Japanese International School

onemama

Are there any JIS parents could share the comments of this school?  how are the kids' school life?  are the teachers good?  does it has mandarin class or janpanese class everyday?  ...............Please share, thanks!!

    

kcpapa

are you japanese??  as far as my understanding, this is a school with Japanese system.  that is not possible to link with other school outside japan.  the intention of this school is to provide education to kids of japanese who work in hong kong.  that is not for local.  

Fattymom

As I know, there is an international section and its principal is an italian.  However, the whole section has only about 140 students (Reception Class-P6).  i've also send my application form for next year.

onemama

I would like to send my kid to the international session of JIS.  I heard it is a good school, but its quite hard to get 'practical' informations about how good it is.  Thats why I hope I could get some sharing here.  

Dear Fattymom,

Could your share the reasons why your chose this  school?  As the population of the international stream is pretty small , just one class each grade, do you think it will be kind of limited of the student's social life?  

by the way, I heard that the principle Mr.M will leave in the coming school year.  Is it true?

Fattymom

Honestly, JIS was my 1st choice.  Now, I've changed my target to RCHK.  Yes, the small social circle is the point that I really concern.  I think it's better to let my son to expand his social life in Primany School.  There are some comment from the JIS parents.  Try to search it.  It's months ago.  Overrall, the parents said JIS is a very good school and no negative comment.  Before, I choose JIS because its IB programme is very good.  However, I think the social life is also very important and RCHK has been gaining good reputation.  I hope the son get go there together with his friends

luluonthemoon

Hi onemama and Fattymom,

I have a child who's recently joined JIS and I hope this will be of any help ease your concern about the size of the school and the social life there.

That was also the one and only drawback of this school to me before we joined. What if my child got picked on, there seemed to be no way out. But I can now tell everyone in the loud voice that this is surely the biggest benefit for all the children at JIS. Small size means that everyone knows everyone. It is really true to this school. What happens there is just amazing. The upper graders do take care of the little ones. They do play together as the whole school has recess at the same time. My child has made friends through all the grades, up to P6 within the first 2 weeks. I am often impressed how they get mingled with each other. My child told me about the friends who she played with on a day, and heard many unfamiliar names.... I was like, "who are they? Are they in your class?" And my girl always goes, "No, mommy. They are in P4 and P5!!" It's been like this since she joined the school. Every morning when we get to school, some older children come up to us and say, "Good morning!" One day, one P6 girl came up to my child She looked at the school bag of my child's and said, "OK, I carry you to the pitch!" and then she did all the way from the  bus parking lot to the playground. I said to her, "Wow, thanks for taking care of her." She said to me, "That's OK. 'Cause she's so tiny." Then they played together with many other kids. Of course, my child does play with her classmates, but once they go out in the playground, they just get mingled with other graders in a very natural manner. At the end of the recess, normally P6 children stand around the door and lead the younger ones to the classrooms and check out the playground if there's no one left there. Anyone injured, P6 kids take them to the nurse straight. They really know what to do. Well, it's just a recess. Besides, even during the classes, P4 children regularly visit Reception class (probably P5 or P6 do the same for P1) and read books to the young ones divided into small groups. Sometimes Reception kids go to P4 classroom to find their "Reading buddy". In fact, all the school teachers and staff know my child within the first few weeks. It's really like a one big family. And my daughter loves the school so much. If she had gone to a regular sized school, she wouldn't have had an opportunity to interact with children at various ages. Anyway, for me I don't see any setback about the social life at JIS so far. In fact, it's been much greater than we expected.

onemama

Dear luluonthemoon,

Thanks so much for your sharing!  Could you tell me some more about the school?

- How do you feel about the teachers and the morale of learning inside the school?

-do the students have regular chinese and japanese class everyday?  If yes, do they take the class altogether or divided into groups based on their level?  Which one they learn, simplied chinese or traditional chinese?

-  it sounds good that the upper grade students have reading with the younger ones.  besides this, does each grade take the rest of the subjects or activities with the same group all the time?   anymore 'crossover' activities?

- How do you think about the English standard of the students?  do local chinese are the majority in the class?

Sorry for such many questions and thanks again.  wish your girl enjoy sher school life.   

Hi Fattymom,

Does your child study in RCHK now?  How is it?  Between JIS and RC, which one will you choose?

RC was one of my target school.  however, after I visited the school recently,  I start to reconsider again.  RC did pretty good during the past year, but it grows so rapidly and the applicants get the places offered very easily, how do they keep the high standard?  On the other hand,  after the school tour, it gives me an impression that the discipline of students ( I visited the secondary session) is pretty lose and quite many students, both primary and secondary, speak cantonese among themselves and I even heard that happen inside the classroom!  Perhaps I haven't seen the whole picture of the school and the truth is the comments of the school are very positive, thats why its struggling to choose between two good schools!!

Fattymom

Hi! luluonthemoon, thank you for your sharing.  It's true that there is advantage of the small size.  Glad to hear that your kid having a happy school life!  I've applied for both JIS and RC, just leave it to the God!

Dear onemama,

My first priority is RC.  Honestly, I also concern the points you mentioned.  Now, my son studies K1 and almost all his classmates use English to communicate.  I, indeed, don't feel comfortable that some RC kids speak Cantonese outside the class.  Some parents explain that the IB curriculum encourage student to learn more than 1 language and ESF also encourage its student to use their mother language!  That why there are some kids speak Cantonese.  Some people said that the standard of its "old students" (whose transferred from Phoneix) are not so good (hearsay only).  That is also the reason you observed some secondary students speak Cantonese.  But, few days ago, I met a RC secondary student, she was talking with her friend over the phone, her accent is good.  It seemed that she preferred to speak Eng to Chin.  Anyway, the fact is RC is building up its reputation; and so that its requirements will become higher and higher.  My son will have an interview this year, I hope they can tighten the standard.  It's real a risk to join RC; however, every school has its pros and cons. Let's see.  Hope my son good luck!

luluonthemoon

Hello onemama and Fattymom,

Let me give you the answers in as much detail as I can to your questions.

- How do you feel about the teachers and the morale of learning inside the school?

All in all, the teachers seem to carry good experiences. In fact, some teachers are still relatively young, but hold  a very good command in leading the children. Especially the current Reception teacher and P2 teacher are such quality teachers. You can ask any parents here. They do give you the same answer for these two. But unfortunately, the Reception teacher is leaving after this term to join her family in Dubai..... The current P6 teacher is gonna teach the Reception next year. P1 teacher is the favorite of the children as she knows how to keep the children interested and involved in what they're learning. ESL teacher is a strict one. She really teaches how to behave to whoever she spots. She said she's been teaching in HK for more than 15 years.

-do the students have regular chinese and japanese class everyday? If yes, do they take the class altogether or divided into groups based on their level? Which one they learn, simplied chinese or traditional chinese?

From P1 through P6, yes, it's daily. 70% of the students take Chinese, and 30% go to Japanese. For Chinese, the students with Chinese background or possible support from the parents are able to learn traditional Chinese, while the others learn simplified Chinese. I am not sure about the textbooks or materials used, but they do work in groups. So does Japanese class. It divides them on a progress basis from time to time. Some Japanese children can borrow the textbooks from Japanese Section which are certified and used in public schools in Japan. Both do have assemblies to show their progress to the whole school. i.e. Japanese class did the short play and played traditional drums last time.

- it sounds good that the upper grade students have reading with the younger ones. besides this, does each grade take the rest of the subjects or activities with the same group all the time? anymore 'crossover' activities?

A few years ago, I saw 2 classes taking the swimming class together but it depends on the class size. But 2 or 3 grades sometimes go out to a field trip together, like to the Central Library the other day. They do have some exchanges with Japanese Section and even with some local schools.  

- How do you think about the English standard of the students? do local chinese are the majority in the class?

Although I cannot show you a concrete proof like any public exams, I am really satisfied with the English standard according to what they are learning. In the Reception for instance, now they work on the theme, Life cycle which follows IB curriculum. They seem to be exposed to a lot of vocabularies like embryo, metamorphosis, mammals, cold-blooded animals, warm-blooded animals and so on. Tadpoles for observation in the class are on the way. They are now growing the seeds in the class. My girl talked about it today and she said, "it needs the sun and the water and then, it can germinate!" I didn't expect her to know "germinate", but she said they had learned what it meant. Last month in math class, they went through triangle up to decagon just in a day. Of course, with the pictures. They have also done some simple addition with blocks. In terms of Language and Art, they work on Jolly Phonics both in the class and at home. Besides, there are 70+ sight words for them to dictate for this year as homework. But some children who know all of them are normally assigned something harder. So it depends on each child.

For majority issue, I found it really hard to say which ethnicity is the majority. As you look at the whole school, you'll see asians, of course. But many of them are mixed ones, like Chinese and Japanese, Japanese and Australian, American, and English. Korean with French and so on. For westerners, I've seen the parents with the background of US, Canada, UK, Denmark, France, Germany and Russia. These are just what I've seen within these 2 months. If you come across a parent at school for example, you really can't assume from the look which language sh/e speaks except English. English has to be the common language at school as a result. In fact, many parents have appreciated this demographics at JIS.

Fattymom, I know how much you ponder on these schools.... In fact, RC seems to be growing rapidly and even promising with the strong leadership of Mr. Kenny. It also depends on your child's personality... And you're not alone with your concern. Some JIS parents have recently gone up to see RC as sec. school candidate. They told us the same thing. One of the moms said to me that she hadn't heard anyone speaking English wherever she went. I haven't seen the school in person and it maybe a little different in the primary section.

Oh, by the way, which grade are two of you applying for? Is it the Reception or other grades?

Fattymom

Hi luluonthemoon,

Thank you for your information, it's very useful.  I sent the application last year for the reception class; however, I called the office in Feb and change my application to P1.  I think the chance is very slim.  Anyway, my target is RC now

onemama

Dear luluonthemoon,

Please check pm.