St. Catherine VS Anfield

emily06

I have a friend's son go to RC year2 this year and he studied in ManSang kinder before.  So I think there are some cases study in local kinder will also go to Int'l primary school.

There are always some different cases. And it also depends on the English standard of an individual child. Generally, I think SC's English is not sufficient to prepare a child for IS. SC is a popular local kindergarten but local kindergartens and IS kindergartens teach English in totally different approaches.

RC is new. I heard that the admission process was indeed quite lax last year. This a quite common for new school.

It is already not so this year. I know of a few of children who failed in the Year 7 admission test conducted recently. From how it was described by my friends (and their children) the admission test and the interview were quite OK for their children (who are presently with various international schools) but we all believe they would be quite challenging for local school students. Not sure about the admission procudure for primary students but it appears that this year many applicants are from international schools.

chingyu

ayip,

If you choose SC just because of English standard, I am afraid that it is not a right choice.  A school provides 3-hour lesson per day, the curriculum needs to include Chinese/Mandarin/Mathematics/English/Morale/Sports/Common Sense, it is really not an easy task.  Personally I am satisfied with SC teachings on my daughter. Parents also have enough information how to guide our kids at home.  The homework load and teaching on kids are up-to-level but not beyond kids’ capability.  I do think that SC is a successful school.  It is very difficult to maintain its reputation for so many years and make many parents feel satisfactory.  I would also like to say that SC is "not" a factory with mass production as you all think even though there are so many students. It is very unfair to have such comment.  Teachers are very professional.  They do care the needs of our children.  Teachers do not dial to me everyday but they do contact me if there is something I have to pay attention.  Though our Principal may not recognize the names of every child, I can see that the school keeps upgrading itself and cares the needs of parents.  Especially when the school holds some activities, I appreciate its effectiveness and its well-planned coordination.  Some of schools have fewer students; the activities, gatherings or even graduation ceremonies all are being held in a mess.  The management of a school is very important in my mind.  However, if you focus on English, I am sure that you will feel disappointed.

As students from ESF kindergartens also cannot get secure places in ESF primary schools, it is hard to guarantee a place in any schools.  Certainly I believe it has higher possibility to enter international schools if your kids are studying in the school under the same organization.  In fact, ESF kindergarten is in the same location of my apartment, I did not choose it as my daughter’s kindergarten because I do not want to limit her progress and also my choices at the earliest stage.  Some infants may develop 3-4 languages but some toddlers are good on learning mother tongue only.  

Hope you may find the best way of teaching for your sweetie.