ICS Parents

bakusensei

tommyzoe 寫道:
We can understand your concerns about selection of IS for kids. We also struggled for this matter until we made this decision with faith from Jesus Christ. We could still remember that we let our kid to submit a number of kindergarten application forms to various famous kindergartens which included those at Kowloon Tong area. Early this year, we got the results from various schools. Thanks God! Our kid was accepted by all schools we applied. Then we need to make a decision. We put this important decision in the pray. Our Lord gave us an answer that ICS is a good place for our kid. This decision was not easy to be made by ourselves because all those schools are also from Christianity background. When we looked back to this important decision and note our kid's development at the ICS, we are sure that this decision is definitely corrected. Our kid love the ICS very much. Even there were US Thanks Giving holidays last week, our kid waked up early in the morning and wanted to back to school. Our kid love this school very much. The teachers and staff there are so kind. They love every kid in the ICS very much. And one more thing is important that they will put needs of our kid in their pray then we can note some amazing developments in our kid!

Thanks God for blessing every kid at the ICS!



[quote]
DanParents 寫道:
Dear lenglengma

Thanks for your advice and detail input. This is really helpful. We knew the difference in curriculum between HLYIS and ICS. In fact, we prefer to send our son to the University in US eventually. Thus, we really prefer to put him in an American School. Originally, we target at GSIS and HKIS because of their good academic standard and good network with good Universities in US. However, we found that it is very tough to get in these International schools because they have pretty long waiting list and it seems to me that we will need certain connections in order to get a higher priority to get in. We are not holding foreign passport nor having corporate debenture. Thus, we don’t have any priority. We have thought of ICS before but our concern is the academic standard and connection with Universities in US. However, we later on found that ICS is in fact a good school. More importance, it has a very good Christian environment and this will definitely help our son to grow within the love of Jesus. Therefore, we are aiming at ICS now. However, our concern is whether our son can be admitted to grade 3 in the year 2007 – 2008.

We know what we have to pay if we only put our son in HLYIS for a short period of time. We also struggled if we should spend the money. Let me share our plan :

•        Currently, we need to place the deposit for HLYIS to secure the place and will ask for term start after Easter 2007. I hope that I don’t need to pay for the term tuition and the capital levy until late Feb., 2007. Then, I can wait to see if we have any chance to be confirmed by ICS before spending another fortune
•        If our son will be called by ICS for interview and admitted by Feb., 2007, we will give up HLYIS and choose ICS instead. Then, we will have our son remained in the current local school before switching over to ICS in Sept., 2009.
•        If our son will not be called by ICS for interview before I need to pay the term tuition and levy of the HLYIS. I may consider spending the money for HLYIS and letting him to stay there for the summer term. Then, wait for the call from ICS.

We are not sure if ICS will call our son for interview in early next year because ICS has not indicated any timing for calling for interview. I have heard that it will be around Jan/Feb and depend on the position on the waiting list. Do you have any information on this ? Will everyone applied will have a chance for interview in early next year ?  We are also not sure if our son will be admitted after interview because it is very difficult to predict and control his performance during interview. Thus, HLYIS is our backup plan to let our son start study in International School while waiting opportunity in entering into ICS. We are targeted to enter to ICS in year 2007 – 2008. If we cannot make it, we will try again next year and hope that our son will be there sooner or later. May be our faith in the Lord is not enough. We have worked our plan and done the best. I think it is time for us to take a rest and let the Lord to do his rest.

Thanks again for your valuable advice.

[/quote]

Sometimes, we forgot to pray for our kids' education and tended to choose the best school from our point of view. It's so good to have brothers and sisters keep reminding us to pray is the most important thing to do!

DanParents, I believe God has HIS plan on your kid, like HE has that on all other kids here. Don't worry. Keep praying! Do your best and God will do the rest :)

lenglengma

DanParents,
Yes, I think you should talk to ICS regarding whether or not to have the interview done earlier.  Please keep us posted on the outcome.
I am sorry that I don't have any grade 2 books / homeworks.  My son is in P1.

DanParents 寫道:
lenglengma,

Thanks for remembering our son in your prayer. This is the beauty of being in the bond of Jesus's love.

For my son, it is not so bad for him to stay in the current local school until next year although the school does give a lot of stress to the student and parents. However, our concern is that the longer he stays in local school the more difficult for him to switch to international school. In addition, we feel that the local school is seemed to suppress the creativity of our son instead of developing his potentials due to series of heavy homework, tests, examinations and raising the standard to test the extreme of the student and parents. Thus, we really want to help him to switch to international school to develop his creativity and potential. More important, we think he will be happier.

I just have some lights coming from mind. I wonder if I can request ICS to conduct an early interview. If my son can pass the interview, we can still wait until intake vacancy is available. I will call ICS to check it out.

By the way, do you have or will you be able to get a book list for ICS grade 2 class so that we can review the current standard and better prepare our son for the interview.

Again thanks for your advice and prayer.

lenglengma

bakusensei,
Couldn't agree more on what you said!

bakusensei 寫道:
[quote]
tommyzoe 寫道:
We can understand your concerns about selection of IS for kids. We also struggled for this matter until we made this decision with faith from Jesus Christ. We could still remember that we let our kid to submit a number of kindergarten application forms to various famous kindergartens which included those at Kowloon Tong area. Early this year, we got the results from various schools. Thanks God! Our kid was accepted by all schools we applied. Then we need to make a decision. We put this important decision in the pray. Our Lord gave us an answer that ICS is a good place for our kid. This decision was not easy to be made by ourselves because all those schools are also from Christianity background. When we looked back to this important decision and note our kid's development at the ICS, we are sure that this decision is definitely corrected. Our kid love the ICS very much. Even there were US Thanks Giving holidays last week, our kid waked up early in the morning and wanted to back to school. Our kid love this school very much. The teachers and staff there are so kind. They love every kid in the ICS very much. And one more thing is important that they will put needs of our kid in their pray then we can note some amazing developments in our kid!

Thanks God for blessing every kid at the ICS!



[quote]
DanParents 寫道:
Dear lenglengma

Thanks for your advice and detail input. This is really helpful. We knew the difference in curriculum between HLYIS and ICS. In fact, we prefer to send our son to the University in US eventually. Thus, we really prefer to put him in an American School. Originally, we target at GSIS and HKIS because of their good academic standard and good network with good Universities in US. However, we found that it is very tough to get in these International schools because they have pretty long waiting list and it seems to me that we will need certain connections in order to get a higher priority to get in. We are not holding foreign passport nor having corporate debenture. Thus, we don’t have any priority. We have thought of ICS before but our concern is the academic standard and connection with Universities in US. However, we later on found that ICS is in fact a good school. More importance, it has a very good Christian environment and this will definitely help our son to grow within the love of Jesus. Therefore, we are aiming at ICS now. However, our concern is whether our son can be admitted to grade 3 in the year 2007 – 2008.

We know what we have to pay if we only put our son in HLYIS for a short period of time. We also struggled if we should spend the money. Let me share our plan :

•        Currently, we need to place the deposit for HLYIS to secure the place and will ask for term start after Easter 2007. I hope that I don’t need to pay for the term tuition and the capital levy until late Feb., 2007. Then, I can wait to see if we have any chance to be confirmed by ICS before spending another fortune
•        If our son will be called by ICS for interview and admitted by Feb., 2007, we will give up HLYIS and choose ICS instead. Then, we will have our son remained in the current local school before switching over to ICS in Sept., 2009.
•        If our son will not be called by ICS for interview before I need to pay the term tuition and levy of the HLYIS. I may consider spending the money for HLYIS and letting him to stay there for the summer term. Then, wait for the call from ICS.

We are not sure if ICS will call our son for interview in early next year because ICS has not indicated any timing for calling for interview. I have heard that it will be around Jan/Feb and depend on the position on the waiting list. Do you have any information on this ? Will everyone applied will have a chance for interview in early next year ?  We are also not sure if our son will be admitted after interview because it is very difficult to predict and control his performance during interview. Thus, HLYIS is our backup plan to let our son start study in International School while waiting opportunity in entering into ICS. We are targeted to enter to ICS in year 2007 – 2008. If we cannot make it, we will try again next year and hope that our son will be there sooner or later. May be our faith in the Lord is not enough. We have worked our plan and done the best. I think it is time for us to take a rest and let the Lord to do his rest.

Thanks again for your valuable advice.

[/quote]

Sometimes, we forgot to pray for our kids' education and tended to choose the best school from our point of view. It's so good to have brothers and sisters keep reminding us to pray is the most important thing to do!

DanParents, I believe God has HIS plan on your kid, like HE has that on all other kids here. Don't worry. Keep praying! Do your best and God will do the rest :)[/quote]

tpoon

Hi, everybody,

I am the new joiner to this family.

tommyzoe

Welcome!

Which grade of class your kid study?

tpoon 寫道:
Hi, everybody,

I am the new joiner to this family.

spoonlam

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this chat room too.  I am a Christian and I really want my son to grow up in Christ too because my hubby is not a Christian, so sometimes i found it difficult to teach my son.  I've visited ICS' website and noticed that they only take BBs that are 3 yrs before school (R1) starts in Sept.  My son is a small b and was born in Oct.  Can he by anychance transfer to ICS after he reached the age of 3 in Oct? or does ICS not take any new students during the school year?

thx

tpoon

Hi, tommyzoe, my girl will attend R1 in Sep.  Nice to meet you.

tommyzoe

AmCham Journal March 2007
"ICS a World Leader in AP Studio Art"  

Pls. click the link below to have a look.

http://www.ics.edu.hk/event/inTheNews/200703AmChamJournal.pdf

Golf

Dear all,

My son was accepted in R2, pls advise my following worries:

1) I plan to shift back to Local School when he is 6 yrs old (financial reason).  That means he can continue to study in G1.....  Will he resist to leave ICS?  

2) Do any parents hear any successful case for shifting back to Local School?  

3) Why I plan to study in ICS, 1) I am Christian, I want my son have a better environment in hearing God's word 2) Better English Foundation...  Am I worth to change?  My son is now studying in famous Kindergarten in Kowloon Tong, but I feel 'commercial' and less and less ENT in the coming 2 years.....  What is your opinion?

Tks so much for your advice.

Golf

luluonthemoon

Hello Golf,

I am an ex-ICS parent as my child has recently moved out from ICS.
For your concerns, I do expect more of ICS parents to get back to you but I would like just to give you my two cents here.
For 1), when your boy reaches 6 years old, that is, he will have finished Pre-Grade 1 at ICS. Pre-Grade 1 is a full day session and part of an elementary section, not kidnergarten. If you wish your boy would move out, make sure you will notify the school at the appropriate time. But it is not difficult clerical-wise.

For 2), yes, I know a boy who moved to DBS after Pre-Grade 1 at ICS. But, in his case, his older brother had already been at DBS, and I am not sure if the brother had attended ICS for kindergarten before. So, this may not be a perfect example for you. However, there should be some students every year who move to local schools after PG1 as that is the critical line for primary education between int'l schools and local schools.

For 3), I do agree with you on the point that ICS can provide your child with a sound foundation of Christianity. I feel that ICS is one of the best schools for Christian families who wish their children the beauty of this religion. The children do spend a lot of time about it. Reading, listening to stories, singing, drawing and more. However, simply English.... there's a lot of room to be desired. If you just want your child to improve his English, you don't necessarily need to stick to this school. At ICS, even in R2, they have only learned to write alphabet letters, not words, and numbers up to 15 by spending half a year. They are slowly introduced phonics elements but not systematically at all. Solely in this regard, you can see some of the local schools are much more ahead. Besides, at ICS kindergarten, the majority is local Chinese children, so the way they speak English tends to be often sloppy. Add to that, one just happens to take an inch slipping the tongue in Cantonese and others take a mile even in a classroom, though it's not allowed. This phenomenon has been frequently observed and more noticeable for the last few years. This must be better fixed in Pre-Grade 1 onwards, I guess. In terms of teaching staff, most of them are very loving and caring with a whole passion of conveying the God's words. So, again, when your priority is on Christian education, some of these issues can be played down and you can come up with many other ways that help your son improve his English.

pyc

Hello! Everybody!

I'm new in this chat room too & found that we all facing with similar situation - my son is in R2 & we're thinking of whether to switch him out to 直資 schools like 培僑or 王錦輝 because of the financial reason. I am a Christian too & really want to stick with ICS but it's so pity that in HK we need to PAY for this kind of education.

Anyone knows the chance of getting financial aid and to what extent from school? Any level of household income has been set by the board for consideration?

Could anyone also give me some ideas about the extra activities offered by ICS in primary & secondary schools? Are those expensive? I need to plan ahead because we could only support my son's tuition fee & no additional money.

Please help   

pyc

tommyzoe

Hi luluonthemoon,

Does your kid study at DBS now?

luluonthemoon 寫道:
Hello Golf,

I am an ex-ICS parent as my child has recently moved out from ICS.
For your concerns, I do expect more of ICS parents to get back to you but I would like just to give you my two cents here.
For 1), when your boy reaches 6 years old, that is, he will have finished Pre-Grade 1 at ICS. Pre-Grade 1 is a full day session and part of an elementary section, not kidnergarten. If you wish your boy would move out, make sure you will notify the school at the appropriate time. But it is not difficult clerical-wise.

For 2), yes, I know a boy who moved to DBS after Pre-Grade 1 at ICS. But, in his case, his older brother had already been at DBS, and I am not sure if the brother had attended ICS for kindergarten before. So, this may not be a perfect example for you. However, there should be some students every year who move to local schools after PG1 as that is the critical line for primary education between int'l schools and local schools.

For 3), I do agree with you on the point that ICS can provide your child with a sound foundation of Christianity. I feel that ICS is one of the best schools for Christian families who wish their children the beauty of this religion. The children do spend a lot of time about it. Reading, listening to stories, singing, drawing and more. However, simply English.... there's a lot of room to be desired. If you just want your child to improve his English, you don't necessarily need to stick to this school. At ICS, even in R2, they have only learned to write alphabet letters, not words, and numbers up to 15 by spending half a year. They are slowly introduced phonics elements but not systematically at all. Solely in this regard, you can see some of the local schools are much more ahead. Besides, at ICS kindergarten, the majority is local Chinese children, so the way they speak English tends to be often sloppy. Add to that, one just happens to take an inch slipping the tongue in Cantonese and others take a mile even in a classroom, though it's not allowed. This phenomenon has been frequently observed and more noticeable for the last few years. This must be better fixed in Pre-Grade 1 onwards, I guess. In terms of teaching staff, most of them are very loving and caring with a whole passion of conveying the God's words. So, again, when your priority is on Christian education, some of these issues can be played down and you can come up with many other ways that help your son improve his English.

tommyzoe

Hi pyc,

If you have financial problem, do you try to apply for financial aids from ICS?

We really need HK$4,000,000 for each kid!!

pyc 寫道:
Hello! Everybody!

I'm new in this chat room too & found that we all facing with similar situation - my son is in R2 & we're thinking of whether to switch him out to 直資 schools like 培僑or 王錦輝 because of the financial reason. I am a Christian too & really want to stick with ICS but it's so pity that in HK we need to PAY for this kind of education.

Anyone knows the chance of getting financial aid and to what extent from school? Any level of household income has been set by the board for consideration?

Could anyone also give me some ideas about the extra activities offered by ICS in primary & secondary schools? Are those expensive? I need to plan ahead because we could only support my son's tuition fee & no additional money.

Please help   

pyc

pyc

Hello tommyzoe,

Yes, I want to try but just want to ask ICS parents knows anything about it. I want to know my chance to getting assistance from school and to what extent so that I could think of whether I could deal with the tuition fee (also have the preparation that it will increase yearly). I also want to know how much approximately a ICS P or S student needs to spend on extra activities.

I am the marginal type that is not too poor but if I could keep my child at ICS than I will.

Please kindly help If you have a clue   

pyc

luluonthemoon

tommyzoe,

No, I have only one daughter and she just moved to other international school almost a month ago.
The boy I mentioned earlier is my neighbor's son. The boys (his brother and himself) seem to enjoy the school a lot.

father_ho

Dear pyc,

Very funny statement "I am the marginal type that is not too poor but if I could keep my child at ICS than I will.".

Indeed, I did consider ICS before for my daughter. School fee is one of my concern, although it didn't bother me later, my daughter didn't switched out since I weighted PTH and Chinese culture study a bit more when I once touch through mainland cities. I would say ICS is a good school but seems not suitable for my kid at the moment.
For your concern on finanical assistance, please be careful. I trust the school will not bias on those students but how about their peer group and the character of your kid. Can she or he can withstand/realise those feeling?

pyc

Thanks father_ho!

It is that "marginal" sitution makes me really hard to choose. If I know I could not afford than I must let my son quit ICS, right.

If I keep him there than I must rearrange my financial plan very carefully and this year would be the last chance to make the right decision.

Yeah, thanks for reminding me about the peer group presure. Of course I have concern about this & so that's why I have to ask about the cost of e-activities as well. How can I tell my son later that he cannot join the activity because of our financial constraint. How can he face with the others?

Anyone can share the info./comment that I need? PLEASE
pvc
  

tommyzoe

Dear luluonthemoon,

Do you mind to share the reason(s) that cause you to make this decision during the term time?

In addition, which international school does your daughter study currently?

Please feel free to share with us.

luluonthemoon 寫道:
tommyzoe,

No, I have only one daughter and she just moved to other international school almost a month ago.
The boy I mentioned earlier is my neighbor's son. The boys (his brother and himself) seem to enjoy the school a lot.

tommyzoe

Dear pyc,

I am sorry that I can't answer your question.

pyc 寫道:
Hello tommyzoe,

Yes, I want to try but just want to ask ICS parents knows anything about it. I want to know my chance to getting assistance from school and to what extent so that I could think of whether I could deal with the tuition fee (also have the preparation that it will increase yearly). I also want to know how much approximately a ICS P or S student needs to spend on extra activities.

I am the marginal type that is not too poor but if I could keep my child at ICS than I will.

Please kindly help If you have a clue   

pyc

pyc

Dear Tommyzoe,

It's really Ok & no need to say sorry. I'm sure that others can offer assistance to me. God bless you and wish you coming Happy Easter.

Tks,
pyc