HKIS vs. GSIS

shadeslayer

honeybunny8 發表於 22-5-6 17:01
Well... when I started this thread, I didn't expect it to turn into another "SPCC vs. DBS"-style deb ...

You probably took comments from a slightly different angle.  There wasn’t any “debate” or “persuasion” as far as I can tell, judging from the vibe of the discussions.  Information and opinions were given from parent’s point of view.  A particular parent’s choice of any particular school has no bearing on me.  

I fully agree with you, if your family clearly prefer US colleges, it is better to go for a specialist US high school in HK.  This outweighs any perceived differences between HKIS and GSIS in terms of the quality of education.  

shadeslayer

ratafan 發表於 22-5-6 20:33
Absolutely from the practicality perspective, the stress outweighs  benefits brought by bilingual d ...

Given limited time, if it is a choose between 10/10 English and a 7/10 Chinese vs 8.5/10 in both English and Chinese, what would you choose?

Regardless of parents’ wishes, we never know where our kids will end up working.  

I would probably focus on getting offers from the best unis.

964000

shadeslayer 發表於 22-5-6 20:02
在絕大部份真IS 中，學生中文勁的，多半靠的是學生自己，或家庭。

It’s mainly the bilingual schools ( ISF, YCIS, CKY) that got higher proportion of chi A and >70% bilingual dip. They have been learning chi as first Lang since young.
Even for IS with so called better chi ( CIS, Vic, CDNIS) , only 20-30%+ do bilingual dip(Chi A), I think they are mainly local school transferrees, or IS students with mainland background.

964000

ratafan 發表於 22-5-6 17:15
Yes most highest set students must sit for Chinese A IB exam (standard level ) which is SUPER hard. ...

Unlike typical local parents who thrive for higher grades as the only priority, IS grown up kids think quite differently. Once a secondary student was asked if they can  “downgrade” Chinese stream by own request, she told me “what’s the point to take the easier stream, you just learn nothing and will be wasting your time. If teacher thinks you are capable then you can do it if you work on it!”
Perhaps it will become a different story when it comes to the public exam. Nevertheless I really admire her attitude and time has proven that she has become very successful in her study. I believe it’s their attitudes that bring them the goods results  rather than just tutorials and drillings.

ratafan

964000 發表於 22-5-7 08:00
Unlike typical local parents who thrive for higher grades as the only priority, IS grown up kids th ...

Agreed. I think many kids in IS don’t only focus on grades or results. They really enjoy the process and if teachers believe they can do it, they really want to go for it. This mindset would really make them succeed. Success is not only dictated by which university you go or what IB results you get. It’s the quality of a person. Of coz sometimes one has to be smart enough to measure the costs and benefits behind the decisions and make a choice. But I think the schools would not guide the children to be too opportunistic. They tend to help them push themselves and develop to be ethical adults.

ratafan

shadeslayer 發表於 22-5-7 01:29
You probably took comments from a slightly different angle.  There wasn’t any “debate” or “pers ...

Agreed that I don’t feel any debate here on which school is better. Ultimately it’s better fit that matters. It’s glad that parents from different background or schools are giving some opinions and share views that might benefit any other new parents who are still making choices. Thanks for HoneyBunny8 first starting this topic so that we could chat here and share our experiences. I think all of us are genuine and sincere

ratafan

964000 發表於 22-5-7 07:28
本帖最後由 964000 於 22-5-7 08:09 編輯

It’s mainly the bilingual schools ( ISF, YCIS, CKY) that ...

Correct . Many of those taking Lang A in ESF are of Taiwanese or Mainland origins whose home languages are Chinese. They hv really strong foundation and I really admire their bilingual ability. They can think and write and speak in both languages. Meaning when you speak Chinese, you are thinking in Chinese and same for English.

ratafan

I learn that in HKIS and CIS, amongst the Asians there, mainlanders account for a big proportion too and hence their Chinese programmes are very good.

ratafan

Talking about higher education support by schools. As a parent with experiences of having 2 children going through the process, I think not that many schools offer really sufficient support. It really needs to start with families. The hk IS only provides support in terms of offering university (selected ones) fairs, guiding you through the application requirements , providing you with necessary documentations like transcripts and recommendation letters, some workshops (limited) on essay writing. That all came in their Junior year of high school (year 12). But by beginning of year 13, they need to nail things down already. So I think a big part is missing. If a child has been living in HK for all his or her life, how would he or she know which uni or place to pick to study outside of hk? I think parents have to spend some resources bringing them to those countries and visit the schools and feel the vibe when they are at say year 9 or 10. I heard that kids in US would visit the universities and different counties/states since they were 12/13. Take my children as an example, if they have never been to west coast, how would they be able to feel if UC or somewhere in mid west or east coast suit them when designing the school list?

shadeslayer

964000 發表於 22-5-7 08:00
Unlike typical local parents who thrive for higher grades as the only priority, IS grown up kids th ...

I also admire the fact that many of my child’s classmates didn’t see themselves as competitors in exams, they always think win-win and help each other to become better.And because of this many of them are very good friends after high school.

shadeslayer

ratafan 發表於 22-5-7 08:29
I learn that in HKIS and CIS, amongst the Asians there, mainlanders account for a big proportion too ...

That is my point.  Typically an IS having good Chinese is one which attracts students with good Chinese.  If a gweilo family send their kid to an IS with good Chinese without any Chinese environment at home, I don’t think the child would develop good Chinese at school.

964000

ratafan 發表於 22-5-7 08:29
I learn that in HKIS and CIS, amongst the Asians there, mainlanders account for a big proportion too ...

This is expected since IS Chinese program is taught in mandarin, even for local schools, it’s found that teaching Chinese in mother tongue (for us Cantonese) is more efficient. So mainlander definitely got advantage with the PTH Chinese program in iS as they are speaking and listening to the language at home, not to mention they will probably get more exposure to chi culture and do more visits to mainland etc.  
Nevertheless, I am still glad of learning Chinese in mandarin here, we don’t have the burden of getting good grades. My child’s mandarin speaking is already better than me, and her accent is definitely better than my husband who used to study in a mandarin speaking local school LOL.

ratafan

shadeslayer 發表於 22-5-7 08:46
本帖最後由 shadeslayer 於 22-5-7 09:03 編輯

I also admire the fact that many of my child’s clas ...

I think this happens to all kids and to me though. Lol

964000

Btw 而家離哂題hope the host won’t mind, but I am glad to see senior parents sharing their experiences here.

小加子

ratafan 發表於 22-5-6 17:15
Yes most highest set students must sit for Chinese A IB exam (standard level ) which is SUPER hard. ...

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to send your kids to two different schools?  Did you find major differences in curriculum and overall learning atmosphere between the two schools?

barque

Deleted

ratafan

小加子 發表於 22-5-7 16:39
Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to send your kids to two different schools?  Did you fi ...

It’s all fate and luck and fit. The two schools are very different. Cannot compare apples to oranges. But the education systems are similar. And my younger one lost 3 years of quality education with pandemic and social unrest. It was indeed frustrating. Yeah, so cannot really compare.

honeybunny8

回覆 shadeslayer 的帖子

Agreed. I came here to learn more about the experience at GSIS primary school. But in the end, I fell back on my personal experience and assessed the "end products" of the two schools, meaning their graduates with whom I studied in college and grad school, those with whom I worked, and those I interviewed for school admission, and I couldn't find a noticeable difference nor a pattern. All I could find is that the two schools provide somewhat different environments to suit different students/families' needs, but in terms of academic results it would only depend on the students' own efforts. Hence any perceived quality of education or scores or statistics did not weigh heavily in my decision because it could be misleading. I was looking for more of the whole package.