臻美小學家長

libch

Hi Tommy,

你好. 我的女兒明年九月入讀臻美小一, 現有以下問題想向你請教一下, 因為你是臻美很資深的家長呢 ! Sorry, I am too slow in typing Chinese characters, so it is much better for me to use English.

1. Is there a pre-assessment test for kids to assess their level , i.e Chinese, English and Mathematics before they start their studying in P.1 ? This assessment is used to group the kids with similar level for convenience of teaching ?

2.  I heard people said that there are 2 form teachers in each class. Is that true ?

3. Starting from Sept. 06, is it all Chinese subjects will use Putonghua as teaching language ?

4. Are all English subjects taught by teachers with English as their first language ?

5. People said that there are Chinese class and English class for parents to choose ? What does it mean ? Can you please explain in detail ? Is the school fee different for these two classes ?

6. How much homework for the P.1 student as per your experience ? Will only P.1 student have to do special project (專題報告) ?

Thank you very much for your help!

Chelly

各位臻美家長，

        本人兒子明年９月入讀臻美小一，但聽聞小一書簿費要成萬幾呅,請問有冇家長知道大嘅要幾多錢呢？

  

shirdy

chelly,

Ref. from the previous message, that should be around  $ 1500 for 3 times.

Tommy

libch,

希望你唔介意我咁遲先至覆你，自從細仔入埋臻美，自己的私人時間真係越來越少。「資深的家長」這稱號太敏感了，我唔會承認我係，但我會就我所知、所見、所經歷過的，和我的睇法跟你分享。為省時間，我或會將以前發表過的言論重貼，請不要介意。

1. 零三年和零五年入學的都一樣，要考三小時的分班試。但你不用太緊張啊，雖然話三小時，但其實是很輕鬆的，我兩個仔所讀的幼稚園從來沒有考試測驗，但大仔出來時只是笑著對我說：「我做左三個鐘頭功課呀！」細仔出來時就嘻嘻哈哈！

Bear in mind, the assessment is to assess the students' knowledge level, not their ability.  Don't worry too much if your kid is assigned to the “remedial class”.  It doesn't mean your kid has problem in learning.  It only indicates the academic knowledge your kid gained in the past is at the lower percentile compared to the majority enrolled by Pegasus.  On the contrast, don't be too happy in case your kid is assigned to the “elite class”.  You are right, they are grouped to different classes for the lessons of Chinese, English and Mathematics.  But, the class allocation is dynamic that teachers will monitor their learning progress from time to time and make necessary corrections.  

In fact, the curriculum between elite, general and remedial classes doesn't vary too much.  The major difference is the size of the class.  Class size of remedial may be only ten or even less so that students' individual needs will be well covered and eventually they are able to catch up with the mainstream.

2.        My sons are studying in P.1 and P.3.  So far, there is only one class teacher in their classes.  But, I'm not sure for the next year.

3.        My younger son is studying in Chinese Stream.  At present, Mandarin is adopted as medium of instruction only in Mandarin (Oral) and Mandarin (Writing).  No idea about the 2006 intake.

4.        There are four English subjects in Pegasus, namely Cambridge English, English (Oral), English (Reading) and English (EIT).  In my sons' classes, all the four subjects are taught by four different native English speakers.  I am so impressed with this arrangement that enables my sons to be immersed in different English accents.  However, NET doesn't necessarily mean teachers with golden hair and blue eyes, they may be Chinese in their blood but brought up in foreign countries.

5.        Yes, starting from the 2005 intake, parents can choose either Chinese Stream or English Stream for their P.1 kids.  For me, my son and I made a decision for him to study in Chinese Stream.  I don't know the details of the English Stream for which some parents have shared their experience in the previous pages on this thread.  You can go back and see.  I only know the school fees are different, $1,650 for Chinese Stream and $2,xxx for English.

6.        Project assignments play a major role in Pegasus across all forms and all classes.  But, it's difficult for me to answer the question of “How much?”  In terms of quantity, I will say not too much.  But, in terms of quality and the depth, the homework can be very heavy if you want to go into very deep or very broad.  Anyway, the requirements of the projects are not too strict as long as the students show they have paid effort on it.  If the topic is appealing to them, they can submit a grand project.  If not, a reasonable one is also acceptable.

For the general homework, the quantity of P.1 homework has dropped a bit compared with the time when my elder son studied in P.1 two years ago.  Instead, the school encourages us to read a lot of books.  Every other week, the boys will carry quite many books to home and we need to spend quite a lot of time to enjoy them.

Sorry for the Chinese and English in my message.  I'm also faster in English typing.  Hope it can help you.  Don't hesitate to ask more if you are patient to wait for my reply.


Tommy

phoebeoiyan

libch,

今年P1英文班學費每月$2,800.-


Phoebe

onon530

請問有無人申請過學費津貼而又批呢? 會像幼稚園分半/全免嗎?? 謝謝!!

libch

Hi Tommy,

Thank you so much for your reply. Your explanation is really in great details. I know you must be very busy but I have confident that you will reply me and so I keep on waiting. Once again, thank you very much. In fact, I used the waiting time in these days to browse through all the 80 pages for this topic and have a brief idea about Pegasus's adm. and its homework workload.

I am a working mummy. I am just worried whether I can spare enough time to help my daughter to do the project assignment since you said it played a great role in Pegasus cirriculum.

On the other hand, have your kids joined any extra cirricular activities after school ? Is it optional ? Since I heard that there will have no school bus services provided to students if they have joined after school activities. As I am living quite far away, it seems impossible to let the kid to participate any activities after school.

Moreover, does Pegasus compulsory require students to learn one musical instrument ? i.e. 一生一體藝 ?

I am so happy to find out that 臻美小學家長 are so helpful and united. It is my honour to become one Pegasus parent in next year.

Regards,
libch.

libch

Hi Phoebe,

Thanks for your information. It seems English class is much more expensive than Chinese class. Is it because it requires more native speakers and their salary is higher ?

I think your kid is now studying in English class. Can you talk a bit about it, like the teaching method, the homework, the syllabus, ... etc.

Thanks a lot.

Libch.

Tommy

libch,

I was named to answer.  Can I say no?  :  Having read your quality feedback, I was encouraged to give you instant reply.

Don’t worry too much about the project assignments.  Usually, teachers give us plenty of time to get it done.  Depending on the difficulty of the project, we are allowed to spend a whole week up to two months to complete a project.  Some other schools emphasize their projects can be done by the students themselves.  However, in Pegasus, we are told parental guidance is necessary to the students who are in the junior classes.

According to my experience, I do concern more the general homework which is not easy job.  They are not simply copying or calculating.  Very often, the students are requested to think out of the box, to draw pictures, or to get information on the internet.  For us, we should be patient and tactful to enlighten the little ones achieving the “Ting”.  :idea:

Yes, Pegasus do offer tons of choices for the ECA both within the curriculum and after school.  Even the little girls like yours, they are allowed to select English football as their optional activities.  You can’t imagine there are eight girls in P.1 playing football with my younger son.

Those ECA after school is optional.  You don’t have to join them.  Yes, there is no school bus service for the after school activities.  Some activities, like rock climbing, are not even conducted in the campus.  Hence, it’s quite troublesome if you can’t arrange the pick up.  

So far, 一生一體藝 is not applied to my sons.  In Pegasus, we do have a lot of freedom to choose, but the school rarely forces us to do this or to do that.

Tommy   

libch

Hi Tommy,

Thanks for your prompt reply. It is very much appreciated. I suppose there still have some unknown things to ask you about Pegasus in future, I would like to thank you in advance for your helpfulness on this matter.

By the way, when your younger son entered P.1 in this Sep., any confusing things happended for the school administration, such as late circulars, paying various types of fees, ... etc. ? I asked such a question because many Pegasus parents always commented : Pegasus's teaching is excellence but the school administration is very poor. I do hope the school has made improvements for being more experience.

Regards,
libch.

Primary_Doggie

Hi Libch,
I like to jam in answering your question, hope you don't mind, and so does Tommy.

Pegasus administrative department has room for improvement, but thinking indepth, it could be a big challenge to handle their admin task too.  Instead of pointing fingers on them, I do think that the goodies Pegasus arrange for our kids, create extreme pressure to their admin.

I myself don't know how many people are working in the admin. department, yet they have zillion tons of work that is not common in other school:

1/  Imagine each students are choosing / ordering 7 different colors of uniform, all with different combo
(headache to complile orders and distributing orders)

2/  Imagine each students are allocating to 3 streams of levels on english, chinese, and maths, guess how complicated the combo would be!

3/  Imagine each students in each level are able to choose 4 different extra curricular activities,  different activities for different class level, what the combo of activities would be and changing in all 3  semesters per year)

4/  Imagine in this primary school, we have clubs and associations (we have more than 10 clubs in all nature, and trainings sessions for parents,)  and we are allowed to sign up, imagine each one return some slips and money ........................

5/  Imagine we have tons of home readers, zillions of transactions on top of regular library materials....transacting every week

6/  Captioned are just a small portions of what admin is handling, and as a parent of P2, it is usual for me to send 2 checks to school on a monthly basis, and of course some times more, imagine this transactions.

Yes, I do complain in my heart, how come they made mistake on days...and I need to scratch and guess.  Yet, with whole heartedly, I would also give them hugs for their hardwork.  I am not relating to any educational body, but what I learnt from some educational gurus are that it is usual for other schools to avoid so many versions of activities link to avoid all the complicated admin. work.  So chicken and egg thing, what kind of school do you like?

agoodfox

Dear parents,

Long time no see! My son is P.5 pupil of Pegasus.

Frankly speaking, I'm really fed up with the school's administration .... payment arrangement, 統一物資 (8 books to be finished within a week .... oh my God!), more than 3 months for preparing assessment reports, etc. etc.

I have been thinking of changing school for my son since last year and I'm still struggling.  I'm not sure if I can find him a better school.  I'm afraid of making a wrong decision for him.  But when even teachers say the school is having problems and quite messy ..... and you yourself don't feel comfortable with the decisions and arrangements .... even worse after talking to the school's management ..... What will you do??

I have been quite disappointed ....... really!!

I used to be a supporter ..... a believer .... but I have started questioning my belief.

"To be or not to be .... to leave or not to leave ..."??  :cry:  :cry:

libch

Hi agoodfox,

I feel sorry for your hard feeling. It seems that you are really disappointed. May I know how many years your son has been studying in Pegasus ? You are only disappointed with Pegasus's administration but not its way of teaching and learning, right ?

Tommy

Primary_Doggie,

Of course I don’t mind.  I do expect more and more Pegasus parents coming out to share my “workload”.  Your points are so good that I have to say:  “I totally agree with you.”

Libch,

I share the same view of Primary_Doggie.  In fact, I don’t care too much on the administration as long as it doesn’t affect the learning and the well being of students.  In case I come across some mistakes, I will inform the school and then I will adapt myself to live with it.  As a matter of fact, you can hardly find perfect administration in whatever efficient organization.  So far, I can find only minor defects which do not affect learning.

Instead, I concern more on the “teaching” and “learning”.  Once I encounter problems with these, I will communicate with teachers.  In most cases, they are fast react and willing to listen and accept our opinions.

Education is a lifelong project.  The most important thing that draws my attention is the long term vision and direction.  So far, it is on the right track in my eyes.

After hard selling Pegasus for a week, I need to add a warning statement.  What I mentioned here is only representing my own experience.  It does not necessarily happen in the same way to others.  People with different expectations will come up with different perceptions.  Education with Pegasus style requires a bundle of backups.  You better seek for more opinions from various sources before making decision for your beloved ones.

Agoodfox,

Really long time no see.  I feel sorry to your situation.  From time to time, we will face difficulties in bringing up our kids.  Hope you can get over.  My elder son also comes to a bottle-neck in learning.  I’ve reserved a ticket to talk to the teacher.

Probably, I will not access internet in the coming few days.  Hope to share with you all next week.  


Tommy

marcomama

Hi agoodfox

容許我在此分享：

不經不覺與臻美已共度3年多了，經歷了這段時間後，問我學校有沒進步空間及改善的地方？我答一定有。

自從marco升讀小一後，我加入了家長義工，在這2個多月令我有很深感受。

記得第一日到小學做義工時，見到山一樣高的書堆滿圖書館，原來這些就是分發給同學使用的統一物資，但它們仍未貼防盜、未貼編碼、未貼此乃統一物資貼紙、未包妥、更未輸入電腦。我們一行約10人，不停的貼、不停的包，我曾笑說已包了一世人所讀的書了。

可能有些家長說，這些工作學校應該有職員處理，更應該一早完成，不應留到現在。 “是” 大家都知只要有錢，便可以請更多員工一早完成。“對”在此向各家長呼籲，有沒有人認識如李超人等富豪，及可要求他們向學校捐助一些，好讓我們不用加學費之時，享有更好的服務。

其次要我們每個星期完成這麼多的課外讀物，真是好難呵！但認真想一想，真的是好難嗎？經濟學裡的“機會成本”理論，我們為了得到自己認為最好的，必須要放棄次要的。在於我來說，便是每晚必須放棄心愛的肥皂劇，及與朋友聚會享樂的時間。

或許再正面些想一想，雖然我們未能及時完成這些課外讀物，但仍衷心的感謝學校為我們提供了這麼多的選擇機會，讓我們可從十來本書中找到幾本最愛的，能使我們一生受用。 “這樣會不會好些。”

朋友們，你們可知行政真是很難處理的，校服供應商要接到訂單後才可生產做貨，由於色及碼太多，學校要統計好才能訂貨。但收回學生的訂單通告裡，可曾想到部份會有錯亂，如：支票金額與訂購不符、支票大細碼不符、只訂購數量沒有顏色…….等。有時錯誤真不是單方面產生的，體諒家長們的忙中有錯，體諒學校員工的忙碌。多了解，多溝通，可以化解好多的誤會。

最後令郎是不是讀英文班，外籍老師未能多解釋，令到誤會日深。

libch

Dear Pegasus parents,

Thanks for all your sharing. It is delighted to see that the school is fully supported by so many parents.

EDWIN

Dear parents,

Concerning the long-lived administrative problem, I have something to share as follows :

Pegasus is a Christian school, so I try to phrase it in Christian terms :  A real Christian may sin (and do sin quite often, I think).  But, under the amazing grace of our Lord, real Christians are striving hard to move away from sin towards our perfect God.

It is okay to make mistakes and have errors (but for sure we need to bear the consequences).  The main point is not there are mistakes/errors.  The main concern is that we do not take it for granted and leave it there.  What we have done, are doing, will do or plan to do to eliminate/minimise mistakes/errors are the main concern to handle this issue.  I give some exaggerated examples,  "the school has five year plan to eliminate/minimise the administrative problem as follows ... "  "the school has already taken action as ..."

Besides, don't setup a bad model for our children as illustrated below :

Parent : P;  Son/Daughter : SD

P says "SD, your classmates and teachers are always complaining about your one and only one misconduct.  Why don't you change it ?"
SD replies "I have already been very busy studying and doing good in other aspects.  Please accept this one and only one misconduct of mine.  My school also behave like this."

If you are the parent, what is your reply ?

Please comments.  Thanks.

agoodfox

小兒自小一開始在臻美學習，到現在已經四個多年頭了。

我嘗試學習魯迅先生的著名人物阿Q, 令自己看得開一點, 亦學習以寬宏容忍的態度對事對人，給與更多時間 ....... 但到頭來只覺自欺欺人。

問題是否只存在於行政方面呢？行政紊亂會否直接或間接影響"教與學"呢？

每年的自訂教材時有出錯(並不只是打錯字那麼簡單)。去年評估前與小朋友溫習主題教育，發覺又有資料不對勁，求證於朋友及兩本百科全書，證實是錯的，告知老師，她說會跟進，但事後亦不了了之。對於類似的情形，我關心的是為什麼那麼容易出錯呢？我只是個"C 奶"，憑常識去判斷亦知道有問題，為什麼有關人士不能小心查核才發給學生。如果做不到這點，是否用教科書更理想呢？

班主任未夠兩個月已請假三次或以上；主科老師早幾天向孩子透露將會離職，因學校(行政??)很亂。

唉！你叫我如何招架呢？

因時間關係，不能說得太多。

最後一句：愛之深，責之切！

有時間可看看以下的報告:

校外評核報告
http://www.emb.gov.hk/FileManager/TC/Content_4748/ep20-wongkh_cmi.pdf

教統局校外評核報告就學校整體表現的14個範疇表現評級分數表
http://news.pegasusschool.org/files/table.swf
("教與學"是最弱的一環)

學校就教統局外評報告之回應
http://news.pegasusschool.org/files/response.swf

agoodfox

Last week my son brought back the following 統一物資 which had to be returned in a week :

中學英語小小說 A New World Record (176 pages)
Black Cat Series - Robin Hood (103 pages + 1 CD)
Treasure Island (65 pages)
A True Book - Mammals (47 pages)
故事點心 2 (38 pages)
The Young Scientists - Level 1 (63 pages)
大拇指 (24 pages)
Eyewitness Books - Tree (72 pages)


我真的是大開眼界             !!!

Jackiesau

各位家長

很多謝marcomama的分享，並藉此多謝她的無私的付出，為我們的小朋友、我們的臻美付出很多時間及努力。

亦很認同Primary_Doggie的客觀分析，道出我們繁重而鎖碎的行政。

這個月工作非常忙碌，最早八時才收工，星期五晚十時半才離開辦公室。此外有時星期六日還要上課，有時趕功課，會做到三更半夜。相信不少家長工作時間亦不短，其實全港的打工仔差不多已經很久沒有朝九晚五的辦公時間了，而且一樣仍要繼續進修。如果老師仍抱怨工作忙碌，還要持續進修。除了一些是不食人間煙火外，相信就是以前嘆慣的那一班前輩級，又或者是能力所限的老師。

老師是人的工作，自己一言一語，一舉一動，深深影响牽引着我們的小朋友的成長，因此小學老師，最基本的愛心及耐性是必需的。上學年我曾經有機會觀課，有一堂是小一課堂，這位老師全堂沒有笑容，負負氣的，說話雖仍有鼓勵性的，但給我的感覺很[行貨]，不投入，沒有熱誠。我想沒有[嘉賓]在場，這位老師的態度會如何？不過這學年這位老師已離開臻美。但是有一位家長周圍的查問這老師的電話，要跟這位老師聯絡，說這位老師很錫她的女兒。

打工仔如果工作不力，到期不續約或被中止合約，是很自然的事。但他絕不會跟別人說，[我被抄]。只會在求職時，訴說舊公司的不是，例如行政混亂，沒有前景，老細的不對，自己懷才不遇。

最近我才聽到，數年前有四位只有一年經驗的老師，去了一所上年被殺校的千禧學校任教，好似其中一位更升為主任，不過聽說他們亦已離開了該所學校。但據悉在早兩年，那位主任還找我們家長及小朋友飲茶，非常關心他們，但是力數學校的不是，還勸他們轉校。

不過當然亦有一些很好的老師，表現出色，遭人挖角，人望高處，無可厚非，但是我們為什麼留不到他們呢？

年前曾經有一位家長認識了一位任職只有數個月的機構職員，那人一樣說，臻美如何的混亂，如何的不是。正如我以前所說，走的人當然不會說自己不是，只會說對方的不對。那位家長的小朋友在随後的新一年轉校。

花了不少時間寫上分享，所見所聞，只是希望各家長明白，可以從另一角度去看去想。雖然不能保証百份之百是正確無誤，但我絕對相信在BK的每一位臻美家長並沒有信口雌黃，有意與無意間去誤導他人。

(待續)