ESF WKS kindergarden student but failed get offer from ESF primary school

bearman5788

Today is a very sad day for all ESF kinder parents after hearing the tragedy happened yesterday in Sham Shui Po.  Hope the cause was not the placement result of the kid.

oooray

原帖由 bearman5788 於 10-2-8 11:27 發表
Today is a very sad day for all ESF kinder parents after hearing the tragedy happened yesterday in Sham Shui Po.  Hope the cause was not the placement result of the kid.

Yes.
As a parent, I sent an email to school expressing my sadness and sympathy...

[ 本帖最後由 oooray 於 10-2-8 13:29 編輯 ]

bakusensei

原帖由 oooray 於 10-2-8 11:31 發表

Yes.
As a TY parent, I sent an email to school expressing my sadness and sympathy...

yes, feel v. sorry about the family.

will the kinder provide any support to the family? and will it provide any psychological support/counselling to other kids and teachers?

cocobean225

the girl is ESF kinder student?

minggrace

Yep, that 4-year-old girl is a K2 student of ESF Kinder; I guess she's from ESF TY. I also feel very sad for the family. I was once the ESF TY parent. I'm very sorry! Perhaps the placement result is not very satisfactory even for the TY branch for those Cat. 2 students. After all, there're so many Cat. 1 applicants this year and then it's really hard to be given a place in the first round. But I believe that when there's a will, there's a hope. Don't forget that those Cat. 1 successful applicants may have held several places such as a subvention ESF school and RC (and, or DC). In the end, they only go to one school.
It's not easy to be an ESF parent nowadays but I always think that I'm luckier than those local famous school parents. Anyway, good luck to all ESF parents!

原帖由 cocobean225 於 10-2-8 12:50 發表
the girl is ESF kinder student?

cocobean225

can't agree more that this year ESF Y1 admission/ interview chance is giving us huge pressures.

I'm on the same boat as everyone

xmaseve

Just wanna add my two cents.

This was what I knew from SJS interview in 2008.

1. A kid (from HK, fair english, good attitude, dec boy) failed the interview.  He then repeated one year at TY ESF and was admitted by SJS next year.

2. A kid (from HK, a sibling of SJS student, fair english, poor attitude, nov boy) failed the interview and was not accepted to repeat at TY kinda.

3. A kid (an foreigner, fair english, fair to good attitude, dec boy) failed the 1st interview and SJS promised to give 2nd interview 4 months later and he passed it.

4. A kid (from HK, good english, fair to good attitude, dec boy) passed the first interview.

After all, I think "english" is the core part if you can grant an interview. And I heard that Ms. Mina Dunstan (one of the interviewers) can understand cantonese.  It should deduct marks if your kid replied with some Chinese to the interviewers' (english) questions..  However, it should have no harm if kids speak chinese to each other during the interview.

MayAnne

Hi, I am an ESF SJS parent. My daughter's currently in her first year at the school.

I just wanted to write in to say that the school does not admit children based on which kindies they go to. My daughter did not go to ESF kindie nor did she go to any of those prestigious kindies. What Shatin Junior looks for is the degree of competency in English. They test to see if your child can understand English and whether or not he/she can converse well enough in English to survive in an all English environment. When we had the interview last year, Mina told us that Shatin Junior does not teach English, it teaches IN English.

For those of you in Cat. 2, you can improve your chances by exposing your children to an all english environment. For example, one good way will be to get your helper to speak to your child more. It doesn't matter if your child does not have a proper English accent. SJS caters for children with different backgrounds, all speak English with a unique accent.  

A friend of mine was in Cat. 2 and her daughter was accepted because her English was good.

Good luck. I can still recall how stressful it was for me too when I had to go through it.

mother30

Pls don't put all the blame on the school. As one of the ESF kindy parents, I am fully aware that my son only has priority in interview. So when the comment came that he did not pick up the language well, we gave him extra support after school for almost one year. The school only provides the medium to learn English. As parents, we should also help our child in every way to prepare them for the interview. For us, we applied to all 3 ESF schools and also 2 other int'l scoools as back up. Do plan for yourself.

可愛小肥媽

My son is now in ESF K1 and I'm worry if he can get a seat in ESF pri next year.  Is it related to his daily behaviour at school?

strayteddy

If you have any questions or worries, you can approach the class teacher for advice.  That is the most direct and reliable way.

原帖由 可愛小肥媽 於 10-2-9 17:31 發表
My son is now in ESF K1 and I'm worry if he can get a seat in ESF pri next year.  Is it related to his daily behaviour at school?

asasal

I'm totally agree with U! I'm not speaking for the school but they only garantee a chance to interview but not a place. Parents need to prepare their child & should not rely on school.  May be the school's giving too much false hope to parents, but they need to do some research before  interview.

原帖由 mother30 於 10-2-9 15:42 發表
Pls don't put all the blame on the school. As one of the ESF kindy parents, I am fully aware that my son only has priority in interview. So when the comment came that he did not pick up the language w ...

可愛小肥媽

Can anyone please share the alternative if my child cannot get a seat to ESF P1?

bakusensei

原帖由 可愛小肥媽 於 10-2-10 09:55 發表
Can anyone please share the alternative if my child cannot get a seat to ESF P1?

from my fds' experience:
1) research on other IS and ve back-up plan (better check those information earlier. don't just do it after the result of ESF P.1 is announced. but u will need to pay a bit more on those applications and interviews.)

2) if option 1) fail, another alternative is to find a K3 seat in ESF (depending on whether it offers) or YMCA and try again next yr.

3) the third option is to find a local K3 seat. and try applying  some direct subsided schools (DSS) or private schools in HK which is not so stressful (some even use IB). u can check the basic info of schools in HK at
http://www.chsc.hk/primary/tc/home.htm
mindful that most require interviews in Cantonese and u also need to train up your kid in Chinese (both reading and writing).

if fail, can still secure a seat in a local primary school thr "allocation". many famous subsided schools like La Salle, Maryknott, etc are entered thr "counting the marks of the kids' religion and whether parents' are alumni of the primary school) and lucky draw (i.e. the location of the HOME of the kid (NOT the location of the kinder) [it's better for parents to learn the rule of game too. for details, pls read http://www.edb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=1497&langno=2 ]

天無絕人之路.

actually, some kinders in HK which stress on happy learning, do not "push the kids" to learn too much (even in Chinese and Maths; and also in writing) until K3. thus, ESF kids won't lag behind too much. and kids in K2 are still v. young and much easier (than us) to adapt to other environment.

MayAnne

An alternative would be to consider RC. Other backups include considering other international schools such as Norwegian, JIS etc. Gigamind in TSW is also proving to be quite popular. You could also consider Direct Subsidy schools.

One important thing to keep in mind is this.... even if you do not pass the first interview, they WILL interview again in a few months time. Many Chinese do get in this way so don't give up.

If you look at the ratio of students, they say only 40% are local hongkongers. 40% is quite high as it is but dont' forget that with the other 60%, some are probably half chinese and half european/filipinos/indians etc and can speak perfect Chinese also.

My heart goes out to the family of the girl who has just lost a loved one and who nearly lost another. The pressure is awful whether you choose ESF or follow the local path.

For those who still need to apply for primary schools, remember this... the reason why ESF kindy has an advantage is because you can guarantee that at least 6 students will choose to go to ESF primary. The ESF policy is that they will visit any school if the school has 6 children or more wanting to go to ESF. If ESF visits, they have more time with your kids to see how they cope in an English environment. This is the ONLY advantage. Going to ESF kindy does not guarantee you a spot at ESF primary.

What will guarantee is your child's level of english. They are not looking for brilliance. They only look at their ability to cope in an english setting - how confident they are in conversing in English and how good they are at listening and responding to english.
Kids at Year 1 ESF primary are being spoken to at native level so the words they use in class are not simple. You need a good command in English to cope and to understand what is going on.

My daughter, who gets a lot of english from me, struggles with some words too. She'll come home and ask me what "representative", "inquiry," "details", "tasks" etc mean.

No matter what path your child takes, if he/she is smart, he/she will do well anyway.

Some interview tips... if kids are quiet at the interview with the teacher or while playing, the interviewers give them another chance by showing them pictures and asking them to describe what is happening. I'm not sure if they still do this but no harm in preparing for this.

Someone asked if "behavioural issues" affect the kids' chances of getting in. It only affects your kid's performance IF he/she refuses to answer the teachers. The teachers then won't know if your kids have "medical issues" or if they don't understand English. If your child can respond when he/she is being disciplined, there is no problem. However, if there is a medical issue (prematurity causing delays), they will take this into consideration and the results are usually in your favour.

Good luck, it is really, really tough.

cocobean225

ESF primary will also visit other kindy, not just the ESF kindy.
But I do agree with MayAnne, the ESF school visit before interview is a good chance for interviewers to have a "first" impression of the kids.

原帖由 MayAnne 於 10-2-10 12:14 發表
An alternative would be to consider RC. Other backups include considering other international schools such as Norwegian, JIS etc. Gigamind in TSW is also proving to be quite popular. You could also co ...

MayAnne

Yes, ESF will visit ANY kindy that has 6 or more children wanting to go to ESF.

MITCHmama

Dear parents,
I just would like to share my experience with ESF Y1 interviews(2009-->last year) here.....just to let you guys know it's still not the end of the game yet. You and your kids might still have a chance:
My boy is in Cat.2 (Not in any ESF Kinder) with no silibings in ESF Primary. We applied both SJS and RC last year. In a very short time right after we turned in the application form, SJS had sent us a note by telling us there's no interview is going to offer to my son since there's too many applicants but they would ask if I would like to be in the wait-list. And of course we said "YES" to them. At the same time, we are having an opportunity at RC but my boy failed it as they explained he is way too young for Y1 (He is a X'mas Dec. boy)......by the time when we are feeling so upset, SJS called in late March and would like to offer an interview (2nd or 3rd round) for us in mid April or so. And my son passed the interview & got a place in Y1 right away.
So, since there are interviews still on going.......don't give up yet.
However, I totally agree that English and out-going personality are the key points.
Cheer up and good luck!

Mitchmama

[ 本帖最後由 MITCHmama 於 10-2-11 21:10 編輯 ]

littlecat222

Does any one have update information reagrding the acceptance rate of WKS kinder students to ESF Primary school?