Boxhill MOS & ESF WKS 讀邊間好?

PiyoC

回復 mienmien 的帖子

This is what I am concerning about, as your son is now in MOS BH K3, can you advise  what kind of P1 you are now aiming at for your son?

If the competition is getting higher and the levy & tuition fee are rising so much, I am worried that the situation would only be even very crazy by the time my son finishes K2 3 years after.

Just one practical question, I saw the school calendar of BH and surprised to see they have got 15 school holidays a year (not including public holidays). Is it normal in kindergarten? I can't find the same in other KGs! As the expected monthly school fee would be approaching to $5k, counted the holidays. It is quite expensive.

c200

回復 PiyoC 的帖子

because both ESF and BH have Half term break, this is very common in IS....

yuenru

misskwokwok ,

Honestly, please do not forget that the baby boom has started since last year. both WFS and BH both have a big drop in term of successful rate. I think it's simply because of the sudden increase of applicant.  According to Mrs. King in BH, the no. of applicants in RC back in 2011 was only 300, but this year, they got up to 800 applicants. RC has said that this is the record high for them.   
Honestly, the competition is keen.   All I can say is that face the reality and prepare the best of your kid.

yuenru

PiyoC ,

Honestly, BH is not expensive relatively to other private schools. dont' forget that this charges involve books , snacks. My friends in local schools are paying less like 35xx but it costs them alot on charges like books, birthday parties and even school bus fees.   

My view is that we all spending close to 6000 -8000 dollars on each kinder garten these days given that we all want to build up their portfolio somewhat.   what it means is that one could spend 5xxx on BH but take lesss English classes compare with local school kid spend 3xxx on school tuition but expensive english lesson.  When i speak to my friends, I realize that we all somehow spending around the same in total amount. It just a matter how you want to distribute the money.

PiyoC

回復 yuenru 的帖子

yes, Mrs King did say we can save money from taking external English class and enroll their interest classes instead. I also admit that BH is good for not having any miscellaneous cost while other KG in Kln Tong can cost 2.8k a year.
I am just thinking if they have so many holidays in a school year, it would be difficult for us to arrange our annual leave to accompany with him during his holidays. Perhaps at the end we have to leave him to grandmother or helper alone which is not ideal indeed.

BTW, many parents said RC only concerns about interview performance. How difficult actually it is? what do they test the children and how long it takes?

I saw your daughter got accepted by Anfield Primary, Mrs King also recommended this one. Will you take this offer? I wonder if we should apply the Anfield KG so that the chance of getting into its Primary is higher as a back up. .

misskwokwok

回復 yuenru 的帖子

I thought the no. of application was around 600 the year before.  

yuenru

PiyoC ,
if your concern is having too much holidays, I think there is a solution to it. since BH holiday schedule align with many other IS schools, there are summer camp/spring camp which you can sign them up during long break. For example, I signed them up for ICS summer course for the July whole month and then there is YMCA wellness camp in WKS in Aug.   then it only left them 1 week before school start again.


While we got accepted by Anfield, we also got CAIS as well. After much consideration, we'll put her in CAIS.  Happy to talk more about my thoughts on this.

yuenru

and by the way, RC has more holidays than BH too. so it jsut the begining.

PiyoC

回復 yuenru 的帖子

Thanks for your suggestion. I don't know there is YMCA summer camp in WKS.

Glad to hear you have final decision on P1. Is your son going to attend the Grade 2 class as you said he is now K3 in BH. I would like to understand more about your thoughts when comparing the different curriculumns. Anfield is offering British National Curriculum which aligns with BH whereas CAIS is under Alberto Curriculumn. I saw it is originated from Canada. Would that limit the future applicaton of Uni in Canada only?

yuenru

PiyoC ,
my daughter is in K2 BH right now. She is going to CAIS this Aug and will not stay in BH.   

In term of curriculumns, it really depends what is your future education plan.   There is no good nor bad in between the curriculumns.I talked to many people regarding UK vs Canda curriculumns, they are both good. It's more depends on whether you want your kids to study in UK related school (Austuralia/UK) or you are closed to North America system.

In term of schools Anfield vs. CAIS, there are the comparions
(A vs C)
1. Cost: 12K HKD per month(include other fees), no debenture vs 8500 HKD per month until 2015. Once the new campus read, 250K HKD for debenture.   it's really a matter of cash flow. at the end of the day, they are very closed in term of cost.
2. other:school fees in Anfield include extra activities vs. C treat is as additional cost.
3. UK vs Canda cirruclum
4. Track record: One is up to primary and one has track record up to high school.
5. Reglion: Catholic vs Christian.
6. class size: small (20) vs medium
7. campus: brand new campus in Tai Wai vs. crappy campus in Lai Yui and then super nice campus in Cheung Sha Wan.

by the way, is your son in Dinosaur class now?

PiyoC

回復 yuenru 的帖子

My son is going to N1Sep this year. It seems a few years to go until he becomes eligible to apply IS but I already have to plan what the future route we want him to go in Primary (IS or LS). While BH seems to have an advantage in getting into RC or other IS because of its better training in English, but I am not clear about the grading of IS in HK to be honest. For LS, there would be kind of banding but not in IS I am afraid.

In the end, we most likely don't have a choice coz of the limited spaces in IS and we may turn out to find a relatively more expensive but less reputable IS to study. Then how about coming to LS which at least we have better visibility of its quality of education from our friends, families..and most importantly with lower tuition fee. This is where I am stuck in my mind now.

yuenru

PiyoC ,

you are not the only one who has this thought. Given that your son is Nursery in Sep, the competition is even more fierece than what I'm having now.   I think it's good that you start your research now.  But at the end of the day, there are many uncontrollable factors.     Enjoy the time with yoru kids. When the time of applying schools come, just follow the schedule and apply.   Honestly, it's very hard to know what schools you can get in and what not now.    According to the overall school application schedule, it never hurt to try out the international route first as it start from K2 Sep.  If the IS pan doesn't go well, you can then follow the LS stream from K2 Jun time and K3 onward.   

Don't worry too much. Enjoy the moment with your kid.  They grow up fast and happy moment is the time you dont' want to be missed.

PiyoC

回復 yuenru 的帖子

Thanks. Yes you are right. I may be worried too much. I would keep your comments on the curriculum comparison for my reference. Hope everything's going fine in CAIS and your daughter loves the school. You're also a good mum with such a good planning for your daughter.

Max1130

Dear yuenru, is your girl in elephant A?

yuenru

Max1130 ,
Elephant B.

Max1130

My son is in elephant A, he also got accepted by Cais and think international.  But I m still struggling, coz the cais school bus should be leaving ma on Shan at 6:15am which i think it is a little too much for them.  Since my son is relatively small n RC asks me to re-apply year 1 again this year when they rejected my son.  I might want to let him stay at Boxhill k3, then try RC again n also some dds.  Actually, I heard from ms chow that all elephant b applicants to RC got accepted, no?

yuenru

Max1130 ,
Oh, I remember who you are!  For CAIS, I called up the school bus company, given that they just being told about moving to the new campus, they are at the middle of re-designing the bus route at the moment.   Give them a call and see if they have any update.
Not all elephant B got accepted, besides myself and 2 more on wait list. what about Elephant A?

anyway, your case is a tough call.  repeating 1 year is good but also mean that the competition is getting even worse.