英華 Vs 高主教 Vs 聖方濟各

littlemak

waiwaibaba,

never mind, you are just in good will, i can understand.
in fact, people may not understand our situation so they may have this similar querry abt our choice.

my son was not behaving well before intensive training early in this year. what i mean is, since he was in K2, he was very passive, not answering people, not greeting people, not answering and even not looking at people, etc. so i was very worried about his interview performance.

luckily, after intensive training, he changes a lot. He has now much more proper manner, answering people with relevant details, not kicking the table while sitting, improved compliance.

yes, i did ask his kinder teacher and tutors, but i got very opposite suggestions.

some said he fit traditional style better because he can sit properly in class and he likes challenges, so strongly suggest me to apply traditional school like SFA (which I didn't want to apply at first); and another tutor said he may be happier and more creative and receive better billingual education in the new style school like GT (which i didn't intend at first also!)

anyway, i didn't regret applying all these DSS and private schools as the successful rate is actually not high.
moreover, we are not any old boy/gir of any good schools so his chance to get into any good schools nearby is nearly zero.
so what if he can't get into any DSS or private primary school?

btw, he never complains about going for interviews so far. In fact, he enjoys it. he treats the interviews just as our family outing functions, and school visits, rather than an exam.
he is a tough boy and we always praise him for being brave and just treat the interviews casually.
we never "practise" hard on those "academic stuff" before the interviews. what we always practised and stressed before the interviews, were simply being "polite" and "greeting and saying thank you". which we appreciate he did that to teachers, principals and even the cleansing ladies in those schools.
therefore, we think he "gain" a lot through those interviews, not merely the purpose of getting admission to the schools.

waiwaibaba

原帖由 littlemak 於 09-12-2 16:42 發表
waiwaibaba,

never mind, you are just in good will, i can understand.
in fact, people may not understand our situation so they may have this similar querry abt our choice.

my son was not behaving wel ...

Thks for sharing, in yr case, I 'd suggest U seek advice from some child behaviour specialist before U make the final decision. I think the minds of our kids are much more complex than what we think and their prima facie behaviour may not reflect their true picture. U feel annoyed when the kid is rebellious but U also feel uneasy when the kid is too obedient - 1 day it may backfire.

littlemak

moreover,
we think positively towards the interview process.

this is almost the only way that parents can really step into the campus and take a look at the school, to feel whether the teachers are kind and nice, or fieceful and cool, to see if the students are polite or not.
interesting to find out a lot from the school.

for example,
how is the interviews and anouncement of results arranged?
is the waiting time too long and unreasonable?
is the teacher indifferent and not helpful?
is the exam question asked to the kids too simple or too difficult?
how do schools treat those application forms and portfolio?

interviews may not be one-way.
school choose your kid; parents may also choose school.

through out all those process, I deeply feel that some very famous school in fact does not worth that reputation: you see how they make the kid waiting 2-3 hours, you see how they let you toilet in those temporary ones, not allow parents to stay in the campus to wait for kids, how difficult to pick up kid after the interviews because of the mess and poor arrangement, you see how they let you queue up to take the forms, to return the forms, to queue up for interviews in front of the school gate and not allow you even to go to toilets. i saw a lot of "proud-face" of that famous school. Are they that good? how would they treat your child later?

some school well treat the kids and parents, to allow for internet-application, to anounce in numbers rather than names, to show you talk, videos and leaflets while waiting, to let teachers to play with kids (warm up first) before proper interviews, to let student helpers to answer you and bring you around, to let kids feel going to a carnival rather than exam to ease out their pressure. i also saw a lot of friendly and kind face of one famous school too.

this is all useful to me, when few years later i have to do all again for my younger girl. now i know what is our real dream school and which is not. which doesn't worth that name, and which is not human to kids, which is only academic-wise and not caring about the kids at all (some girls school, heard from friends after their interviews)
these are all precious experience. few years later, i can confidently cut down the no. of schools for application for my girl.



excuse me, a bit out of topic, just for sharing.

littlemak

fsforth,
if your kid is in this style, that means he is very smart and clever! this is not emotional problem. this is just a young normal boy would behave: interested in funny things, stubborn and having his own ideas.
in fact, my boy is exactly this style.
however, to fit into HK exam system, we as parents have to "tune" him bit by bit, to let him grow more mature while at the same time keep his motivation and interest in learning.

this may be the parents job. i think, both YW and RC may not give you too much in this way, if under local stressful curriculum, school focus is always academic +- music and sports.
personality development? better find the hope from international ones. (but very poor chinese, this is the trade-off)

mmmmm

To be honest, I do have the same feeling as waiwaibaba. But I don't think the problem is on your child, it's on you. Try to relax and step back a bit.
Whether the school is good or not cannot be solely determined by their way of arranging the application process. You can not say the school is bad just by few hours observation. I think there is no absolutely good or absolutely bad school, it's not black or white. There is a huge grey area. It may be good in one aspect but bad in some other areas. So many factors can affect a kid's development, teachers, peer group, teaching style........not just the language that the kids used to communicate. Even you see some kids communicate in English, that don't mean anything, I'm sure they will communicate in Chinese also. So, my advice is relax and there is no need to be toooooo detail in everything.
Back to your question, I don't familir with RC. For SFA and YW, I will choose YW because it's through train.