St Paul Boys and St Stephen

Eternity

If both St Paul Boys and St Stephen (in Stanley) admit your kid, which one will u choose?

Unclejt

St Paul Boys for me.  But it is because the school is nearer.  I actually like co-ed schools more.

HuiTung

The former one is a boys' school and the latter one is a girls' school as far as I'm concerned.  Why bother to choose between them .....      

pumbaa

The one mentioned in this thread is

聖士提反書院附屬小學St. Stephen's College Preparatory School.
It's no a girl's school.

Eternity

Hi, pumbaa,

thanks again for the clarification.
so, do u have such concern or u have made up your mind already?

littlechoy

In fact, I like St. Stephen more.  It is really a dream school if school fee is not a matter.  It costs HKD52,000 per year.  For St. Paul Boys, it charges HKD30,000 per year. For gov't school, I may choose boy/girl school.  However, for private school/DSS, I will only choose co-edu.

pumbaa

If school fee is not a problem and you are ready to send your kids to study abroad after high school. St Stephen is more preferable. As I know most of the students there are from rich family or senior government officials' family which get subsidy for their kids to study abroad.

I personally prefer St. Paul Boys that I think it provides a comparatively less chance of discrimination among the students. Moreover, I want my kids to study in HK and develop their career in China/HK.

Coming Sat. is the open day of St. Paul Boys. You can make a visit and know more...      

ssspwong

Hi, I am a new member of BK kingdom despite that I have been browsing this website for long time.

For this question, I had encountered similar situation before but my decision was not difficult to make because I had already had some priorities in my mind:

Must criteria:
1.        Is the tuition cost affordable?
2.        Is English taught by Native English Teachers?
3.        Is PTH used for Chinese?
4.        Are the courses conveyed by teachers professionally trained for the subjects (專科專教)?
5.        Do students behave well? (To certain extent, this also relates to the students’ background)
6.        Accessible

Wanted criteria:
1.        Co-ed school
2.        Nice campus
3.        Nutritious meals (not lunch boxes)
4.        Balanced academics requirements with school activities
5.        Class size

Therefore, you can see that I had opted for St. Stephen College Preparatory School; and luckily my son enjoys his school life very much.

Wish my experience could be useful for you.

Eternity

hi, ssspwong,

thanks so much for your detailed sharing. hope to share with you if my son gets the chance to have both placements and our final decision.

st paul boys may announce the result in mid Nov 2006 while st stephen will be Jan 2007.

some further questions on your "must criteria". for no. 4, is the answer +ve for st stephen and for no. 5, how do you think the students' behaviour?

thanks.

Jeff_Mom

Hi,

I have a colleague who's son studied St. Stephen since P.1 to P.4 and now he changed to St. Paul Co-ed again.  I have asked him why his son want to changed this school.

1.  His son don't like to live in school when P.6
2.  Students here is very rich, some of them have their own island and plane.
3.  Student is very naughty, and teacher can't control during lesson.  There are 45mins a lesson, for the first 15mins, teacher need to let the student calm down and then 15 mins for lesson, the last 15 mins already out of control.
4.  The taste of Lunch box is very bad, my colleague finally realised that his son didn't eat lunch for 4 years, that's why so slim.

However, there are some good points:
1.  The English standard is very high, most of the time, student are speak in English, only a few speak in Cantonese.  However, Maths is below standard as they teach in English.
2.  Student are more creative, as they are rich in order to explose to see the world.

Besides,  My sister-in-law's son is studying in St. Paul boy.  What I found from him is:
1.  Quite push student.  They told me that the first week English dictation is one to twenty in English.
2.  Not much school activities
3.  Student here are speak in Cantonese.

Thomasthetrain

Dear Jeff Mom,

This is only my personal comments.

My son is now studying in St. Stephen, however, I didn't know that the teacher needed around 15 mins to calm them down and the last 15 mins is out of control.  

Also, my son doesn't complain about the food in school and he told me he ate alot during lunch hour. He enjoys the school life very much as he said he can go to the beach with the teacher after they finished lunch.  

littlechoy

Hi! Eternity,

According to the interview card (at the back), it is true that the result of Stephen will be announced in Jan 2007.  However, the man (I can' remember he is vice principal or headmaster) said that they will inform the applicant in Mid Nov by letter.

Littlechoy

Eternity 寫道:
hi, ssspwong,

thanks so much for your detailed sharing. hope to share with you if my son gets the chance to have both placements and our final decision.

st paul boys may announce the result in mid Nov 2006 while st stephen will be Jan 2007.

some further questions on your "must criteria". for no. 4, is the answer +ve for st stephen and for no. 5, how do you think the students' behaviour?

thanks.

lemontrees

What if St. Stephen and St. Paul Co-edu.?

It is more comparable, as both schools are co-ed.

ssspwong

Hi, Eternity and other parents,

It is nice to be able to chat with you online. In the past I found that not many parents talked about SSCPS and I did not know why. Maybe because SSCPS is a rather small private school in terms of student number and it is not located at a “central” district that it is not very “popular” amongst BK members. Therefore, I think it would be a good opportunity for us to share our views about SSCPS this time.

I am not going to compare SSCPS with other schools because I believe every school has its own attractive attributes. I only chose schools for my son according to the criteria I had set in mind. In fact there are not many schools, especially on HK islands, could meet all my criteria, especially ‘English taught by NET and PTH for Chinese’. (Personally, I preferred local schools to international schools.)

SSCPS is not perfect but it is already my dream school. The schoolmates of my son I had ever met are polite, confident, happy and active. Perhaps, I am so lucky that I have not encountered those very naughty students so far. In general, the class discipline is not as strict as many ‘traditional’ schools but far more better than many schools adopting ‘laisser faire policy’.

From my observation and SSCPS’s official information on website, the teachers’ qualification is quite promising for me. I need to clarify that I am not criticizing other schools’ staffs. In fact, I have no knowledge about their staff profile and hence it is no point to compare. Nevertheless, I had heard that in many schools even foreigners are employed as NETs, it is no guarantee the NETs are graduated with Education or Language Degree. And, some teachers who teach visual arts may not possess any related professional qualification.

So far my son enjoys the meals at school. Maybe it is because we are not rich people and won’t offer 5-stars class food for him so he could not differentiate ^^ . For me the meals offered by school are healthy and nice. (Well, I just browse the menu online every week.)

We appreciate the boarding programme offered by the school during P.6. I think it could offer all-round education for students. (Especially for family with single child.) SSCPS also has a series of well-planned programs for boarders, as explained on their website. I believed students would be benefited. (I heard that DBS also planned to provide boarding education for their students in the future. Am I correct?)

Finally, above mentioned is only my personal views for sharing. Hope they would be helpful for any interested parties. Bye.

ssspwong

Hi lemontrees,

Your question is very interesting. Unluckily, I did not have the chance to make the choice between SPCC VS SSCPS because the former is a chinese school and I had not applied it for my son.

To me, SPCC is another very good school with reputable brandname, good students, good marketing strategy, good products (well, I meant the curriculum ^^),  and good through- train (?) secondary school as back up, ....etc. Though the existing campus is too small and the study environment I thought is rather competitive. In a nutshell, it is a 'Rolex' for many people who will be proud to say, "Oh, my kid is studying in SPCC." Right?

To me, SSCPS is relatively low profile and targeted at a small niche market. It is a cup for me and my son.

Junior-Fan

littlechoy 寫道:
Hi! Eternity,

..........., the man (I can' remember he is vice principal or headmaster) said that they will inform the applicant in Mid Nov by letter.

Littlechoy

Is it true?  St. Stepten's is my 1st choice... so happy to know the result would come earlier and hope it will be coming with good news.

Eternity

as st stephen stated in its card requested us not to call them to ask for the interveiw result, so it's not sure whether they will announce in mid nov.

hi, ssspwong,
thanks again for your sharing.
may i know which grade is your son studying? P.1?

littlechoy

Hi! Eternity,

I do think it is true as I asked the man in person on Oct 15 morning.  You know, during the kids' intereview, many parents ask different kind of questions.  A few of them seems didn't read anything on the small booklet from SSCPS.

I like this school too.  However, the school fee is rather unafforable.

Littlechoy

[quote]
Eternity 寫道:
as st stephen stated in its card requested us not to call them to ask for the interveiw result, so it's not sure whether they will announce in mid nov.

ssspwong

Hi, Eternity
Please check PM.

CCCHU

ssspwong,

I share your views on the SSCPS. It is really a dream school. My daughter was fortunately admitted by the school as P1 student 2 years ago. However, owing to its remote locality and the "not outstanding" academic results of its secondary section, I declined the offer and let my daughter to study in another traditional Chinese primary school. Now my daughter is a P2 student. She's not happy with her school life. She always complains to me that the school rules are too strict and the teachers are not kind. In short, she does not enjoy her school life. So, I really regret my decision 2 years ago. I ask myself whether I've made a wrong decision for her? Frankly speaking, I'd rather want my daughter to have a happy school life + confidence + fair academic result than unhappy school life + no confidence + good academic result. Therefore, I plan to apply for a P3 place in SSCPS for her next year. However, since she is now studying in a Chinese primary school, can you advise me whether it will be very difficult to catch up with the curriculum of SSCPS which is an English primary school? Will the school offer special assistance to these students?  Thanks.