ICS Parents

siubosiumao

I am a new ICS (kindergarten) parent. Can an existing ICS parent explain to me the following?

Here is my understanding:
In the past years, secondary section starts at 7:50am, primary and kindergarten sections start at 8:30am. Jackson school bus serves primary and kindergarten section only.

This year, they have changed the starting time for primary section to 8:10am and kindergarten section to 8:20am and I have heard that the school has commissioned Jackson bus service to serve the secondary section as well.

As a result, here is what is happening to my 3 year old in R1. We live about 25 mins drive from ICS. However, she needs to be ready for school bus pick up at 6:45am in order to arrive at Shek Mun at 7:40am for the secondary section.
She will then get on another bus to go to Fo Tan and the bus will arrive BEFORE 8:00am. However, I called up kindergarten and they said they would NOT open until 8:10am and therefore, 10+ 3-4 years old kids would need to be waiting outside the door until they open. Overall, while school doesn't start until 8:20am, she needs to be ready for pickup at 6:45am.

Can someone explain to me the following:
1. Why are we having 3 or 4 years old to accommodate schedules of 15 or 16 years old?  Isn't is easier for secondary school kids to take care of themselves instead of having 3 or 4 years old waiting on the street?

2. Whats the rationale for the changing of start time?

3. Is it possible that ICS requests Jackson to operate bus service for secondary separately from primary and kindergarten since the start time is so far apart?

Would be great if some existing ICS can shed some light on this. I am really struggling to understand. Thanks.

原帖由 tommyzoe 於 09-8-8 01:33 發表
You may contact Jackson Bus Service.

siubosiumao

That's interesting. I talked to Jackson at lengths lately and he said the Ma On Shan is a very popular area with lots of students and he has a lot of clients there.... strange.

原帖由 lamheng 於 09-8-8 22:12 發表
Thank you for reply.

I:( n fact, I've contacted mr. Tong 3 months ago. However, they told me that there is no school bus service for us in Ma On Shan. I don't know why.

siubosiumao

Thanks for the explanation. I can understand that if I have two kids in different sections. But how many parents are in that category? And for those in that category, how many of them with kids in kindergarten? I would be very upset if I have one in secondary school and one in kindergarten and now I need to wake up my kindergartener much earlier to accommodate the earlier schedule for my secondary school kid. It just doesn't make sense.

I can't see how school starts at 8:20am and the kid would need to wait at 6:45am for a 3 years old. Its not 爭少少. Plus, I live in a big complex area with more than 20+ ICS kids (10 mins round around the complex, 20 kids) and that was part of a reason why ICS is a good option for us since we were anticipating that the school bus ride would be short since there are so many kids in this complex alone.

My concern is not just about how early it is, or 調較過起身時間, not at all. My concern is that the school did NOT consider how changing the start time and commissioning the school bus service to serve all sections at the same time would impact the 3 years old so much. Plus, the kindergarten did NOT make any special arrangements to really take care of the kids or consider open the campus earlier to accommodate the kids so they could at least wait inside the school. How hard is that really?

I am not concerned about starting school earlier. I am just very concerned that my 3 year old kid needs to be on the road for more than 1.5 hours before school starts, and all the potential risks that comes with it since it is obvious that she would be arriving at the school much earlier than it starts and would need to wait for the school to open every single day including days with inclement weather. It just doesn't make sense.

原帖由 hoeve 於 09-8-8 19:53 發表
我記得學校說的理由係：方便同時有數個ICS小朋友（幼稚園同埋中學）的家長送子女，早D亦無咁塞車。我個人覺得OK，其實都係爭少少，不過我明白如果住得遠真係會辛苦囉，要調較過起身時間。 ...

siubosiumao

I feel for you. I am in a similar boat. I also considered taking only the return trip. Unfortunately, its really a big hassle to take my kid to school by myself.

If you look around other kinders, most school bus routes takes about one hour (my kid went from sai kung to kowloon tong last year and the route takes 1hr 15 mins). however, since the bus needs to arrive at SM (Shek Mun) at 7:40am, that's the reference time the bus company is using.

I chatted with Principal Beverley this morning. She said that the transit between Shek Mun to Jubliee takes about 20 mins minimum (including offloading the R1/R2 kids from the big bus, to the small bus, offloading from the small bus, taking the lift up to the 7th floor, going to washrooms and getting ready for class). The drive from Shek Mun to Fotan is 10 min without traffic, and with traffic in the morning, its usually longer. So if you take that into account, arriving Shek Mun at 7:40am, getting all the kids ready to Fotan, would get them in between 8:00-8:10am. Kindergartens opens at 8:10am officially but Principal Beverley reassured me that if the kids are there early, they would be let in earlier for sure and won't be waiting outside.

Another data point, a staff at the kinder told me that the bus has been CONSISTENTLY LATE last year and bus kids always arrive 10 mins late (8:40am instead of 8:30am). I am suspecting there might be some performance issues going on here and the school might be using the differences in start time to condition the bus company.

So what alternative do we have? I discussed with Jackson about having a kindergarten only schoolbus (so we can skip the whole SM ordeal), unfortunately, he told me that there are only about 20+ kinder riders in the morning and they are ALL OVER NT and Kowloon, which means that if you organize a route just for kinder kids, the improvement might not be that much since the bus will be going all over to pick up kids. This is the downside of having a very small kindergarten session. The majority of parents live in Shatin/Fotan area and do not require schoolbus service.

But I have not given up. I discussed with Jackson regarding chartering a private bus for all the kinder kids in kowloon. There are about 10 of them in the morning. Since the first two weeks is quite busy, we will start discussing such possibility about end of August. So we can explore if there is anything we could do to improve the situation for all.

I have a feeling that Jackson Bus company feels that the kinder kids is "pork bone" for his business (a.k.a. small size, special return trip, etc), so he has been discouraging me to NOT have my kid take his bus actually which I find to be quite interesting. Its a business decision for the bus company to want to pack as many kids as possible in the fewest number of routes instead of considering the kids' schedules.

原帖由 bearlee 於 09-8-11 17:39 發表
Ooooo.... I just come across this thread.

My boy will also start his schooling on Thursday and we were just notified that the schedule of school bus is rediculous.  We live in Tai Po but my kid was r ...

siubosiumao

Tommyzoe, so if its a hot topic every year, which tells me that this bus company is not providing the level of service that the parents want. Then, why do we still have him serve ICS? Are their political reasons involved?

I have been discussing with the kinder PA, Andrew, regarding this issue. He is very concerned about this situation and is collecting inputs and polls from parents who are having problems. PLS CONTACT HIM ASAP IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY with Jackson's service. If you need Andrew's contact, pls PM me.

btw, I just found out that Jackson's school bus on the return trip from Fotan DOES NOT HAVE SEATBELTS!!!!!! Since the ride is so long, the kinder kids were all falling asleep and on the verge of hitting themselves on the row in front of them because THERE ARE NO SEATBELTS!!! Can any existing parents explain to me WHY ICS HIRE A BUS COMPANY THAT DOES NOT OFFER SEATBELTS??????????

原帖由 tommyzoe 於 09-8-19 01:28 發表
Regarding school bus service, this is really a hot topic every year around schools. I would like to suggest every ICS parent to make comment about the school bus service through PA.