victoria or esf kindergarten

Birkin

kamgat 發表於 16-4-17 23:25
I wanna hear from a user of esf to tell me more about their kids.

I wasn't going to respond anymore but saw your post on another thread and understand that your girl got an offer from ESF TY...  I think you should look at the bigger picture instead of just focusing on the kindergarten curriculum.  You should ask yourself whether you want your child to go to a local primary school or an international school in the long run.  Do you want your child to go a bilingual school like ISF or VSA, or a typical international school like ESF, CDNIS, Kellett, HKIS, GSIS, etc.?

I think most HK parents want the best of both worlds - they want their kids to build a strong foundation in Chinese (thereby going to a local or near local school) and then switch to an international school later (late primary or secondary) for better university placements but life is not that ideal - (1) top tier international schools are very competitive these days so unless students from local schools are very good at English and very smart, they simply won't fit in at international schools; (2) local school students are missing out on the best part of international school education. In my opinion, it is character building more than academic achievements that matters at the pre-school stage.

Park88

回覆 Birkin 的帖子

Yes, very well explained!

bellarie

原帖由 oooray 於 16-04-17 發表
你先生可能比較保護個荷包多D。

男人真是冇女性咁緊張
佢緊得到最後大學最緊要。

Park88

回覆 kamgat 的帖子

My girl now 2.5 yrs old and she can count to 30! She speaks good English with grammar in a complete sentence! But that's not My main focus on her kinder life on academics, cuz I believe once she understand why she has to learn, how to learn well, then she can pick up all these academics quick anytime in her life, as long as she has the passion on learning! What my husband and I think, all these A-Z, 1-100, even secondary contents for studies are all easy things, as long as your kid has the motivation in his/her own learning initiative! That's enough! I'm not too care what academics she will learn in kinder, I just care how I can plan a better route for her to land on a good university by using a relatively easy and relax way for both kids and parents! Cuz I concern heavily on family life, I need time to play with them but not to do homework with them till 11-12pm. I'm not suggest totally zero homework, what I think is.. Adequate amount of useful homework starts from Year 9 to Secondary! The toddler and pre-school should be focus on building their curiosity and the love of inquiry. By the way, Vic is a good school too!

Radiomama

N年前，小兒在Vic完成了k1-2, 然後可以輕鬆地考到RC, 但KJS就連面試機會都沒有。維記同班同學有late submission的，就考到SJS;
也有本來上午讀維記、下午讀TY ESF kindie的，在K2時改為只讀TY, 最後又在RC做同學。

不過今時今日，不要只比較幼稚園學幾多幾多，有無int'l school 的interview priority才最重要；除非你根本不再考慮國際學校或你預咗一筆nomination fee買面試機會。

bellarie

簡單d講，系咪預左ESF ，
就應該一早入佢地kinder?

Radiomama

是，因為這樣才有interview priority!

964000

原帖由 bellarie 於 16-04-18 發表
簡單d講，系咪預左ESF ，
就應該一早入佢地kinder?

Depends on your target, if it's ESF primary, of course should get into ESF kinder first. If your target is IS type including Chinese heavy ones like CKY, ISF, even other local 直資even 神校，then Victoria is better.

dbchu

Esf not 唯一一間IS , 其實我眼見今年VIC k2 都有人考到IS, 我覺得讀VIC 只要keep到eng好，入is 唔太難。其實樓主會唔會考慮VSA?而vsa就只收VIC 學生，除非買公司債券

bellarie

原帖由 Radiomama 於 16-04-18 發表
是，因為這樣才有interview priority!

好似兄弟姊妹也有？

lovecasey

回覆 bellarie 的帖子

yes, pls refer to http://www.esf.edu.hk/policy2013#2.

Birkin

The reality is VSA doesn't have enough places for all VKN graduates, so competition is very keen.  As for other top tier international schools, unless you have some sort of priorities, they are difficult to get in and in some cases, you may not even get a chance to be interviewed.

chumiguan

原帖由 Park88 於 16-04-18 發表
本帖最後由 Park88 於 16-4-18 09:46 編輯

回覆 kamgat 的帖子

I have the exact same thoughts as you. Hence I go for ESF kindie. Academic for kids below 6 is 0 importance to me. ESF TY is following IB PYP. In K1 may daughter has the Unit of Inquiry of transportation, material, and play. In K2, she has "how we express ideas", "living things", and this last term she has "structures". At school she has lots to play and experiment. I can tell from her weekly news letter what she played and experienced. In the past few months she kept on doing cooking, restaurant, and hair dresser at home, as she was playing that at school. She was a very quiet and timid girl before going to ESF. She is now much more willing to talk and explore, and be a funful and very creative kid just as I want her to be.

Park88

回覆 chumiguan 的帖子

Yes! You are right! Guess what! Just as a reference,  I happened to talk with an ex- international school parent (a foreigner) whose son is a pilot at Cathay Pacific now, she told me what's the differences between those local school trained up graduated pilots and those of international school graduates trained up pilots... The difference is the "common sense". She said local pilots are not as flexible as internationally trained one coz they cling on just "following and memorised things in a plain straight way".. they work in a rigid way! That's very obvious among pilots in their industry! Of course, cannot be generalised all the local school background pilots, it will also depend on their grow up environment, culture and peer groups! So.. Don't overlook those play-based activities, it's building kids with common sense and what the reality is look like! I can see nowadays many Young adults do not know how to mingle with people from all walks of life, their self-help ability is low, problem solving skill is not realistic and inefficient! i think literacy is not ALL, behaved with common sense is important!

964000

原帖由 bellarie 於 16-04-18 發表
好似兄弟姊妹也有？

兄弟姊妹priority比ESF kinder還高

HulkBuster

964000 發表於 16-4-18 13:34
兄弟姊妹priority比ESF kinder還高

Yes, that's true but the challenging part is to have a sibling who is already in one of the ESF primary/secondary schools in the first place...

bellarie

原帖由 chumiguan 於 16-04-18 發表
I have the exact same thoughts as you. Hence I go for ESF kindie. Academic for kids below 6 is 0 imp ...

That's so valuable ! Yes I do agree that ESF produces those kids with confidence and high self esteem!

That's good that there was such a major make over for your girl! Congrats !! That's way to succeed!

Do you guys also think ESF has good support in extra activities ? U know local schools always indirectly force the young ones to learn dance music and art. How ESF balances those ?

luckyveronique

原帖由 Park88 於 16-04-18 發表
本帖最後由 Park88 於 16-4-18 13:07 編輯

回覆 chumiguan 的帖子

Agree no more！

Pigkei

I'd be really interested in what decision u made for your child. I'm facing this decision to make too and would be interested to hear more views.

nintendo

kamgat 發表於 16-4-17 19:13
我就係覺得victoria 冇缺點，所以先煩！
但一諗到升小，esf 真係一個好選擇

If you like Vic that much, ESF will not be suitable.