE uniform way pass school hours, sometimes as late as 5pm plus.)  The school does not ask the students to leave school completely until 6pm. Many secondary students stay for basketball or volleyball games after school, and I think this is very important for those older students.
I would say the school is quite what I want. As a student, I used to love those "food fight" in the cafeteria back in the US; but as a parent, I would not complain if there is none at RC.

[ 本文章最後由 JennyL 於 07-10-5 11:09 編輯 ]

Saturn

JennyL, Annie123 & myself are the parents who don't feel worried about the language issue in RC.  In fact, the majority of the existing RC parents don't care about their kids speaking Cantonese outside classrooms.  Too bad they don't visit BK's website to express their view.

I can understand many new RC parents or outsiders, particularly whose kids are Cantonese speaking ones, worry very much if their kids can benefit from the English environment in an IS.  I can still remember when my kid was in Y1, many parents complained about hearing many kids speaking Cantonese at the playground in Phoenix.  But as time passed, I don't hear these complaints anymore because these parents found their kids gradually immerse into the Eng. environment & be able to switch their spoken lang. freely  (Eng. & Cantonese) when talking to different people.  As a matter of fact, it is likely to be harder for older kids to adopt into the Eng. environment than younger ones when they switch from a local school to IS.  It is also the matter concerning the kid's choice of their preferred lang. & peer groups.  I hope the new parents of RC can give more time to their kids as they need time to adopt into a new environment.  It's unnecessry to urge the kids to speaking Eng. all the time at school in an instant, especially those who speak ONLY Cantonese at home.  It is unfair to blame entirely on the community in RC. The language environment at home cannot be ignored too.      

Saturn.

原文章由 JennyL 於 07-10-5 10:07 硐表

You know, the other day, a friend complained to me that the 2 little boys (RC students) living next door are always playing very wildly downstairs at the park.
Very difficult to please everyone, righ ...

Saturn

JennyL, Annie123 & myself are the parents who don't feel worried about the language issue in RC.  In fact, the majority of the existing RC parents don't care about their kids speaking Cantonese outside classrooms.  Too bad they don't visit BK's website to express their view.

I can understand many new RC parents or outsiders, particularly whose kids are Cantonese speaking ones, worry very much if their kids can benefit from the English environment in an IS.  I can still remember when my kid was in Y1, many parents complained about hearing many kids speaking Cantonese at the playground in Phoenix.  But as time passed, I don't hear these complaints anymore because these parents found their kids gradually immerse into the Eng. environment & be able to switch their spoken lang. freely  (Eng. & Cantonese) when talking to different people.  As a matter of fact, it is likely to be harder for older kids to adapt to the Eng. environment than younger ones when they switch from a local school to IS.  It is also the matter concerning the kid's choice of their preferred lang. & peer groups.  I hope the new parents of RC can give more time to their kids as they need time to adapt into a new environment.  It's unnecessry to urge the kids to speaking Eng. all the time at school in an instant, especially those who speak ONLY Cantonese at home.  It is unfair to blame entirely on the community in RC. The language environment at home cannot be ignored too.      

Saturn.

原文章由 JennyL 於 07-10-5 10:07 硐表

You know, the other day, a friend complained to me that the 2 little boys (RC students) living next door are always playing very wildly downstairs at the park.
Very difficult to please everyone, righ ...

[ 本文章最後由 Saturn 於 07-10-5 14:55 編輯 ]

hjm

原文章由 Saturn 於 07-10-5 14:31 硐表
JennyL, Annie123 & myself are the parents who don't feel worried about the language issue in RC.  In fact, the majority of the existing RC parents don't care about their kids speaking Cantonese outsid ...

And from a new parent at Yr 7, my son has told me they also have about 1/3 of foreign kids.  There are a few who do prefer Cantonese as they come from local P5 and might not have been using English on a daily basis other than being quite good in the English Subject.  I think given time, they will get used to this and probably the hypothesis of boys don't care too much the "language" part as long as they play along so even my son has a few buddies and group buddy which are non-Chinese.

WYmom

Dear RC parents,

I heard that RC Y.1 kids are learning standard Chinese, do they need to learn simplified Chinese as well?  Or when will they start learning simplified Chinese?

Do you find their Y.1 Chinese standard good enough?  Do they need extra after school Chinese classes ?  Thanks for your advice.

[ 本文章最後由 WYmom 於 07-10-12 09:43 編輯 ]

JennyL

原文章由 WYmom 於 07-10-12 09:39 硐表
Dear RC parents,

I heard that RC Y.1 kids are learning standard Chinese, do they need to learn simplified Chinese as well?  Or when will they start learning simplified Chinese?

Do you find their Y.1 ...

WYmom,
Glad you are back here safe and sound.
I do not know much about Year 1.
For other year groups, Chinese classes are roughly divided into 3 classes. I can say roughly there are 1/3 that totally do not speak or read any chinese and they are put in the CFL (Chinese as foreign language) class. For some year groups where there are more of these CFL students, the group might be divided into 2 separate classes/levels. These students are learning chinese with English as language of instructions. They are (I think) learning simplified chinese.
Then the rest of the 2/3 are learning chinese as native language (CNL classes). CNL are divided into 2 classes. The "upper" class, namely CNL A (or CNL 1) are mostly students transfering here from local schools or other international schools that have strong chinese language skills.
Another "lower" class, namely CNL B (or CNL 2), is mainly for students that have some chinese knowledge, ie those that know how to speak, read and write but at a much more lower level. They are students from other international schools, chinese students coming from western countries who have had some chinese classes back there, and some non-chinese students who have some chinese knowledge. Both CNL classes are learning traditional chinese and are using local school texbook.
Heard from the chinese teachers that there are still a lot of different comments and views from parents whether traditional or simplified chinese should used. But according to the teachers, they are probably going to stick to the present arrangement since they do not think there would be a way to please everyone anyway.
I have not anything about switching or introducing simplified chinese in CNL classes in the more senior levels in secondary school since I do not know any one at that level.
Whether you think the chinese standard is good, is totally up to your expectation. What I heard from many other parents is that, some think the chinese is just right (like me), some think its too easy and some think its too hard. If you are expecting similar chinese skills as in a local school, I think it might be too unrealistic.  Personally, I think the chinese at RC is just what I want: I want to keep a bit of chinese in the cirriculum but do not want to put too much time on it since I want my children stick to using English.
Since RC is a new school, I think eventually things will be quite different for those who join RC from the very beginning , ie at Year 1. Now the chinese level is very diversified since many students were transferred to RC from very different schools. Those from local schools and those from other international schools obviously have very different skill levels. But eventually, most students would be entering the school at Year 1 (and Year 7) and students would go all the way up together with the school so the chinese abilities should be basically more alike.

WYmom

原文章由 JennyL 於 07-10-12 11:09 發表


WYmom,
Glad you are back here safe and sound.
I do not know much about Year 1.
For other year groups, Chinese classes are roughly divided into 3 classes. I can say roughly there are 1/3 that to ...

JennyL,

Thanks a lot for your detail info.  I know that the current Chinese teaching approach in RC is good, just wonder if it is applying the same to Y1 students.  In future, IBD Chinese paper has to be written in simplified Chinese, so I guess RC students have to learn simplified Chinese as well.

JennyL

原文章由 WYmom 於 07-10-12 13:50 發表


JennyL,

Thanks a lot for your detail info.  I know that the current Chinese teaching approach in RC is good, just wonder if it is applying the same to Y1 students.  In future, IBD Chinese paper has ...

I do not know anything about IBD Chinese. Is that information available on the IBO website?

There should be a few Y1 parents around here. Hope they can help you.

WYmom

原文章由 Kareese 於 07-10-12 20:41 硐表
WYmom,

It is not true that IBD Chinese paper has to be written in simplifed form. In fact, both simplified and traditional are allowed, and  even a mix of both !

Thanks, Kareese.  Is it still valid in future? Then do RC students need to learn both type of Chinese writing?  Or will they use either standard or simplified Chinese all along from Y1 to Y13?

In fact, RC is the only school under ESF which uses standard Chinese.  Even another private school DC teaches simplified Chinese only.  Students in all ESF schools are required to write simplified Chinese.  However, in HK, kids still need to learn standard Chinese, so causing confusion to them.

Wingba

My kid just started her Yr. 1 in RC in Aug. She told me that there were 3 Chinese teachers and her classmates are divided into 3 groups.

She is using traditional Chinese and that's why I chose RC. I'm happy with the present situation but would like the level can be raised a bit as she already knew how to write a number of Chinese words during her K2 but now she is just writing some strokes of the words.

Yet she speaks more Putonghua than before as there is one Chinese lesson everyday.