GSIS

Ruby1219

If i remember correctly, it's about 3-4 lessons per week in Year 3 for Chinese. And they were using Singapore textbook, not sure which year level, should be 1-2 years lower I guess.
My son is now in the advanced group in Year 6 and they are using Beijing textbook Year 1 only. But if he enters the flyers group, it will jump to the Year 4 textbook of the same series. For the advance group (i.e. the second group most of the current Year 6 advance class will be automatically assigned to) will use the Year 2 textbook of the same series.

Ruby1219

Your kid is in Year2 now ? Which school is he/she going to now ?

Yumom

Hi Ruby,

Nice to have read what your wrote. My kid will join GSIS soon and I have a lot of questions.

It's a bit saddening to learn that the workload of Year 5 and 6 are busy and Year 7 is a bit like local school! But is the homework of quality? (or like most local schools, just copy and write and write..). Is the syllabus good? Do you mind sharing what they learnt, say Science, History, Georgraphy in Year 6. How would you rate the quality of the teachers (majority)?  

When will they introduce IB? Will the current Year 6 students be affected? Do students have a choice of joing IB or GSCE?

Do all the classes separate the students into different groups according to their ability or just chinese class?

For German, is it necessary to arrange private tuition or does GSIS will arrange special tuition for new comers?   

I've learnt that GSIS is particulary strong at Math and Science. Is private tuitoring required or we can rely on the school to "englighten" our kids' mind?

Sorry for having so many questions. Tks in advace for your time.


Yumom

muji

Hi, my son will join KG2 this year, may i know how you train Chinese? It's very hard for him to remember & write the chinese wording, kindly advise, thanks~

Ruby1219

Hi Yumom,

Sorry I did not "come" to BK last few days, here are my "late" replies :

It's a bit saddening to learn that the workload of Year 5 and 6 are busy and Year 7 is a bit like local school! But is the homework of quality? (or like most local schools, just copy and write and write..).

>>it's just the workload being heavy, but the homework is nothing like local school (as per my memory when I was student). They do little printing/copying (just a little for Chinese). Most of the homeworks are worksheets about English vocabularies and their applications, reading & book reports, and many projects (ICT, General Studies, Science)

Is the syllabus good? Do you mind sharing what they learnt, say Science, History, Georgraphy in Year 6.

>> I think their syllabus is good. They have Science starting from Year 5, no History & Geography, but General Studies in which they studied Roman, Greek cultures, studies about Continents etc.  Their projects are always interesting. For example, this year they had done a "Continent Project", which they have to pick a continent and then present 1. a Game 2. a Song, 3. the Social/Political issues 4. the Map 5. a Food (with recipe and video of the cooking process, even share the real product with the class!) 6. a summary powerpoint presentation and video!

How would you rate the quality of the teachers (majority)?

>> Most of the teachers are good. Reasonable and caring. My son likes most of them. And you know what?  Even their principal is teaching them! PE, Math and English! When my son was in P.4, his class teacher told me that the principal so happened passed by and heard my son's presentation and was impressed : ). She's really involved in the teaching and the kids.

When will they introduce IB? Will the current Year 6 students be affected? Do students have a choice of joing IB or GSCE?

>>They should be starting IB in 2015, if I remember correctly. Yes, my son would be 'affected', but I don't know if there's a choice between IB and GSCE, I guess probably IB is a must.

Do all the classes separate the students into different groups according to their ability or just chinese class?

>> In primary, they just have different levels/groups for Chinese. But for Math, they would offer Extended Math (just more difficult class work) to the Math talented students

For German, is it necessary to arrange private tuition or does GSIS will arrange special tuition for new comers?   

>>No. The school would provide extra German class after school for those new comers who cannot catch up. But some of my son's classmates do have private tutorials, which is difficult to find a tutor and expensive ($500 per hour at least).

I've learnt that GSIS is particulary strong at Math and Science. Is private tuitoring required or we can rely on the school to "englighten" our kids' mind?

>>I'm not sure if that's true to primary school. My son said the Math at school is very easy. I did not hear any other kids needing supplementary classes for Math or Science. But some kids including my son are taking EPGY or CTY Math courses which are much more advanced than that from school.

Hope the above helps. How old is your kid? Is he/she entering GSIS coming August? Which year?

Ruby

adachan318

Thanks Ruby for such a detailed response.  Do you know at what grade do they start offering Extended Math program?

Yumom

Hi, Ruby,

Tks for the detailed sharing. So delighted to know that the homework are of quality and the projects are interesting. So they are kept busy meaningfully.

My kid will be joing Year 7 in the coming August. I learnt from GSIS that our kids (both Year 7 in the coming year) will joined IGCSE in Year 11 and then joined the IB program when they reached Year 12 and 13.  

My kid is a bit weak in Math. May I know what is EPGY or CTY Math?

Yumom

原帖由 Ruby1219 於 11-6-1 16:16 發表
Hi Yumom,

Sorry I did not "come" to BK last few days, here are my "late" replies :

It's a bit saddening to learn that the workload of Year 5 and 6 are busy and Year 7 is a bit like local school! B ...

Ruby1219

Hi adachan318,

I don't know. Sorry. And it's not something that significant or important I think.


Ruby

Ruby1219

Hi Yumom,

Oh! Your kid will be joining GSIS Year 7? Then s/he might become my son's classmate :)
Is a he or she?
Where is s/he from?
Did s/he join the Year 7 Orientation Day last Wed? My son said he met 8-9 new kids, one from DBS, several from SIS. Maybe they had met already? Haha.

EPGY = Education Program for Gifted Youth, by Stanford University
CTY = Center for Talented Youth, by Johns Hopkins University
Both are from the U.S., providing online English/Writing, Math and Science courses for talented kids in respective areas. My son's been doing EPGY for few years, and he's joining the Summer Program by CTY this year, hosted in HKUST.

Ruby

Yumom

Hi Ruby,

Yes I think our kids have lots of chances to meet each other in the years to come. My daughter comes from DGJS. She told me that the students were separated into 2 groups. The English teacher of her group is Mr. Bar... As your son is so brilliant, I have a feeling that he is in a different group from my daughter.

For the math courses, I think I have to find other courses as my kid is not at all talented in math. On the contrary, I spent quite a lot of time on her math for her...

Tks for your sharing, anyway.

Yumom

Ruby1219

Hi Yumon,

My son was keen and asked me about your daughter's name (send me pm if you would like to let him know).
In fact, I used to get to know a mom here at BK before her daughter joined GSIS!! And now our kids are classmates and we are friends!!
Why you want to change your girl from DGJS to GSIS? DG is such a top local school that many HK parents long for!
My son is not brilliant at all! Especially among the GSIS kids. He's just very interestedin math and science and doing quite well in that area, but his teacher said he has to catch in terms of English. The academic standard in GSIS is quite high, but my son likes the school very much and he's very motivates to learnin this school. That's why I like GSIS too : )

Yumom

Hi Ruby,

posted mail to you already.

Yumom

Ruby1219

Yumom,

sent you pm. pls check.

Ruby

suzanlai

hi yumom ,
i longed for GSIS too, although it may be too early for my daughter who is not even 2 years old.  but i would like to know why you change from local to international? i am still struggling whether or not to plan my daughter for the international stream. of course if she has the luck to enter DB and then transfer to GSIS, that will be even great since she can at least has chinese knowledge! what will be your advice?
also ruby, do you know what will be an advantage if i were planning to enroll my daughter to GSIS? i always heard from others that GSIS is a very tough school which focus on adcadamic, do you agree?

Ruby1219

suzanlai,

Sorry I don't quite get your question.
What do you mean by"what will be an advantage if i were planning to enroll my daughter to GSIS?"

"i always heard from others that GSIS is a very tough school which focus on adcadamic, do you agree?"

I feel that GSIS is 'more academic' than the other international schools. It's kind of like an in-between of local and int'l schools. But the teaching style and enviroment are still free and motivating. Hope I'm answering your question.

Best,
Ruby

Yumom

Hi Suzanlai,

I dare not offer advice. But maybe I just share with you my experience. I was like you when my girl was small. I had a struggle to get her into an International School or a local one when she was offered choices from both types of schools. You may ask the advice of the kindergraten teachers of your kid whether local school and international school suits your kid more. For me, my daughter's teachers said both streams are suitable for her. We finally choose an elite school, attracted by its reputation.  All the years through, while I get my girl into a local school, I am of the opinion that international school is better for my kid's development. Besides, she is that sort of person who likes to think rather than memorise.

As your kid is still small, you can observe more and ask the advice of her teachers whe the time comes for the decision. Frankly speaking, it's difficult for a layman to tell whether a small child below 5 or 6 is suitable for which type of school. For me, I only know international school suits my kid more when she was around 8.

Yumom

Yumom

原帖由 suzanlai 於 11-6-4 13:02 發表
hi yumom ,
i longed for GSIS too, although it may be too early for my daughter who is not even 2 years old.  but i would like to know why you change from local to international? i am still struggling  ...

suzanlai

thanks a lot ! u r right! i am always confused and struggling! local vs international!  it is really too early to decide whether my 20months old baby suits what! but as it is becoming more and more competitive to get in elite international school, i doubt if i first put my girl to a local then discover she cannot perform well, and if its too late to transfer her to an elite international school. do you mind telling me your experience? which local did your kid attend before and how she get into GSIS, such an elite school!  

thank you!!

suzan

原帖由 Yumom 於 11-6-7 14:21 發表
Hi Suzanlai,

I dare not offer advice. But maybe I just share with you my experience. I was like you when my girl was small. I had a struggle to get her into an International School or a local one whe ...

Ruby1219

Suzan,
Another way to approach the issue is decide what kind of education do you want for your kid.
My son, similar to Yumom's daughter, can fit in both local and int'l schools (i think). But I decided to enroll him into int'l schools since he was 2.5yrs old  becos I buy the teaching and learning approach of int'l schools. And simply, I knew I would be too busy at work to be qualified as a local school parent. And more importantly, I don't want to waste all my leisure, family time on doing homework and revising for tests/exams with my son.
Now, he's already 11 (P.6), looking at his school life versus my friends' kids' (who are studying at local schools), I confirm that I was right. I'm horrified knowing my friends are now (June-final exam season) locking themselves and their kids at home studying days and nights, can't even go out for a  lunch or dinner!

That's my two cents, hope it helps.

Chess

Hi Ruby,

What do you think are the deficiencies (if any) of the international school path?

Ruby1219

Hi Chess,

My 'cons' of international schools :
1. Expensive
2. Lower Chinese level
3. Lower knowledge/appreciation of Chinese culture
4. As local parents, we won't mindle very well with other parents (mostly foreigners)

To me, point 2 & 3 are more of concern than point 1 & 4.

Ruby