Comment on 耀中國際學校(九龍塘)

DMum

YC Mon.
Can you tell me the english standrad and academic results for your kid? I want to know if you always says YC english is bad and whether your kids' english standard is also poor.  Comparing with other ESF, how many grade does your kid behind the standard with the same age, can you tell me.

Don't laugh someone who are bad in english.  My sister tell me a lot of Chinese immigrate to Singapore, their english is not good but the other subjects are very good.  When the teacher translate the english questions to chinese, they know how to do that at once.  Of course, my counsin never look down the immigrates or her classmates. She told me they are very, very smart and nobody laughs them.  Language is  a communication tools and nobody said that he speaks a language perfectly.  They use several years and chase the standard.  

My sister tells me her friend's kid is studying in ESF and they don't know the chinese.  Her friend sent her kid to attned the chinese lessons.  Why you don't look down the kid who doesn't know chinese if they are Chinese.

ICSfather

咪咪媽

Their English is one  grade lower than RC. But the Chinese is 2 grade higher than them. But lots of kids are leaving after this term.  

YC-MOM

好開心有咁多耀中家長一齊討論，我從來唔係想改變大家的睇法，你地滿意耀中，我戥你地開心。
做家長有乜緊要得過，搵到一間 "滿意" 的學校比自己的孩子？

我只係想講一講耀中的真正情形比非耀中家長聽，等佢地唔好有太大幻想；我識好多家長，包括我自己，都對耀中的英語環境感到失望的。當然，都一定有好多人覺得 OK，覺得滿意，甚至覺得好好，咁就得啦，你可以開開心心繼續比孩子讀。

DMum，
我 d 孩子係對自己要求好高的，學習，做功課都係自己搞掂，佢地各方面的水平都好。
或者你可以睇多幾次我的 message，我唔滿意的，係學校收太多英文差的外來學生。
我係信奉 "有教無類" 的人，我唔介意孩子同學水平差，不過一定唔可以係英文差。
點解唔可以英文差？因為耀中係用全英語教學的。
就算唔需要話個個係英語第一語言水平，但都要有基本的英語能力。例如，如果英語唔好，點學數學？數學科，係用黎學數學知識，唔係用黎學英語的。但係，我知有好多孩子就係英語太差，影響數學的學習進度。咁，唔單係英語方面水平差，會影響到數學的水平都差。

我唔會同 ESF 比，因為人地係 90+% 英語，耀中只係約 80% 英語，英語一定比人地低。
但如果真係要跟 ESF 比，用你地話的 "$10 水果" 舉個例啦：
ESF  =  90% 英語 10% 中文 =  共 100% ；
耀中  =  70 % 英語 20 % 中文 =  只有 90 %。
因為那 10 % 本來屬於英語的 ，但英語環境不適當，應有的水平根本發揮唔到。
想想，部份孩子根本連一般間單英語句子也不明白，勉強要在全英語的學習環境下讀書，點可以做得好。

唔好將歧視問題帶入黎，我一直係講緊學校收生唔恰當。
我都有住過外國，但你舉的例，不適用於我的想討論的重點。
我想說的係，如果孩子英文唔好，根本唔適合讀國際學校。
國際學校唔係甚麼了不起的東西，如果英文水平唔夠，讀番本地學校 ( 或部份有國際學校 "完素" 的本地直資學校 ) ，孩子應該會發揮得更好。
而且，耀中的問題，並非每年只收兩三個英語差的學生，而係急速 expand，令英語差的學生比例，比以往大大提高。

小學部以往每級 2-3 班，今年係4-5 班，你話期間 expand 得算唔算多？
至於中學部，新校舍每級可以收 8 班，但 year 6 今年只有 4 班，即使全部學生選讀耀中中學，都要收 4 班插班生 ( 今年 year 6 好多人走，好多考到 ESF，CANIS，GSIS 等，除 ESF，其他都要比 debenture，人地轉校原因係乜，自己估 ) 。中學部的老師，大部份係本地香港人，老師們本身的英語水平都不好 ( 我唔再講，可參考其他人之前發表的 messages )，再加上主要收了大量從本地學校插班的學生 ( 我聽聞，中學部收生情形唔錯，有 d 級別已經有 waiting list 了 ) ，你地覺得會有一個怎樣的英語環境？

講白 d ，就係一間全港最貴學費的 local school，全英語教學當然受那些未能如願入到心儀英中的歡迎 ( 香港英中數目唔多，亦唔易入 ) ，學位亦係 "先到先得"，卦名係有 admission test，但其實跟本冇認真篩選學生，總之只要你肯交留位費就比你讀。

我地比孩子讀國際學校，當然係對英語有一定的要求。
不過，正如我之前講過，最緊要你自己，同你孩子開心。
反正錢係你的，你覺得 20 萬 debenture，及每個月過萬學費，但語言環境跟 local school 一樣，也覺得值得，那就好了。

mesenfants

Hi!   

I'm new to this forum and couldn't help but join in after reading this topic on YC.

I have 2 children, both went to YC from kindergarten and left the school when they were aged 9.   To be honest, I thought the kindergarten was terrific for the children which they were taught English and Chinese at the same time.  The teachers were really nice and friendly; the environment was clean; the amahs were helpful and especially we knew that the other kids there have decent backgrounds so that my children would be in a cursefree environment.

First let's start with my son.   Initially YC wasn't what it is now.   He had friends who were all local Hong Kong children but now the school has mostly mainlanders as pupils.  Then there was Chinese lessons which I think the school had put too much emphasis on meaning the percentage in English knowledge/learning had declined.   I told myself 'this is it!'  I had to act, on behalf of my son, for his future even though he wasn't 9 yet at the time.   Just before Christmas I took him to London to see his would-be new school (a preparatory boarding school) and from then on we never looked back!   

Apparently, I believe that many of you are wondering why I let my daughter still further her primary years from kindergarten in YC.  This is because, as you might have realised, that YC excels at their Chinese teaching.  So after four years of primary at YC to learn Chinese is enough for her to have grasped the basics of PuTongHua.  My principle was that I did not want my girl to be better at Chinese than English.  When she left YC last year, I think the emphasis on Chinese and English was 50-50.   From that statistic, you just cannot call YC an internation school - it is a joke.   FYI on the year she left, I remember that there were about 16 teachers leaving, so it does make you think, doesn't it?   Now my girl is in a new international school and she is extremely happy with the environment, resources, equipments and not to mention the uniform (in her own words 'the coolest uniform ever').

Lastly one final comment - if your child is still in YC primary years, he/she might not be too late to 'get out'!   However, if you leave him/her till the secondary years, it might be a bit too late to change school because his/her command of English would not be up to scratch compared to other IS and Chinese to mainstream schools.   So for your children's sake, I urge you to seriously think what you want for your kid's education.  ENGLISH or CHINESE in an international school!

Apologies if too long for some!

mesenfants

The following is an incident I would like to share with you all.

Nearly 2 years ago, my husband and I took our daughter to an IS school in Kowloon for an interview, which she passed on the spot.   As we waited for the Principal to return to take us to show us around the school, we met the Assistant Principal (AP).   We talked about my daughter and as soon as we mentioned she studied in YC, the AP said 'Yew Chung?  The English isn't particularly good in that school, is it?'   As parents from YC at that moment, we felt quite embarassed actually because afterall it was the truth.  Not only this was the truth to us YC parents, in fact it was known to other schools too.

AAARGGHHHH - the shame of it!!!

But now every time I mention it to my friends, I find it hilarious!!!       :

lulusing

***************************************
具有優良辦學傳統的耀中國際學校，是香港私立學校的翹楚，成績有目共睹。耀中學生，畢業後大多升讀香港及世界各地著名學府，並建立起以國際為本位的世界視野。
***************************************

Any information about the destinations of YC graduates?

有沒有耀中畢業生升讀大學的資料?

mesenfants

Even if you phone up the office to ask, I doubt they can give you more information!   Well it doesn't hurt to try!

lulusing

***************************************
the public results of the school is not that bad. In IB, the top score student achieved this year is 44, from my knowledge, all graduates has 100% university placement.
***************************************
To have a better picture of the IB results, you better ask the school how many of those achieving good scores in IB are homegrown YC students ( I mean excluding those who joined YC from other schools at Yr 12). Also ask for detailed statistics of their IGCSE results. If the school is willing to give you the figures, you will understand what I mean by " academic standard not good." Check out how they presented their public exam results on the web --- very vague and misleading.

Regarding University placement -- it is not at all impressive; mostly second or third tier UK universities. Check out other IS e.g. CIS and HKIS. They show a very clear account of where the students go each year. YC doesn't show the statistics to that level of details. Just lump everything together.
**************************************

Besides the two messages from the above parents,
any more information about the academic results and university placements of YC graduates?

  

WYmom

lulusing,

I have attended some intro session of YC last year, if I remember correctly, the average IB results of YC is 28.  The average of other IS is 33 to 35.  So good or not is obvious.

YC-MOM

lulusing 寫道:
***************************************
具有優良辦學傳統的耀中國際學校，是香港私立學校的翹楚，成績有目共睹。耀中學生，畢業後大多升讀香港及世界各地著名學府，並建立起以國際為本位的世界視野。
***************************************

Any information about the destinations of YC graduates?

有沒有耀中畢業生升讀大學的資料?

冇。
學校只有一個 list，列出佢地畢業生升讀的大學。但個 list 並沒有分年份，沒有分校舍，即係香港，北京，上海學生都係同一個 list。
我冇留低個 list，我記得以前 website 有，但而家搵唔返個 link。
我只記得，冇人去過 printon，harvard，cambridge，oxford，印象好 d 的大學，有 imperial college，waterloo，cornell ( 其他真係唔係好記得)，另外香港間間大學都有。
同埋，亦都沒有講學生入邊個學系，遠唔講，近近地，講 hku，會唔會醫學院同文學院的收生情形會唔同呢？我無貶意，因我唔熟識香港各大學的情形，不過傳統上，hku 醫學院的確係競爭大 d。

YC-MOM

終於搵返，原來係 baubautse 話耀中學生 "100% university placement" 喎。
好想知 baubautse 本身的教育程度。
我都諗好耐，應唔應該咁樣講，不過，我真係覺得，入大學一 d 都唔難，只係入間 "好大學" 就難。
你可以話我囂，但我兩夫婦當年唔係 top students，都入到唔錯的大學，我唔信我的孩子，連山卡啦大學都唔收，起碼，以佢現時的學習情形，及佢性格，我好有信心，佢會有多個大學 offer。
唔好睇讀大學係好大 achievement，要間大學學系，在行內有江湖地位先算係叻。唔係點解人地 harvard business school 未畢業，就大把大行羅致？唔係點解咁多人想入 imperial college law school？

唔講咁遠，就講 hku，傳統上都係 medical school 同 law school 比較有地位，可能加上新興的 business 等，如果你肯屈就，去 d 冷門 faculty，我唔覺得真係咁難。

我只可以講，大家有唔同要求，100% university placement ？ no big deal 。

baubautse 寫道:

from my knowledge, all graduates has 100% university placement.

RKY

我都想個仔入到好大學, 以下8間都唔錯....
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University......
    .......一笑.
其實而家想入好大學, 不單靠成績, 還要求學生對社會要有承擔, 國際視野要廣闊......各式各樣的要求.....真係唔係咁簡單.

lulusing

WYmom 寫道:
lulusing,

I have attended some intro session of YC last year, if I remember correctly, the average IB results of YC is 28.  The average of other IS is 33 to 35.  So good or not is obvious.

WYmom,

Many thanks for the information. Any further information about the average IB scores of individual IS?

WYmom

lulusing 寫道:
WYmom,

Many thanks for the information. Any further information about the average IB scores of individual IS?

lulusing,

You can check IB scores of individual IS on their websites.  I remember that some other IS (CIS, ESF, Li Po Chun) with IBD have average scores in the range of 33 to 35, with around 50% or more scores over 35.  For YC, they have around 33% scores over 35.  School with best results of course is Li Po Chun, which intakes almost the best students to their IBD program.  

That's just some rough figures I remember.  

YOSASHTO

I had contacts with YC students on two accounts.

The first was when I was hiring a summer student assistant last year.  One of the interviewees was from YC.  He had already graduated and is in University Year 1 in the UK.  The first impression was ok, but as we talked on, he mentioned that he doesn't "need" a summer job, that even if he lays around the house doing nothing all summer his mom won't get mad.  His attitude was very much that of a kid from a wealthy family.  When we talked about his school, he did tell me that they speak a lot of Cantonese and not so much English, except in classes.  Of course, language is not the reason I did not hire him, it is the attitude.

The second encounter was when I visited an after-school learning centre early this year.  One of the girls there goes to YC Grade 1 (or 2, not sure), and has attended since Kindergarten.  We got talking about what she likes about Hong Kong, and, my goodness, her English was so poor you will just never guess she attends an IS.  When I say poor, I don't mean just the accent.  Her accent was strong Chinglish, needless to say, but the choice of words and the sentence structure was really bad.  What makes it worse was that she spoke very fluent bad English (as opposed to the slow word-by-word from some local school kids), which made it difficult to understand.

Of course, these are just my experiences with 2 out of the many students of YC.  I have no intention to discredit the school, and I am sure there are good examples out there, but these two have already formed the impression for me.

mesenfants 寫道:
The following is an incident I would like to share with you all.

Nearly 2 years ago, my husband and I took our daughter to an IS school in Kowloon for an interview, which she passed on the spot.   As we waited for the Principal to return to take us to show us around the school, we met the Assistant Principal (AP).   We talked about my daughter and as soon as we mentioned she studied in YC, the AP said 'Yew Chung?  The English isn't particularly good in that school, is it?'   As parents from YC at that moment, we felt quite embarassed actually because afterall it was the truth.  Not only this was the truth to us YC parents, in fact it was known to other schools too.

AAARGGHHHH - the shame of it!!!

But now every time I mention it to my friends, I find it hilarious!!!       :

lulusing

WYmom 寫道:
[quote]
lulusing 寫道:
WYmom,

Many thanks for the information. Any further information about the average IB scores of individual IS?

lulusing,

You can check IB scores of individual IS on their websites.  I remember that some other IS (CIS, ESF, Li Po Chun) with IBD have average scores in the range of 33 to 35, with around 50% or more scores over 35.  For YC, they have around 33% scores over 35.  School with best results of course is Li Po Chun, which intakes almost the best students to their IBD program.  

That's just some rough figures I remember.  
[/quote]

WYmom,

Many thanks again. Since you often show yourself knowledgeable in the area (IS), definitely you are able to choose the most suitable school for your kids. By the way, it is good that parents express their experience and opinions about IS schools here, no matter if they are positive or negative. The more information the other parents get, the wiser the choice would be.     

mesenfants

Oh dear!

Yes it is really a shame that the children, or I mean the adults fail to realise that not only  English is important (that's why they're in an IS school) but the attitude during their development is essential too!

Actually I think it is up to the parents now to correct their grammar and accent because the teachers just do not rectify their mistakes!   When my girl was very young she used to ask me why her pronounciation was different from her friends?   For example, the most used word 'the', her friends pronounce 'de' and 'game' to 'g-em'!

Let's just pray that YC chiefs can see this forum and act accordingly!

Good Luck, YC parents!!!

YC-MOM

Let's just pray that YC chiefs can see this forum and act accordingly!

Good Luck, YC parents!!!

各位，我好肯定耀中高層係知道 bk 有人討論緊學校。
唔好問我點解知，講得太多，學校就知道我係邊個。
其實，有邊個家長唔想學校好？唔通想學校臭名遠播嗎？
學校名聲好，口碑好，自己孩子出到黎都威 d 啦，
而家孩子們一比人知係耀中學生，有 d 人客氣，就讚下你學校，但心低裡係唔係真心讚，大家知啦；遇著憎人富貴的人 ( 耀中學費貴，亦令很多人反感 )，就很不留情開口，話你學校好似麻麻喎之類的話。
我都諗過，好唔好在 bk 講咁多，但我見其實先後都有好多家長一齊出聲，我都知道係冇做錯。
有 d 好捧場的家長，甚至學校高層，都會覺得我地講得太多，令學校名聲受損 ( 先後有好多人出聲為學校平反，邊個係真家長，邊個人學校的人，我唔會深究喇 )。但其實如果冇人出聲，學校可能係唔會知原來好多人好不滿。
有 d 不滿的家長，會積極的同學校傾，
但亦有好多心淡的家長，選擇用行動表達，一於幫孩子轉校。
我一直強調，我好鍾意耀中小學，尤其係老師們，
不滿的，係學校行政問題 ( 包括處理家長投訴，處理學生在校內的問題，及新生的質素 )。
學校的問題，不是個個家長都會知。
好多家長兩夫婦都要工作，不像我地這些不用上班的媽咪，能經常有時間和其他家長交流，好多野都唔知，我自己就係希望，用 BK 這個平台，將學校的情形話比大家聽。
如果家長依然覺得學校無問題，我恭喜你，你可以繼續開心安心比孩子讀落去；但如果你現在都開始發覺學校真係有好多問題，我希望你都多留意，多發聲。一年又過了，現在可做的不多了，希望來年大家一齊多多監察學校啦。

PS  唔該學校請陳校長趁暑期放假，去學好普通話；又或者，如果學校早會或學校活動，都想安排由兩位校長，一英一中的發言，那就不如請陳校長講廣東話；又或者，單單請 FOSTER 一個說話就好了。陳校長的普通話真的 "很爛" 。

m.(x3)

mesenfants 寫道:
The following is an incident I would like to share with you all.

Nearly 2 years ago, my husband and I took our daughter to an IS school in Kowloon for an interview, which she passed on the spot.   As we waited for the Principal to return to take us to show us around the school, we met the Assistant Principal (AP).   We talked about my daughter and as soon as we mentioned she studied in YC, the AP said 'Yew Chung?  The English isn't particularly good in that school, is it?'   As parents from YC at that moment, we felt quite embarassed actually because afterall it was the truth.  Not only this was the truth to us YC parents, in fact it was known to other schools too.

AAARGGHHHH - the shame of it!!!

But now every time I mention it to my friends, I find it hilarious!!!       :

I was told by an official at the Renaissance College that the student who scored the highest in this year's Y7 entry test (which was mainly an English test held in Nov/Dec 06) was a Yew Chung student.

I am sure this is about as isolated a case as yours. Agree?