CIS impossible to get in?

112200

Sis parent 兩group.有谷有唔谷。 unlike local school most parent are 谷。所以睇你自己想點。

fanfanbb

112200 發表於 13-7-5 10:41
SIS p1要做卷中英數和英普對答，全程二至三小時，得大約十個位。i幾多人考唔知但interview做足個幾星期. Py ...

多謝你的回覆. 如果收佢, 我諗我會變成一個緊張的虎媽, hahaha

ikerberg

Seeing is believing... for those who are interested in SIS, the best way to have a clearer picture is to visit the school and talk with the students... e.g. when it is having "Open House" [every April] and "Christmas Fair" <--- not sure if it is restricted to students' families...

Years ago, I had a visit to SIS's Open House and talk with the students there, I was very impressed by their bilingual capabilities - [English & Putonghua] , IT & Art skils, happy faces and tanned skins....

From that moment, I had a strong resolve to let my kids study there....
Finally, all my 3 kids succeeded.., which I consider very fortunate because we are just a regular local HK family  

fanfanbb

回復 ikerberg 的帖子

Thanks and will do. Your three kids getting in not because of luck but their ability and quality. As far as I know, SIS accepts students based on their interview performance. And, it's hard to get in for locals as places are very limited.

ikerberg

I agree quality and ability do count, and I consider they are 'entrance tickets' and as parents what we could do is to prepare them with such 'entranc tickets', and whether they could perform as we wish, it depends on the X-factor ----> luck....
For example, right before my little son's interview in Jan this year, i,e. about 5 mins before entering the interview room, he cried heavily out of no reason... but we tried our best to calm him down and finally we succeeded to stop him cry right before entering the interview room... and after a 45-50 mins interview on his own, he came out with a smiling face  : >

fanfanbb

回復 ikerberg 的帖子

Yes, there are always uncertainties and variables, especially for a young kid's interview. As a mother, what I could do is to get him well prepared, such as chose a bilingual kinder, pay attention to his PTH and Eng development, develop his 'common sense', etc. then whether he could perform well over the interview, i could only leave for himself. Still a long way for me as my son is now 11+ months.  

fanfanbb

回復 ikerberg 的帖子

And, would you mind to share your son's interview experience?

112200

I agreed with ikerberg, sis student bilingal ability is one of their differentiation. Not mention other IS,  In CIS , it is not difficult to find some student with either good english or good Pth, more or less depends on their mother tongue. Ikerberg recalled me Two years ago i have pay a school visit to CIS and they got 2 kids to tour us around. One of them is from american and one of them from mainland, each of them in charge of one language response to parents. I did talk to the american in pth but his pth is only in keywords in polite way. I think those students are specially selected by school already.

donut012

I think CIS has a different approach towards their bilingual program. I went to their info session, they said they are looking for students who are very strong in their mother language, be it English or Mandarin, and use that strong language to anchor the other language upon. They kept emphasizing that it is very important to have a strong thinking language, so the student can use that to learn about things that are more conceptual. That's why they intentionally look for kids who are either vey strong in English or Mandarin, rather than those who knows enough about both languages but have no one strong language.

ikerberg

re: fanfanbb ---

Literally, I can write a book on this....I started to deeply think about the question of whether to choose the traditional or international stream when my first son was less than one year old.... Before knowing SIS, we had more inclination to the traditional, cos' we thought knowing Chinese/Putonghua is a must for a global citizen in coming century.... but our first meet with SIS let us know you "could have the best of both worlds in one school"...

The first big decision you have to make is to choose suitable kinder(s) [prenur or nur] which would enable your child to equip with fluent spoken English to communicate in the interview --- when your child is just about 3 years old... obviously, a local kinder could not provide such an English speaking environment to develop a child with such an admirable capability,but for a completely international kinder, you run the risk of not being accepted by an International Primary..... [cos' nowadays it is not easy at all to enroll in an International Primary even if you have plenty of $)

So, how to solve this dilemma?  

------ to be continued ------

DonaldTsang

Hi ikeberg, that's very true and we are looking for the rest of your story. Can you clarify that SIS would use pth to conduct interview?

Ononma

Hi ikebery,

同意你第二段所講嘅情形，等緊你嘅延續篇。

fanfanbb

回復 ikerberg 的帖子

Thank you and it's very nice of you. Many of us here are waiting for your next parts. We have made up our mind for IS from day one and the boy is going to Kingston this August.

ikerberg

hi all,

I didn't expect there are so many enthusiastic responses, but as I just returned from a whole-day outdoor activity with my 3 kids, I am too tired to write > 100 words....but, I will give a quite detailed account tomorrow morning

ikerberg

OK, it is time to share something  :>

I will try to explain it with the 'demand/supply' theory.

In simple terms, we have to supply what a certain school demands – SIS in this case, just as what it applies to the job market --- an employee has to be equipped with the qualities that an employer demands, and if so, you stand a high chance of being employed.

Most of us are not staff working in SIS, so how do we understand what types of students the school is looking for?  The simplest method is to visit their website, learn about the school’s education philosophy, read the principal’s messages, understand the school’s curriculum, etc.  And, most of the demands are in fact secretly spelt out in the activities of the ‘interview’.....But, for SIS’s PY1 interviews, parents are not allowed to be present and we could just have a glimpse of what is happening inside from the mouths of those who have gone through the process.

In brief, the current one [as a result of joining the dots] would be one lasting for about 45-50 mins, and I would guess [yes, just mere guessing] that it would be like a ‘fair’ that the kid has to go through different counters according to a definite sequence. For example, in counter 1 – logic games, counter 2- testing of conversing in English, counter 3 – testing of drawing/writing names…. But nevermind the setup, as far as we know, the following things would be tested – for those who choose to be interviewed in English – whole process will be in English, some very elementary PTH – e.g. greetings, something about the kid’s family and school; writing of own name – in English and/or Chinese, numbers etc; logic games.

So, in brief conclusion, unless your mother tongue is PTH, it is preferable to choose English as a medium of communication.  Yet, even if you choose English, you still have to equip the kid with some elementary PTH conversation capability.  Besides, the kid is also expected to use pencil to write/draw, and to play logic games which require the kid to identify different colors and shapes.

Concerning the schooling matters of my kids before SIS, unfortunately, I was discouraged by some family member to reveal it here……so…..there is only one word I can say: “Sorry!”.

One final comment: Since the school will offer real priority to Singaporeans and the seats remained for HK ppl are getting less by the year, so the competition is exceptionally high especially in the past 1-2 years...But from our observations, it is a real fair play for the remaining seats, every kid is on the same level playing field and 'Guang Xi' does not matter at all <---- which is very different from some pretigious local schools, esp. those with church backgrounds.   This is the point of the school I like most => you get accepted merely by your performance, regardless of who you are and how much $ you have.

Final wish:  Good luck!  But, remember: don't put all your eggs into one basket  : >

Ononma

比一般只要求英文要流利嘅學校更難考！

112200

對，也不是讀幾個月面試班可以應付的事情。

Fillofit

Thank you so much wenwan! Your information is very helpful. May I know where you find the private tutor for the language training for your kids? Will try my luck to apply CIS, but i also want my daughter laugage can be trained in this period of time.
Thank you so much for your help.

Fillofit

原帖由 wenwan 於 13-07-04 發表
Fillofit, CIS好注重幾樣野：家長方面- 1. 家長有否參與學校生活, 2. 家長及小朋友有否參與社區活動（我地 ...

Thanks and above  is response to Wenwan.

小冬姑

My husband friend's daughter got accepted by SIS even though she was crying at the interview the entire time!!!   Reason being my husband's friend has connection with someone from SIS.....