International Christian School

ahk019

lenglegma & luluonthemoon,

Thanks again.   Woo, including the teachers and student, we can find very nice and helpful parents in ICS ,too  

Stel

Hi there,

Would you tell me more about this school?  such as the location and the monthly fee?  I'm looking primary school for my little boy.  Does ICS has primary section?

Many thanks for your kind advise.

cheers,
Stel.  

lenglengma

Dear Stockinette,
Glad to hear that your kid will have an interview at ICS too!  ICS emphasis a lot on bible studies/belief.  However, they have nothing against parents who are not Christians, and Christians do not have priorities to get in.  If you really plan to put your kids in ICS, they will probably end up being Christians...Do you mind your kids become Christians?
Lenglengma

lenglengma

Yes, ICS parents care...haha.. :wink:

lenglengma

Dear Stel,
RIght now they are located at Jubilee Shopping Mall in Fotan.  The location now is quite loudsy..but in 2007 they are going to have a very very nice campus in Shek Mun (Shatin)...They have a Shek Mun KCR station there....so the location will be quite convienient.  ICS has kindergarten, elementary, junior high and high school.  They have debenture now....first kid $59,000, second kid 39,000 etc...
School fee for kindergarten is $3800.  Starting from Pre-first (K3) they tuition will be 6000+, because starting from K3, it will be a whole day program.  
Lenglengma :

Stockinette

Hi Lenglengma,

Thanks for you feedback.  I don't mind my kids to choose their own path when they are ready.  But for now will it be difficult for him to blend in as a non christian?   How much time per day does the school spend on bible studies?

Thanks!

lenglengma

Stockinette,
They have around 20 mins of bible studies everyday.
I don't think it will be too difficult to blend in ge....just like story time...listening to bible story je...and then sing some songs, do some crafts etc.
Lenglengma

luluonthemoon

Stel and Stockinette,

Let me just make some supplement about the things so far.
For the selection of the interviewee/examinee, they have the priority like, 1. the siblings of the current students, 2. the students from the Christian family. But you do not need to worry about those points, actually. Neither of us is Christian, but my child had an interview and she attends the school now. And I believe whether or not the children are from those families does not affect the judgment of passing status, once they are offered the interview. In fact, you can hardly tell which child is from Christian family or not. No differentiation at all in the class. For my child in the kindergarten, the children all enjoy the Bible story time every day. It's just like listening to other fairytales or something. Of course, they are still too young to nurture a particular sense of religion. At the same time, they are learning a lot of values and morals through the Bible stories. I think this is something for us to keep in mind about this school. Both in the primary section and the secondary section, they do have Bible studies. But I don't personally know how much it takes in their workload. I suppose what they learn should be deepened and getting more structual and philosophical. The longer your child stays, the more influence sh/e surely has. But this doesn't always mean that your child is destined to be a Christian. I think it can be balanced out by us giving the children various ideas and thoughts toward religions to help them develop their own views, as the children are supposed to already have a good knowledge in Christianity.      

Stockinette

Dear lenglengma and luluonthemoon,

Many thanks for your great feedback :)  I hope my kid can pass the upcoming interview, if he does pass the interview how much reservation fee is require to secure the seating?  We have also applied JIS but they don't offer interview until April.

Ruby1219

Stockinette,

Last year we were required to pay HK$5,000 for reservation fee. Plus there is a HK$1,000 interview fee which is not refundable.

Ruby

lenglengma

Dear Stockinette,
Just want to tell you that $5000 reservation fee is refundable...meaning that they will deduct that $5000 from you kid's last months school fee...meaning you will pay $5000 less for the last month's tuition.  However the $1000 interview fee is not refundable.
Lenglengma

Stockinette

Thanks Ruby1219 and lenglengma!  However reading from the ICS website I thought the 5K deposit is for P1->G5, for R1 and R2 it is $550, I guess I misunderstood the info.

luluonthemoon

Stockinette,
Last year, when my daughter was accepted and we received the letter, they asked us to pay $550 as deposit (the registration fee) which was credited to the first tuition fee payment. But this is non-refundable whether you take the place or not. This was all we had paid before the first tuition was settled in the beginning of August. But from this year, ICS has adopted the Debenture Program, and I am not sure whether they will ask you to settle the Debenture, and, if so, at what point. I think you'd better ask the school to clarify this around the interview.

So you're also expecting JIS interview. Is your child applying for R1 at ICS, but the reception at JIS? Is that because of the different cut-offs between them? We will likely face the same situation next year.... JIS normally offers an interview quite late, while ICS is likely to ask us to make a decision for the next school year much earlier... :tongue::tongue::tongue:

Stockinette

Hi luluonthemoon,

Right on, my son was born in December, so going to ICS set him back for a year.  But it is not the main concern for us, we like JIS because it offers daily chinese lessons.  Anyway we don't have high hope for JIS as we expect they are like any schools, have preference for 'big' kids.

luluonthemoon

I know.... In fact, in my daughter's class at ICS, there are many kids who turned 4 already in a couple of months last year, while mine just turned 3 a few days "after" the school began in August last year. She is the smallest one in the class.:tongue::tongue::tongue:  But fortunately, she's got caring teachers and good classmates and enjoyed the school a lot.
We have applied for JIS for the reception long ago, as their environment and curriculum (including daily Chinese!!) seemed quite attrative to us. But once my girl started ICS, we've found that she's still a bit too young to go to a full-day primary school by handling everything by herself. And we would like her to engage in some after-school activities before she goes to a primary. Once she takes up a primary school which binds her up untill 3 o'clock, it's unlikely that she still has something about her after that. But I know that going for P1 at JIS will get a little tougher than the reception. We need to help her keep up for next year....
I do wish your child all the best for the interviews, Stockinette. Don't be concerned that much about the age. Actually, I've seen some little ones in the reception class last time at Open Lesson Day, and the teacher said they were doing well.

Stockinette

luluonthemoon, thanks very much you are mostly helpful :)

Patbee

Hi,
I want to ask about their Kindergarden program since I have to apply KG for my son this year. How many chinese lesson in a day or in a week? Is their KG program good? And what will they do in the interview? Is it hard to get in to this KG? Thanks alot for the questions...  

CherylMum

Re: International Christian School

[ 本帖最後由 CherylMum 於 09-11-16 08:45 編輯 ]

lenglengma

Dear CherylMum,
Congrats!  I know your child will love the school...

a.) I only know afternoon school hour: 12:15pm to 3:15pm.

b.) They will start a little bit early this year...mid August.

c.) If more than 20, they will have 2 teachers.  If one teacher, they will have around 15 children (but still have TA).

d.) Yes, they have after school activities such as Mandarin, Gymnastics etc.  Yes, you will need to pay for those.  Yes, they do have school bus service.

e.) Yes, high school academic standard is very high.  I once compared their combined SAT score with high schools in California...ICS ranked #13 in the state of California!  My high school in California back then ranked #200+....yuck!  Plus, their AP scores are really high.

f.) I have no idea....I want to know too.

Lenglengma

luluonthemoon

CherylMum, welcome to ICS!!!
Hope we will see each other some time at school. As lenglengma said, your little one will like it a lot and have fun with ICS caring teachers!!

Let me add some things I've known so far.

a) The morning session starts from 8:45 to 11:45. But the children have to arrive at school by 8:30 to get ready for the class (rollcall and wash-up). I remember you live in Ma On Shan, right? It will take about 30 min. to get to school. In fact, my child arrives at school early, like 8:20 am. This is because the kindy children have to take the same school buses with the elemetary students who start earlier. The school has taken this measure since this school year.

b) Normally the school year begins in the mid Aug. but, particularly this coming school year, in 2006,  they've decided to push to Aug. 9th. This will enable them to finish a week earlier and help the moving process of the elemetary section to the new campus.

c) For R1, the max is 20. The morning class is currently full. 15 children in one class is for R2, as they add some newcomers to the existing 20 children class when they move to R2 and split into 2 classes.  

d) For R1, it's only Gym class available. Mandarin class is available for R2. Both are held once a week. Gym course costs $115 per class and one-hour. My child does like this class a lot. But, at the moment, the kids have class in the school entrance hall (right next to school office). So it seems a bit limited about what they can do....
As I remember, Mandarin course costs $100 per class.
For my child's gym class, there's no school bus service available after that. Because when the class begins, it's also the time elementary students take buses for home. There's no bus around when the gym class is over....

f) Don't worry.... They are not sure yet about where they will finally go. According to some teachers, there are some candidate sites, but they haven't decided yet which to take. Of course, they've yet to know "when" it will happen. But, in any way, the school will remain in Shatin area. Hopefully, it'll be close to the new campus and have some outdoor play area (or a park nearby).

Hope this will also be a help.