Harrow Hong Kong, any sharing please

happyhealthymin

Dear parents, any comment about this school? any existing parents here? Please kindly share.

newview

Hi, my son is in Year 1.  Which aspects are you interested in?

happyhealthymin

原帖由 newview 於 15-02-09 發表
Hi, my son is in Year 1.  Which aspects are you interested in?

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Maybe not many Harrow parents use EK. Could you share about at the very beginning  why you chose this scool over other IS, what attracted you? After you son has been there for almost half a year now, is rge school meeting your expectations, and in what aspects? Thanks for your sharings in advance.

newview

My husband and I put my son in international school to let him enjoy smaller class, less homework and pressure, more time to play and think while still achieve certain level of academic standard. There is no perfect school and my son fits in Harrow so far so good.

Some facts to share:
- 22 students with one teacher and one teaching assistant
- 3 lessons in the morning covering Literacy (English), Maths and Language (can choose 4 Chinese lessons a week or 2 Chinese + 2 French, think western people can choose other languages, like Spanish but I can't recall. if you opt for 4 Chinese lessons a week, you can choose traditional or simplified chinese)
- after lunch there is theme (one theme one month) music, libruary, extra-curricular activities (2 compulsory + 2 at parents' choices for each term), PE, assembly, swimming, etc. spreading over the week
- homework is once a week covering Literacy, Maths and Theme (comes on Fri and return on Thur), Chinese homework also once a week returning on Mon, each piece of homework can be finished within 10 minutes to 20 minutes (depending on how much you want to devote on theme as you need to research a bit or draw a bit)
- No test or exam, no textbook, need to do dictation on 10 simple English words once a week
- will bring 2 books back home on Tue and on Fri + 1 libruary book once a week (all Eng)
- my son's class mainly HKers with some mixed, western, Asian families while some other classes more western people. The family mix varies from class to class.  Parents are friendly.
      

Mighty

Sounds like a good school and lots of options too for language at such a young age.  Do you see lots of Mainland Chinese students there as people say?

newview

Only one or two in my class and they are nice.  I heard it varies from class to class and from grade to grade so different people will tell you different "facts".

tai2cat

My son is in K2, he admitted the school this school year, so far we are satisfied with the school.  The teachers are caring and the kids are behaving.  

No mainland chinese in my son's class, the class consist of mainly HKers, Asian, Westerners.  The size of class is small enough so that all children get their attention.  The only thing my son is struggling is to write in cursive and to eat properly with manner using fork & knife.

happyhealthymin

原帖由 newview 於 15-02-09 發表
My husband and I put my son in international school to let him enjoy smaller class, less homework an ...

Thanks very much for your sharings. I totally agree with you that no school is perpect. One person can only go to one school. Thats why other parents' sharing is very important.

happyhealthymin

原帖由 tai2cat 於 15-02-09 發表
My son is in K2, he admitted the school this school year, so far we are satisfied with the school.   ...

Thanks for your sharing. Not many Harrow patents here.

YauMum

The school classifies students by passport, in fact, the school is not allowed to admit any Mainlander.

Those 'Mainlanders' are either holding HKIDC or overseas passports. holders.

aninie

Why you so care mainlanders in class or not? If your parents already so biased and discriminated, how will you teach your kids?

cindyinhk

I also think as parents we should not let those narrow minds influence our children's innocent social world. Imagine in a school, some kids do not want to play with others only because they are from certain places or they are certain races... is this a kind of bully?

SydneyC

How much is the extra fee except for the basic sch fee per month ? Like lunch ,tea and sch bus etc.
Does ur kid enjoy going to sch ? Is the sch hash on academic and manner?
Thank you for sharing

minirat

原帖由 cindyinhk 於 15-02-24 發表
本帖最後由 cindyinhk 於 15-2-24 00:28 編輯

I also think as parents we should not let those narrow ...

I share your sentiments.  No doubts the behaviour of some mainlanders is irritating, the kids are innocent.  I certainly do not want to see my boy labeling his classmates like that.

newview

回覆 SydneyC 的帖子

Lunch and snacks around 2000+ to 3000+ for a term (3 terms a year). School bus fee depends on where you live. You can check on the school's website under "Adminstration\school bus service".

paulhoyin

Hello parents, there's some information I would like to know, if you don't mind sharing.
- besides tuition, lunch, snack, school uniform and school bus, is there other extra fees?
- other than parents' day, are there many activities that need parents' participation?
- what would you say about Harrow in terms of academic?

Thanks a lot

newview

Besides school fees and capital levy, lunch and snack, school bus and uniform, there are optional lessons for musical instrument and tennis which charge additional fees.   

From time to time, there are some activities, like sports day, visits e.g. museums, decorations of common area, etc that they may ask for parent helper but these are optional.  We can also choose to help in Maths lesson or as reading mum (the students will read to you one by one and you give them comments) once a week.

In terms of academic, I have not compared with other schools.  In year 1 and year 2, the teachers will divide the children into small groups depending on their levels in terms of reading and Maths.   If you want to know what exactly they are learning,  you can pm me and I can give you some examples.

paulhoyin

thank you newview, please check pm

kaplanmeier

回覆 paulhoyin 的帖子

University destinations 2015: Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial, Bath, Nottingham, HKU (medicine), ...

IGCSE 2015

	Harrow HK	ESF	UK average
A*	52.2%	29%	6%
A*-A	77.1%	55%	21%
A*-B	92.1%	?	?
A*-C	?	92%	69%

paulhoyin

thank you kaplanmeier.
so can we say that in terms of academic, Harrow is better than ESF?