激活英文小學 pls join our discussion(part 2)

tszma

Hi Michelle,
Nice to meet you. My daughter is studying in P.1 in Gigamind. Before I enrolled my daughter to this school, I had the same worries as you (the school fee and the school campus) For public primary schools and Joseph Lee, the school campuses are much bigger and there are more facilities, however, there are far more students sharing the space and facilities. Although the school is big with lots of activity groups, the opportunity for an individual student to enjoy the activities or walk around the school campus is not high.
But in Gigamind, no matter what level you are in, you can use the same facilities or go to every corner of the campus. The new comers (P.1 students) can quickly get used to the campus, teachers and students of all levels. Imagine, for a p.1 student, standing in the middle of a school playground, facing a seven-storey building, meeting so many different faces of teachers and students, how miserable he or she is!!
Class size is the main difference between Gigamind and Joseph Lee. It is true that there are far more activities in JL than in Gigamind, however, does a student really get or learn much in a big activity group with students from different levels?
Hope the above can help you.
All the best

原帖由 MichelleYan 於 09-4-7 08:42 發表
Hi,

  我和亞女都有去開放日各方面都好滿意，不過地方好似細咗少，學費平均月費要$4900.好似貴咗少少，唔知你們覺得激活小學與李宗德有乜分別呢?
  其實激活小學最吸引我的地方係9:00a.m.上學，每一班人數約13個人。
  我想 ...

tszma

The stability of the teaching team was also one of the main worries when I first considered Gigamind. But once the school term started, I found that the teaching team is quite stable. At the beginning of the school term, newsletters were given out to parents to introduce the teaching staff. Most of the staff are young with a few years of teaching experience and most of them were at Gigamind last year. Most are u-graduated and studying a post-grad. teaching certificate. As I know, there are only two or three new teachers this year. In my opinions, there are both pros and cons of having a comparatively young teaching team. The teachers are comparatively easier to accept new ideas and teaching methods and maintain a closer and two-way relationship with the students. However, they are young and not yet married or had children of their own, they may not be able to understand completely from the parents' points of view. It is doubtless that the subsided schools can provide better and more attractive offer to teachers than private schools but teachers in return face more restrictions or constraints.

原帖由 42669369 於 09-4-25 00:32 發表
I am a Gigamind mum-to-be.  A friend of mine from the Education field has told me that the teachers of private primary schools are mostly less experienced as the remuneration package offered by privat ...

tszma

Pupils line up to get lunch when the bell rings. (It is good that they are trained to be responsible for their own selves. In many schools, lunch boxes are delivered directly to the classroom for the pupils.) Only one set is provided every day. They will have one main dish, rice or pasta, soup and fruit every day. The lunch lady will put the food in the tray in front of the pupils. So the pupils can make requests (more / less rice, more / less soup). Then they will take the tray of food back to their own seat to enjoy it. P.2 to P.6 pupils will enjoy their lunch together round the tables but P.1  pupils will have it in the classroom with the homeroom teachers. If they want more, they can go and get it.After lunch, they need to show the lunch boxes or trays to the teachers. Teachers will encourage them to eat more and not to be picky. Pupils are required to clear the trays before they return them.
the meal costs $27 every day (I think it's really expensive compared with the set lunch in fast food shops) In order to assure that the meals are healthy, little salt and seasoning is used so the food may not be attractive to pupils. However, it is good for their health. Different cuisines are provided (Italian, American, Indian, Chinese,... style) within a month.

tszma

Hi,
I'd like to represent the school and all the parents (I hope they won't mind me representing them) to welcome you and your children.
All caring parents have their own expectations on the school that they have chosen. However, please bare in mind that not all will come as what we have expected. A school is really a very very big family. We sometimes need to compromise, share and reflect but not merely complain to maintain the harmony of the family. Agreed?

tszma

First of all, welcome you again.
As I have said before, learning happens anywhere and anytime but not merely at school. It is too passive to let other parties (school , tutorial centre ) to design the learning framework for our own kids.
To be frank, the course provided by GM (esp. for P.1) is comparatively less tense or tight. Maybe the scope is not as wide as that provided by other subsidized schools, but it is deep enough. Pupils have time to rethink, revise and reflect what they have learnt.
Actually for I.S. and Maths, textbooks which follow the EMB syllabus are used. So pupils do not learn less than others. For English, they are learning daily (natural) English which is not framed by the publishers.
Frankly speaking, to catch up with the pupils in local schools (I mean those traditional 'popular' schools but not the local schools in Tin Shui Wai), parents need to encourage them to read more books. Since pupils in GM do not come across or are not asked to memorize many Chinese words, parents may need to give them some supplement to help them read.
You don't need to worry too much about the bridging between primary and secondary schools. Once they have built up
1. confidence to speak and express themselves in public,
2. self-awareness and motivation to gain knowledge and
3. enjoyment in learning ,
they would probably move smoothly up the education ladder.
Welcome to comment.

tszma

I know exactly how you feel. I am also a mother who easily gets nervous. So I always tell myself to relax, especially in nurturing my daughter. Keeping a good and intimate relationship with her is far more important that pushing her or loading her with extra works. Therefore I let her study in GM. My daughter enjoys her schoollife very very much. She knows nearly every teaching staff and many schoolmates in all levels.
Since she doesn't have much pressure in learning at school, she is pleased to challenge herself with the supplementary exercises that I prepared for her.
When a kid has the mood and she/he asks for it, she/he will do well and learn better.
Happy to share with you.
See you

原帖由 CML2006 於 09-6-8 21:36 發表
Hi Tzema,

Thanks for the details, I can sleep well tonight.

However, I  know my character.... I feel positive this minute but negative next minute.   

I think I need to learn how to relax myself... ...

tszma

You don't need to buy a very big one. They have textbooks for Maths and I.S. Teachers are really considerate. They will keep the textbooks and workbooks  at school. Pupils will be given the one that is in use. They don't need to bring all of them every day.For English and Chinese, they are given F4 files to keep the worksheets. However, I suggest you to buy a schoolbag with wheels (Quite a lot of pupils are using this kind of schoolbags) because they don't need to walk upstairs. It is more convenient and comfy.

tszma

My daughter's schoolbag is quite nice. It is not too fancy (My daughter is quite boyish, she doesn't like fancy things like princesses now.) There is Charlie Brown on it.The size is O.K. Since the picture is not a Disney character, it is comparatively cheaper. I bought it in Yuen Long (千色店) There are two colours. One is blue and one is pink.
It is being used for almost 10 months, but it is still good.
Take it as a reference.

原帖由 dlh525 於 09-6-10 23:48 發表
Hi tszma,

Thank you for yr suggestion and I will take a look at department store.  

dlh525

tszma

When my daughter was in K3, I started teaching her to recognise some commonly used Chinese characters. It is really helpful to build up her confidence in reading. Actually children can learn the Chinese characters anywhere and anytime, for example, reading the road signs, names of the roads and signs on the vehicles. Don't look down upon them, they have a very huge capacity in memorizing things at this age. However, frequent retrieval of the knowledge is needed.

In this surprise holiday, I have brought her to the Science Museum, the pool and the Wetland Park. We also played badminton and table tennis and visit the public library ( However, tomorrow she can go back to the school library to read because it will be open to the students. Hurray. ) Thanks God that most of her afterschool activities are not cancelled, so she can have fun with friends.

原帖由 CML2006 於 09-6-15 15:52 發表
hi,  what have you arranged for your kids in the coming two weeks?

My husband made some chinese word-cards so our girl can learn more chinese words these days.

tszma

The staff in GM is so considerable. A few days ago, one of the staff phoned us and asked about the health situation of the pupil. She also said that if the pupils are in good health condition, they are welcomed to come back to school to use the IT facilities, the library or meet the teachers if they have problems in the homework. However, parents have to register first by phone. It is a good news for parents, especially those who live nearby. My daughter went back to the school library for two hours in the afternoon. The school library is less crowded and the books there are cleaner and tidier. Besides, she could meet her homeroom teachers again.

原帖由 CML2006 於 09-6-17 01:05 發表
Good day.

My girl is strong in memorizing things but....selectively.

Believe that your daughter wouldn't be bored in such a sudden holiday!   


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tszma

Hi, parents,
There isn't a tuck shop at school. There is only one vending machine for buying drinks. The school doesn't encourage pupils to eat unhealthy snacks. However pupils can bring their own snacks for recess. They have two recesses every day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each is about fifteen minutes. I usually prepare 'baby 'sandwich, cupcakes, 'biscuits/cookies (not too dry or messy), fruit(Bananas, cherry tomatoes are good choices because they are healthy and not too messy),sweet corn and don't forget to bring enough water. However sometimes I will put a little bit snacks like potato chips, prawn sticks or a candy. Mondays are healthy-eating days. The vending machine is closed and they are asked to bring healthy food for snacks and lunch.