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Re: Any info about ICS kindie???
Hi, everyone! Thanks a lot for sharing. 
CherylMum, What a coincidence. Glad to know that you're sharing the same path with us. Hope I can help with what I've got here.
To your questions, we found BoxHill late last year. We just happened to know it that close to us by their flyer. At first, I wasn't sure that they were really "international" and decided to give them a buzz to make a visit. Then, I just got impressed with the clean and neat settings and lively staff. I handed in the application on the next day. So my girl hasn't attended the nursery from the start, last Sep. Now, it's only been a few months. We had looked for a purely English-speaking school for my daughter, since she only has very little knowledge of Chinese (Cantonese). To tell the truth, I am Japanese and have spoken to my child in Japanese. My husband, who is Chinese, has stuck with her in English. So, BoxHill is kinda only choice for us in this area, 'cause we don't want her to travel far from home at this very young age. For the teachers in BoxHill, I really like them a lot! Though there're not many native English speaking teachers, the classroom teachers are quite efficient in terms of the command of English. In the nursery, they also have 2 assistants for totally 20 kids. This is really a good ratio. Not only the teachers but the school staff are mostly down-to-earth to the parents. For my daughter's teacher, she welcomes the inquiries of every nook and cranny about my child and she emphasizes the natural learning environment. She said, "I don't want to push them to learn. To draw the right answer is not the purpose with the children at this age." And I do agree with her. After what a few months, my child has learned a lot, especially, about the social skill. Now, she's happy with the fact that she's got friends and teachers at school and loves to go there. Although her English still leaves a lot to be desired, the school has made her try speaking much more outside the school. And they teach a lot of songs!! She keeps singing with lots of gestures all the time.
When I see other children at the class, they're also quite friendly and lively to call other kids' names each other. I think they really do carry a good atmosphere so far. But, last but not the least, if you seek for a purely English environment, it may not please you to the max. They do have 15min. Cantonese class daily and 15 min. mandrin class on Mon/Wed/Fri. and some assistants use Cantonese to the kids outside the classrooms.
Have you ever come and seen the school? If you really think about this school, call them and take a look first for yourself. They'll welcome your child to play in the playarea and show you around.
Lemonate, The reason is my child has applied for R1 class. I must say, the nature of the interview should be much easier than that of P1 entry. In fact, my daughter didn't always responded with the right answers. But they would like to see the social skills of the child at this age as well, while P1 interview may target more of the preciseness. Also, according to the previous Ruby1219's comment, the child has to go into the room by him/herself. You may need your child to prepare for this circumstance as you're not around to break the ice.
For $1000 fee!!! Yes, this is expensive, but unfortunately, it's a pure interview fee and non-refundable or non-transferable..... But we thought that the total fee of ICS is not very high for their educational standard...., then we decided to shed this off in the end.
Ruby1219, Thank you! And I do wish all the best for your son on the interview next week!
I do understand that you prefer Phoenix over their stronger quality. Seems that they're working out in a full swing to gain a higher ground. For your information, ICS new school is supposed to open in 2007 in ShekMun. You can see the construction site next to the expressway at the back of ShekMun station.
In terms of a primary school, ICS is going to be our second choice.... Since I'm Japanese, we want her to go to JIS in TaiPo to pick up more Japanese outside home. Their English Section (it's just like any other international schools) has impressed us sooooo much and second language class in Japanese just fits our needs. Their cosy environment, great facilities and good mixture of nationalities really took us there. And they also started working out to implement IB system in a few years. As they did clearly say that the school accepts the English-speaking children (not the children who want to learn English), we have paid more attention on her English improvement.
But I must say, living in this area seems quite convenient, actually, if you look for an international school.
Sorry! It's now tremendously long..... Anyway, it's so nice to share things with you all. |
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發表於 05-2-21 23:27
