ICS vs. Victoria for K1 offer

夕瑶小小

My kid is given two K1 offers, one from International Christian School and the other from Victoria International Nursery (Homantin). Both are very good, but it seems that they are very different in terms of many aspects. We do not know much about them. It makes us difficult to choose one of them.
Also, for ICS, we are not sure whether my kid can get used to the Christian environment there or not. In addition, we aim to have the kid go to an international school after kindergarten.
Any one can share some opinions? We did learn a lot from previous posts here. Thank you.

Jane1983

ICS係最重宗教，如果你抗拒，係未必適合。

Victoria係好的幼稚園，我女都係畢業生。除非你鍾意Vsa，會買債券，否則入到維記K1，並唔係可以安安樂樂就上到心儀IS。中間要付出努力，同埋經歷患得患失的搵學校過程。

Jenjanjan

They are two very different streams.   If you like ICS elementary school, you will have much better chance getting in if you join their kindergarten. They follow American curriculum. They are Christian school so bible study is a must. I like them because it is a small school with very experienced and caring teachers.

Victoria do not have guaranteed option for primary schools so if you want to go international school for year 1, you still need to go through application and interview processes when your kid is K2. Do you already have preferences on which international schools to go after kindergarten? Certain school’s year 1 are hard to get into if you don’t start from kindergarten

heebo

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其實只要你唔抗拒孩子接受基督教教育就冇問題，ICS 很多學生都不是來自基督教家庭。入ICS幼稚園，較大機會升ICS小學。學費以外的費用，文具自己買，書簿學校提供。
印象中 ICS的孩子單純、樸素，喜好較美國化，但普遍不太喜歡中文。

gingercatcat

夕瑶小小 發表於 20-12-20 23:10
My kid is given two K1 offers, one from International Christian School and the other from Victoria I ...

如果你想小朋友讀國際學校，我會選擇ICS,至少你可以不用担心沒有IS 位，就算ICS不是你首選IS, 你也可以再嘗試申請你心儀IS, 但壓力少很多，因為不成功你都有一條龍直升。Victoria 雖然是好，但何文田campus大多以local school primary 為目的，所以對想入IS 幫助不大。

夕瑶小小

Jane1983 發表於 20-12-21 09:40
ICS係最重宗教，如果你抗拒，係未必適合。

Victoria係好的幼稚園，我女都係畢業生。除非你鍾意Vsa，會買債 ...

We do not that 抗拒 Christian, but we are afraid that my kid (from a non-Christian family) may feel pressured at ICS.

For Victoria kindergarten graduates, do they also have to buy dentures like outsiders if they prefer to get in VSA? Approximately how many of them get in VSA without buying dentures?

Jane1983

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我女已經中學，我地讀果陣係初推出債券，入Vsa的同學都無買到。

夕瑶小小

Jenjanjan 發表於 20-12-21 15:52
They are two very different streams.   If you like ICS elementary school, you will have much better  ...

Haven't come up with ideas on which international schools we should choose for primary yet... We do think ICS is a good one in terms of academic excellence, but Victoria is also very attractive due to its bilingual environment...

夕瑶小小

heebo 發表於 20-12-21 16:10
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其實只要你唔抗拒孩子接受基督教教育就冇問題，ICS 很多學生都不是來自基督教家庭。 ...

Yes, that is why we also like ICS because it trains the kids with good behaviors and it is an almost through-train from K to Primary. For those kids from non-Christian families, do they eventually become a Christian after staying there for years?

夕瑶小小

gingercatcat 發表於 20-12-21 16:33
如果你想小朋友讀國際學校，我會選擇ICS,至少你可以不用担心沒有IS 位，就算ICS不是你首選IS, 你也可以再嘗 ...

Do most of graduates from Victoria Homantin go to local school primary? It looks the Victoria website only reports overall placement from all campus, no placement data from each individual campus.

964000

夕瑶小小 發表於 20-12-20 23:10
My kid is given two K1 offers, one from International Christian School and the other from Victoria I ...

如果你target維小就Vic，雖然不是直升但機會大過外校生。如果target其他English heavy IS，而你屋企有英文語境Vic都ok,否則只靠Vic有些小朋友英文水平未必夠考IS，多數要外補一下。
如果你target bilingual 的一類小學就維小適合D，同維幼都有功課，有班target local 家長都會緊張多補習，ICS氣氛似IS多D，例如close community and 多play dates，local多的學校，小朋友放學後好忙是很難約play dates的，這是我發現IS　和non IS幼稚園最大分別

964000

夕瑶小小 發表於 20-12-21 16:55
Haven't come up with ideas on which international schools we should choose for primary yet... We do  ...

I don’t think the 2 years of chinese study in Vic kindi really makes a lot of difference unless you continue to study in a bilingual school in primary. That level of chinese in kindi can readily be caught up by self tutorial. For those who only speak English at home, it might make some difference though.

夕瑶小小

964000 發表於 20-12-21 17:11
如果你target維小就Vic，雖然不是直升但機會大過外校生。如果target其他English heavy IS，而你屋企有英文 ...

I see. I thought the English level of a kid in Victoria K could be high enough to get in all ISs. We will not continue to get in a bilingual school unless we can go to good bilingual schools like VSA and ISF.

Jane1983

夕瑶小小 發表於 20-12-21 17:49
I see. I thought the English level of a kid in Victoria K could be high enough to get in all ISs. We ...

Victoria始終係大校，學生人數眾多，水平差異亦頗大。單靠學校，你話所有學生的英語程度都high enough to get in all ISs的話，怕你3年後會好失望。

Jane1983

不過話分兩頭，Victoria着重啟發和探究，三語語境唔錯，老師亦有愛心，我對學校都存感恩的心。

夕瑶小小

Jane1983 發表於 20-12-21 18:10
不過話分兩頭，Victoria着重啟發和探究，三語語境唔錯，老師亦有愛心，我對學校都存感恩的心。
...

Agree. Is your daughter in VSA now? or other IS?

Jane1983

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Other IS。

Jenjanjan

夕瑶小小 發表於 20-12-21 16:55
Haven't come up with ideas on which international schools we should choose for primary yet... We do  ...

I wouldn’t really class Victoria kindergarten as international school though. The key is whether you are aiming for VSA because if you give up Victoria kindergarten there’s almost zero chance in getting into VSA, although even if you are in vic kindergarten, you are competing with other 600 kids for like 200 places in VSA...

I guess whichever school you choose you still can apply for other year 1 places when your kid is K2 so the deciding factor is how much you want ICS year 1 or VSA

gfkwong

Agreed. If you choose ICS, you have ICS primary school as back up. Application for year 1/ preparatory for IS is very competitive if you aim at popular ones. So if your goal is VSA, then stick with VEO. However, VEO is not really an international kindergarten and it doesn’t guarantee second interview.

Coop

回覆 Jenjanjan 的帖子

I agree. It depends on which primary you want. But I think it’s easier to get in ICS primary as there are 8 VEO kindergartens to compete for VSA. But one thing need to remind that ICS is PIS instead of IS too. That means they don’t have requirement for foreign passport holder.