To share our experience

Darrenderek

I posted the message below in Primary School Selection forum in November.  Since I think it may help parents who are interested in this school to understand the school better, I would like to post the message here too.

My son is a P.3 student at Lingnan DSS Primary School and he has been studying in this school for 1.5 years now.  

He was transferred to Lingnan from a traditional school.  Owing to his very active nature, though not diagnosed as hyperactive, one can imagine how difficult it was for him to fit into the common traditional school culture.  We didn’t blame the teachers since we totally understood it was a mismatch.  At first we thought he would behave more “properly” as he grew up and putting him at that school would help directing him back on the right track, but it turned out to be just an unrealistic desire.  Academically he was doing OK, but the negative cycle ran on and on; he was unhappy about going to school and the teachers were not happy about him, either.  It was a disaster to all parties, and most importantly, it did no good to my son.  

In P.2 we discovered this School and let him try to take the entrance exam.  It was a rigorous exam covering Eng, Chinese and Maths.  To our surprise, he did very well on the exam, as told by the Headmistress, who is a very nice and experienced educator.  Why would I describe her as an educator?  During the conversation at the interview, she explained to us about the school’s philosophy and we observed the way she spoke to our son; it was impressive in that she showed that the school would set the standard for students to meet, yet they would give their best effort to encourage the students to do so.  She recognized the motivation of an action taken by my son, while explaining to him how it could have been done better in a very delicate manner.  At that time we were sure that it should be the right school for my son.  We understand that he can’t go to a school which only stresses on discipline and academic results.  At the same time, happy schools without putting emphasis on academic and disciplinary matters would not be suitable for him either.  However, Lingnan seems to manage to strike a good balance.  

Now, after 1.5 years, my son has changed a lot, although he still has a long way to go.  In the past, he was not given any opportunity to participate in speech or other teams; now, not only will he participate in HK speech competition, but he also has become a member of several school sports teams.  He learns that he needs to follow instructions and guidance in the teams, if he wants to excel in whatever he is doing.  This makes him become more mature and empathetic.  As told by his current teachers, they all commented that he has improved quite a big deal.  His concentration has also improved and it is reflected in the Assessment results.  As a matter of fact, we still receive calls from the teachers telling us what he did wrong and what needed to be improved.  But it was all done in a sincere and encouraging way. This makes a very big difference.  As far as I know, the teaching team consists of many good Christians.  I reckon this helps nurture the caring culture at the school.

As a Chinese school, Lingnan has done pretty well structuring and strengthening its English curriculum.  I believe not too many schools can afford to have a NET to teach students almost every day in a small class.  Separate teams grouping students of similar proficiency level facilitate students to learn English more effectively.  The fact that they emphasize reading, writing and oral also sets its program apart.  

Two days ago, I asked my son,”How much do you like the school, on a 0 – 10 scale?” “10!” well, he is such an “extremist”.  But no doubt, he loves this school very much.

Since my whole family is pretty satisfied with this School, I would like to publicly share our experience here for everyone’s reference.

Please accept my apologies for making this post so long.

chanwendy

請問係咪三年級開始中艾會再按能力分班教呀? 每個 group 幾多人呀?

Darrenderek

I only heard from my son that there are 2 groups, Red and Blue, respectively, in the whole form.  Students with a higher proficiency in Eng will go to Red and the rest will go to Blue.  I'm not sure about the no. of students in each class.  But I guess they will be more or less even.  There is however no such arrangement for Chinese and Mathematics.

ricebb

Darremderek, 多謝你的分享!

其實我在"小一選校"裡, 看見過你一些很用心詳盡的回應, 同樣很值得分享, 希望大家不要介意我在此轉貼

http://www.edu-kingdom.com/forum ... amp;extra=page%3D12

http://www.edu-kingdom.com/forum ... &extra=page%3D5

http://www.edu-kingdom.com/forum ... E5%B0%8F&page=2

a_for_apple

thank you again!

Darrenderek

回復 ricebb 的帖子

ricebb,
Thanks for listing the threads here for other parents to read.  I've noticed that parents like chanwendy, sandytaitai, and yourself of course, are quite active on EK sharing your info and experience about the School too.  Nice to have you all here!  
So far I haven't seen any negative comments about this School.  Honestly speaking, I myself can't think of anything that I significantly dislike so far.  On the contrary, there are indeed quite a few good things that I would like to share.