Paving from St. Catherine to ESF Primary School

WYmom

My case is same as Ruby's.

I have rejected the offer from St. Catherine as their English teaching is not meeting our expectation.  My target primary is also ESF.

hart

Thank you, Ruby1219 & WYmom.

I thought like you in the beginning.  We talk English to our girl and she speaks Cantonese only to those who can't speak English, e.g. her granny.  And her Cantonese is so so.  I planned to speak Cantonese to her once she starts school in an int'l kindy.  This way, she can be bilingual.

But when the Chinese learning issue comes in, we wonder if we should stick to the local system.  Actually, it's my husband who prefers local now. He feels if our girl is to stay in HK, learning Chinese is a must as China is becoming a more powerful country now.  If she can manage to get in some good local school, he won't mind letting her study there.  If it doesn't work out, then we can switch her back to international.  While not every school is the same, I don't like the competition and the traditional way of teaching in local schools.  My husband is more open on this.  So if we can put her in local and give her extra English lessons, can we also put her in int'l and give her extra Chinese lessons?

WYmom

Hart,

This Chinese /English learning issue is really very troublesome.  I also expect my kids to be good in both languages, so I put her into full day school, half day bilingual and half day international.   I know many St.Catherine parents send their kids to English class additionally.  So I think the result is more or less the same.

For primary, I can still choose to join some good local schools, DSS or IS for my kid.  As regarding local schools, I have the same thinking as you now after my elder girl studies for a few years, so now I am going to switch her out to IS.

rdc888

WYMOM,

Why don't you apply the kindergarten before to the primary ?  I think at least is easier to the primary though they said there is no priority.

rdc888

WYmom

rdc888,

Because I want my kids to learn both Chinese and English well.  ESF kinder's Chinese standard is very weak.

hart

WYmom,

I've also seen a St. Cat's (p.m.) girl going to an int'l kindy in the morning. She's in K1 and I wonder how she can do that.  Kids at that age still need a nap.  So how can your girl manage it?

I have the same thinking as you now after my elder girl studies for a few years, so now I am going to switch her out to IS.

Can you share with me your experience with maintstream school?  Which school is your daughter doing to right now and where are you going to put her?  You can pm me if you wish.

WYmom

Hart,

My younger girl is studying in N1 full day, so the school will allow her to have a nap after lunch.  I guess if arrange the kid to attend 2 different kinders in am and pm, the kid will feel very tired without a nap.

For my elder girl, she is studying in local traditional school at Kowloon Tong, everything of the school is very good, but the English standard is not enough in my personal opinion, and there are more and more homeworks when going up to higher grades due to the requirement of attending the assessment tests.  So I may switch her to international school.  Still searching and applying, so not firm yet.

CEMA

My son also attends St Cat's (a.m.) and an int'l school (p.m.).  He said he is happy with both, except Chinese homework assigned from St Cat.  Well, it is a common disease of yound kids.  

However, I observe he enjoys  attending int'l school more.  A few weeks ago, he was so sick that he was unable to go to school in the morning.   When noon time came, he insisted to go to the int'l school eventhough he still feeling uncomfortable.  

Anyway, I still prefer he attends both schools in order to maintain his Billingual standard.  Yes, I am greedy.  

hart

CEMA,

What homework does your son have from St. Cat’s?  Do they have a lot of writing and copying to do? What grade is he in? K2 or 3?  Does he nap at all?  How can he get time to do his homework?  Would you go for international or mainstream for primary?  Do you think his English standard would still be good had he not attended an international kindy?  How is his English compared with his classmates? What does your son learn in these schools?  How about the learning approach?  Are the two schools just as effective in terms of your child’s learning?  Or is there a great difference?  Please share if you don’t mind.  I'm just worried whether a traditional school's approach will suit my child.

CEMA

1. My son is K3.

2. Daily homework is 2-3pcs.  Math and English are not much.  Chinese about 8 rows with 10 characters for each row.

3. Have revision (sort of test) every week, Math, English and Chinese alternatively.

4. He does homework after attending the int'l school around 4:00.  Spends about 15-30mins.  He still has much time to play and read.

5. In my opinion, St. Cat's English standard is higher than local kindy.  Should you expect fluent spoken English, that's not enough.  We are Cantonese speaking family.  That's why I need to arrange an English speaking environment to develop his oral skills.  After attending 4 months of international school, he improves a lot.

6. I am planning to send him to attend local primary school so as to learn more and more Chinese as well as discipline in a traditional environment.

English - may be waiting for study abroad when he is teen.  My opinion again, Chinese is more and more difficult than English in terms of vocaborary and composition writing.  We should start learning Chinese when our children do not have their own choice.  I hope you see what I mean as I am stupid in presentation.

Let's share the above

cindyau

ESF PRIMARY 中文名是什麽?

CherylMum

Re: Paving from St. Catherine to ESF Primary School

[ 本帖最後由 CherylMum 於 09-11-6 09:41 編輯 ]

Kangaroo

CEMA
Which internatioal school is your kid studying? How could you kid goto 2 school, does he sleep in the afternoon? How about lunch time?

CEMA 寫道:
1. My son is K3.

2. Daily homework is 2-3pcs.  Math and English are not much.  Chinese about 8 rows with 10 characters for each row.

3. Have revision (sort of test) every week, Math, English and Chinese alternatively.

4. He does homework after attending the int'l school around 4:00.  Spends about 15-30mins.  He still has much time to play and read.

5. In my opinion, St. Cat's English standard is higher than local kindy.  Should you expect fluent spoken English, that's not enough.  We are Cantonese speaking family.  That's why I need to arrange an English speaking environment to develop his oral skills.  After attending 4 months of international school, he improves a lot.

6. I am planning to send him to attend local primary school so as to learn more and more Chinese as well as discipline in a traditional environment.

English - may be waiting for study abroad when he is teen.  My opinion again, Chinese is more and more difficult than English in terms of vocaborary and composition writing.  We should start learning Chinese when our children do not have their own choice.  I hope you see what I mean as I am stupid in presentation.

Let's share the above

gab

cindyau 寫道:
ESF PRIMARY 中文名是什麽?

cindyau: ESF 中文名是英基。

chingyu

Dear CEMA

I guess you are living in Tsing Yi right?

I also got a seat in St. Catherine and I am waiting for confirmation from ESF.

In fact, I can let my daughter to study SC and ESF simultaneously as your son situation because ESF is downstair of my flat.  It is very convenient.  

However, I am not as rich as you.  I think I only can pick one of them eventually.

Well...it is very difficult to choose International or local school indeed.  As all the other BK parents said, it is vital to learn Chinese nowadays.  I think it is not good to study an International school without learning enough Chinese and its application.  However, the teaching method of local schools are too traditional and not interesting (we are the victims too).  Only those famous brand one schools such as DGJS/Maryknoll can provide high standard of English.  However, the competition is too keen and pressure is too high.  I am afraid that she and I both can't encounter such challenging environment everyday.  

How to make a decision?  Really headache!!!  :cry:

I think we have the same thought for our children.  May you share which local primiary school will you choose?


Chingyu

angelcham

Red Rose

My niece is now studying in K3 in SC, her mom sends her to Jolly phonics and English Oral every week.  It seems to me that her vocabulary is not limited, of course daily oral conversation is fine.
The homework is killing her interest in reading books.  Her interest is very local, watching Chinese drama, movies, karaok and shopping.

My daughter's classmate went to SC for K2, and the English teacher in SC advised her to leave.  (She is studying in YMCA morning session, and SC afternoon session).  She stayed in SC for 2 months only, as she was suddenly changed (personality becomes quiet and serious once she stepped in the school), and she prefered YMCA.

Of course, every child is unique.  For me, it is hard for local kindergartener goes to international school, and vice versa.

Angel

salami

sc 雖在本地學校中以英文好出名
可是跟國際學校仍有一段距離
如為進入國際小學要多花時間惡補英語能力
倒不如先入esf旗下幼稚園

現時又要中文英文都學好
不論讀國際本地都要課外補習, 不是補英就是補中

CEMA

Hi Ching Yu and Kangeroo

I'm sorry for my late reply as I have not visited this web site for a few days.  My son takes taxi travelling from St. Cat to the Int'l School at Kowloon City.  He changes uniform in the journey and takes lunch in a little park nearby.  Although he is so busy in this half an hour, he enjoys because he likes this school.

I don't have any idea of his primary school of next school term.  I applied 2 DSS boy schools and 1 DSS co-ed school but all of which do not accept him.  I think the reason is - he is a "small boy" (born in Nov).  It is possible that I will re-apply these 3 DSS  schools again next year.  So, I will let him to continue studying at the int'l school in the next year.

Nice to talk to all of you, CEMA

YANBB

Hi! all moms,

After reading all the message, I truely understand how difficult for us to choose either int'l or local kindy for our kids.

I also want my girl be able to speak fluent in Eng. However Chn. especially Man. are getting more n more popular this day. As I know some of the IS teach man. as well, but I'm not sure the standard about it.

I totally agreed that chn are more difficult than eng. so once you start to use eng as your kids mother tongue, it's difficult to them to learn chinese. I've known many of my friends and relatives, some of them studied at IS and some of them are ABC, most of them can speak fluent cantonese like us, but none of them can read and write fluent Chinese, even although they have chinese speaking parterns; even although some of them are living in HK.

And learning Chinese are not just following the trend, it's about being Chinese people. I always tearing with my friends who can't speak Chinese (but they are chinese and so their parterns) I said "Shame on you!"

Finally I decided you let my girl to local primary school (although I'm so disapointed with our education system)   I hope she can get in a good school those good in both chinese and english.   

I have some idea, but I'm not sure if it's going to work. I want her to learn eng naturely and  learn diffent kind of culture and also learn accurate acent. I plan to let her in int'l kindy for K1 and K2 (actually there are only study 2 years in ESF kindy, ESF P.1 start at age of 5) and then switch back to local kindy for K3. What do you think? Have any mom try this method   pls give advise!

WYmom

Difference between international and local schools are not just English vs Chinese, it is more the approach of education, local schools mostly use duck-feeding method, which is what I dislike most. So I would rather choose a school with balance in Chinese and English, but teach using Int'l school approach.