應否選擇國際學校?(唔該俾D意見)

mattsmum

very good work for a p3 student.

Yau_Cheung

Agree.

原帖由 nintendo 於 09-6-29 12:29 發表
wisekid2007's child is probably one of the brightest one.
I think to consider whether you want to choose international school, the only thing you need to consider is whether you are willing to fit in. ...

leschelems

nintendo has certainly scored a point by taking this matter to a broader perspective.  The choice of local vs international highly depends on the child's fitting-in and the availability/level of family support.  

Local school, elite or not, is not a recipe for everyone.  Nor is international school.

原帖由 nintendo 於 09-6-29 12:29 發表
wisekid2007's child is probably one of the brightest one.
I think to consider whether you want to choose international school, the only thing you need to consider is whether you are willing to fit in. ...

leschelems

Thanks for supporting me by stating that international school is good for family with sound financial support, which means not for everyone.

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-6-30 16:47 發表
***Local school, elite or not, is not a recipe for everyone.  Nor is international school.***

I don't think so.

Local school, elite or not, is not a recipe for ANYONE.

International school is a rec ...

[ 本帖最後由 leschelems 於 09-6-30 16:59 編輯 ]

leschelems

Financial support is also part of family support, right?  You may opt to disgree with my view.  But as long as you do not object to the unaffordability of IS tuition fee to a lot of the families, I'm ok with your disagreeing with my view on this point.

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-6-30 17:04 發表
I am not supporting you as your view on IS in your mind is not like that. It can be easily seen from what you have written: Local school, elite or not, is not a recipe for everyone.  Nor is internatio ...

[ 本帖最後由 leschelems 於 09-6-30 17:25 編輯 ]

leschelems

At least we have come to certain convergence on this issue.  Let's cast aside finance then.  

I do not recommend any single school to all people.  I never believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, I am in favour of the principle of teaching each student in accordance to his/her aptitude.  In reality we certainly can't do that.  So I prefer a variety of curricula available as the second best to this ideal.

原帖由 wisekid2007 於 09-6-30 17:31 發表
I always say that it is regretable that not all the kids in HK can enjoy the style IS education because of the affordability of the family. Therefore, I would never recommend any local schools to anyo ...

leschelems

Doing the opposite may not lead to a good result.

There are US schools and researches report that US students enjoy too many holidays and too little homework.  The former leads to a learning loss up to 2 months per year and the latter leads to a slow literacy and numeracy development.  Their rectification is working on the opposite of HK's opposite to prevent them from developing a reluctance in reading and a lack of habit in learning.

Your description is a succint account of our conventional wisdom towards HK's schooling.  But it highly depends on your "usually".  There are about 60 internationall schools (primary and secondary) in HK.  And there is a comparable number of local schools which emphasize the same amount and level of reading, with a key difference in reading both Chinese and English books.

原帖由 thankful 於 09-6-30 22:41 發表
The kids in the local schools are usually inundated with so much homeworks, tests and exams etc. over the years that they will be reluctant to do any reading after they leave universities.  On the oth ...

sccc

Hi, Wisekid2007

Your boy's english level is good and creative.

I think the english level of normal P3 students in local schools is far below your boy's level.

However, I would like to request your opinions of following point:

1. There are some very famous local schools like 喇沙, 拔萃, St. Paul..... which are top schools in HK and their english level maybe higher than normal local school. Besides, some local schools also encourage students to read. From your opinion, do you think the level of english of those students in top local school (in terms of reading, writing, and communication) is comparable to those in say your boy's school?

2. When you decide to put your son into international school, I think you also have your preference international schools, eg. GISI, CIS, HKIS which are well-known international schools in HK. What are their weakness / good at? And why you finally decide to let you son joining GSIS.
(I know cis has very good result in IB result )

Thanks

Williamhero2009

I assure you GSIS English's level is much higher than any local school. All HK local school English standard are very low. Why I say that? They only focus on grammar and limited tex books but not encourging students to read more (e,g, they only ask them to read more but how can the students have time to read more in view of so many homework). How can your English's standard be good if you have limited vocabulary and sentence structures. You can do a test. You pick up a HK standard news paper, you might understand 70-80% under the local new section. If you pick up a sydney morning herald, I don't think you can understand 30% what it said. Therefore, I am talking about the English level here should be referred to international not only Hong Kong.

原帖由 sccc 於 09-7-1 17:26 發表
Hi, Wisekid2007

Your boy's english level is good and creative.

I think the english level of normal P3 students in local schools is far below your boy's level.

However, I would like to request your  ...

BlastedSkull

Hi I am an International School graduate, and I used to study in La Salle Primary School, a prestigious local school.
I am confident to say that Local schools are no where close to be able to compare with International Schools in every single aspect.
I am now studying overseas, and all the students who came from HK local schools have a tendency to stick with each other and only each other. And the reason is that they are not confident in speaking English. Despite their constant mocking of the Mainland Chinese's accent, they do know that they aren't much better and sound like retards when speaking English.
      International Schools also provide students with the resources and freedom figure out what they really wanna do in life. Compared to the Local school students who all look the same (and weird), who all share the identical lifestyle (immense studying + online RPG games), International School students will have the school's support no matter what they would want to do with their lives.
    Think about it: there are tons of students who transfer from Local school to International School, but are there any International school students who transfer to local school? I guess no sane person would ever do that unless their parents have gone bankrupt or smth.

BlastedSkull

BY the way, it is a myth that INternational SChool students get less homework. It is completely the opposite. I used to sleep at 11pm and had to wake up at 3am to finsih up my homework.
As I said, it all depends on the student. You can choose challenging courses if you think that is right or you can do smth else meaningful unless 99.9% of asians.

BlastedSkull

It is certainly not true that IS students do not know Chinese. AT least our chinese level is certainly better than YOU local kids' english level. And you guys can switch over to International Schools, so why not the other way around?


Because local schools are s-h-i-t.

leschelems

I see you have brought up a broader spectrum comparison.  I guess you are comparing the whole system, right?

Let's put it this way then.  The teaching approach of IS schools orginates from their respective home countries.  If their success is formulaic, it is not possible to have a notorious UK progressive school system and a disatrious US public school system.

Have you thought of the reasons that the IS schools' teaching apporachs are so successful here while back in UK and US the same thing causes troubles?

原帖由 thankful 於 09-7-1 16:06 發表
"Doing the opposite may not lead to a good result"

Right!  Nothing is guaranteed.  Not doing the opposite may not lead to a good result either.  

"There are US schools and researches report that US  ...

[ 本帖最後由 leschelems 於 09-7-2 11:44 編輯 ]