which would u prefer? Victoria or esf

melonfans

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-25 01:05
Any reasons? What made Vic isn't a preferred choice?

Is your kid speak English as a 1st language?  If not, it just a slim chance to get an offer from ESF.

Actually, all famous kindy are difficult to get an offer indeed.  Got offers first!

mrshoho

apply both then decide when you have both offers....  

slamai

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As a parent who has children studying / have studied in both ESF and VSA (including Victoria kindergarten), I can tell you something which may be obvious but must be assessed independently by individual parents for their children.While both are good schools, ESF has a better English environment and VSA has a better bilingual environment (not just better Chinese but also in terms of Chinese culture).  Some parents may prefer ESF for being more international with more foreign students while some may have reservations of ESF secondary schools for the relatively loose control on the mixing of both sexes (which is common for all international schools).  The support of the family in supplementing the school's language environment is also important in deciding which school to choose.
There are no hard and fast rules nor right or wrong choices.  It all depends on the individual considerations of the family for the child.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 lui 於 12-08-25 發表
I am going to send my girl to IS so I started reading the thread at forum, friends and the websites. ...

Thanks so much for your sharing.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 melonfans 於 12-08-25 發表
本帖最後由 melonfans 於 12-8-25 21:19 編輯

Not sure what my kid will speak, the kid is still baby. So should I train the kid to speak English as 1st language?

DonaldTsang

原帖由 mrshoho 於 12-08-25 發表
apply both then decide when you have both offers....

This is a good idea.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 slamai 於 12-08-25 發表
回復 DonaldTsang 的帖子

As a parent who has children studying / have studied in both ESF and VSA (i ...

Thank you so much for your sharing. Does vsa provide a good English environment given it places more emphasis on Chinese or Chinese culture than esf? Could you share with us whether your child or children going to Vic p school or IS? What if my kid was admitted to esf kinder but failed to get in esf p school then what my plan B could be? (because esf kinder offers only up to k2. )

lui

原帖由 DonaldTsang 於 12-08-26 發表
Thank you so much for your sharing. Does vsa provide a good English environment given it places more ...

I think if u cannot get a seat in esf primary. You have two choices. If u still want to go for the international stream, then u can apply, of course not only after you are failed at esf, but instead at the same time, apply other is school as well. If u decide to go for local , then u can apply k3. But it really depends the seats available.

melonfans

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-26 13:31
Not sure what my kid will speak, the kid is still baby. So should I train the kid to speak English a ...

If you're planning your kid to study in IS, you're better to let her/him speak fluent English or bilingual.  ESF web-site is stated clearly their admission criteria divided in CAT.1 & 2.

How come your kid can pass the interview as they conduct in English?

melonfans

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-26 14:18
Thank you so much for your sharing. Does vsa provide a good English environment given it places more ...

yes!  good question!  You hv to consider the alternative if your kid cannot directly promoted to primary section.

This is the hard way back to the local school & difficult to get a place for K3.  

The only way to apply others IS as well.   Debentures & levy are also to be concerned.

slamai

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In VSA primary, there is one English (NET) and one Chinese class teacher in each class.  The student should have enough exposure to English to polish his/her English to near native level though not all students can achieve this level for various reasons.  Even in ESF, not all students are good in English anyway.While there is no guarantee to get into a ESF primary school, you should apply to the private schools of ESF, i.e. RC/DC, which may be easier to get into.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 lui 於 12-08-26 發表
I think if u cannot get a seat in esf primary. You have two choices. If u still want to go for the i ...

Yes that's very true. I need to apply few IS at the same time. But if I applied K3, I believed the chance would be very low. What's more is I am still not sure if I really want to apply IS.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 melonfans 於 12-08-26 發表
本帖最後由 melonfans 於 12-8-26 21:35 編輯

No, my child is a baby only and yet we didn't apply. Do other IS also require the candidate to have fluent English ?

melonfans

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-27 00:31
No, my child is a baby only and yet we didn't apply. Do other IS also require the candidate to have  ...

Yes, i know your kid is still a baby.  But the curriculum of IS  kinder is not connected to local school.  Less of IS teaching chinese language and chinese writing.  That's not easy to catch up the curriculum in local primary school.  

I can't throughfully tell you the English requirements of all IS.  But basically you have to know their teaching language are using English.  If the applicants are not understand & communicate during the interview.   How can you convince the interviewers think the applicants can be understand in the lesson & fulfill the school entry requirements ?

Did you read the entry requirement of ESF?

FattyDaddy

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-27 00:31
No, my child is a baby only and yet we didn't apply. Do other IS also require the candidate to have fluent English ? ...

I can't say anything about other international schools as I had not dealt with them, but having gone through the admission process of an ESF kindergarten, I can say they don't really require applicants to be speaking fluent English, this is contrary to what many might believe.

The decisive part of their admission process is a "play visit" at the school, and what happens during that is mostly the parent playing with the child while a few teachers quietly observe from the side. Of course, if the child is already speaking fluent English that would be excellent, but most applicants are just a little over two years old and as I had noticed during the play visit which my daughter and I attended, most of the children didn't say much (my daughter didn't utter a single word for the entire event). So the teachers are not really assessing the child's but the parent's spoken English, and whether the child understands what is spoken by the parent during play.

What this means is, you need to be speaking English to your child all the time in routine everyday life starting from now when he/she is still a baby, and this needs to continue even after your child has started attending ESF kindergarten, because when it comes to applying for ESF primary schools in the beginning of K2, they will expect the child to be speaking fluent English by then, and just speaking English for 3 hours at kindergarten 5 days per week is not enough. You must refrain from speaking Cantonese to your child for 4 to 5 years, and during this time, your child will not be able to communicate with other children and family members who only speak Cantonese.

So before you decide to go the ESF route, you need to be aware of this and ask yourself if this is really what you want.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 melonfans 於 12-08-27 發表
本帖最後由 melonfans 於 12-8-27 13:34 編輯

Yes melo thanks so much. Actually at this early stage I want to know mores out IS though I am not sure if I would go for or if my kid is suitable to apply. Yes I did read the Adnission requirement which to my understanding is English is very important

FattyDaddy

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-29 00:30
I am not sure if I would go for or if my kid is suitable to apply ...

Bear in mind that it is not just down to the child, the parents are in this together, and in fact it depends more on the parents than the child.

For ESF schools, if the parents do not create an English speaking environment at home for the child's first 4 to 5 years, the child will encounter many difficulties along the way.

melonfans

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-29 00:30
Yes melo thanks so much. Actually at this early stage I want to know mores out IS though I am not su ...

You're welcome!  Many parents here are also glad to share their experience to help each other.

If you didn't make up your mind to let him study in IS primary school, i think it's not a good strategy to choose IS kinder.

Local int'l class may be most suitable for you to select which is the right way for your kid.  Open you mind to consider not only the famous schools as they are not easy to get an offer.  Searching some good reputation kinders nearby your home is really good for small boy when he still need to have a nap time.

DonaldTsang

原帖由 FattyDaddy 於 12-08-29 發表
Bear in mind that it is not just down to the child, the parents are in this together, and in fact it ...

Thank you fatty daddy. You really gave lots of insights. Initially I also thought the kid must present the good of use of English during interview but I was surprised it isn't and rather it is based on parents' ability to communicate in English. Am I right that not every applicant will be invited for play visit? You may be true that it would be dependent more on parents than the kid to consider whether to go for IS.

FattyDaddy

DonaldTsang 發表於 12-8-30 00:15
Thank you fatty daddy. You really gave lots of insights. Initially I also thought the kid must present the good of use of English during interview ...

For ESF kindergartens, their interview (they call it "play visit") is not the same as many of the local kindergartens, they don't ask the child to perform anything, instead they just watch how the parent plays with the child, and as I had noticed during the play visit I attended, most of the children didn't say much, so the school must be assessing the parent's spoken English more than the child's.

I guess their underlying rationale is this, if the parent's English is good, it is very likely that the child's English will be good too. In a way this is more fair because young children are very temperamental and unpredictable, their performance can vary a lot depending on their mood, so an assessment based just on the child is likely to be inaccurate.

You are correct that not every applicant will be invited to a play visit, so the school must be doing some initial screening to determine who to invite and who to put on the waiting list, but I have no idea what criteria they use for this initial screening.