英華 Vs 高主教 Vs 聖方濟各

littlemak

那一間的雙語教育做得好啲？
如果不考慮 $ 與 距家遠近，你會選那一間？
如果與在"谷"與"求學興趣"之間取一平衡點，點䏲？
要諗埋個細妹嗎？有啲人話分開諗；但08年出生率接近04年的2倍呀！今次考小一已覺得好難和大壓力了。

哥哥自幼在英普幼稚園讀，屬於"創意、活潑"型，但睇嘢學嘢好正面冇投訴，亦肯守規矩和肯受老師教(不過係唔多受阿媽教啫！又呃又氹又鬧才坐低做功課。)都肯講道理嘅。

還有一個08年妹妹，10月細女。

已放棄2間。
另5間已失敗。
浸小、培正、StStephen、蔡繼有waiting。
最想入是sscps。
宣小未in。

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

fsforth

原帖由 littlemak 於 09-12-2 14:08 發表
fsforth,

why do you say that if your kid is more "emotional" than should let him study in YW? do you mean that YW can handle kids better in their personality and emotional issues?

agree that the tea ...

這是林校長既presentation, 在YW web site 找到既:
http://learn.ouhk.edu.hk/~etpmsp/public_lecture/primary_teachers/Default.htm#event=1#nopreload=1

先看"螞蟻專家"的一段, 如果這位小朋友落在其他不懂兒童心理的老師手上, 你應該估到有什麼後果...

waiwaibaba

原帖由 littlemak 於 09-12-2 14:29 發表
dear gracechung,

thanks a lot for your kind comment and info.

i am very glad to hear that YW is not bad in language education. of course, as local school standard, it is quite good already.

how abo ...

Dear littlemak
No offense. From the thread I saw signs that U may be over-stressing yr child and yrself. Language ability, as we all know, is crucial for career etc. but it appears that U apply so many diff schools from TKO to West Kowloon; from Shatin to Stanley each of vastly diverse styles, values etc... I'd suggest U consult yr kind teacher or child pysch specialists to seek afdvice on which school best suit him based on his characters after the results of all the appln has been finalised.

Best.

littlemak

dear bbone,

thanks for your idea. Agreed. To decide later, consider in more directions first and collect more info.

my son has finished his interview at YW already. he is really very very sick on that day of interview. fever, cough, no voice and bad sore throat. but he is very brave and cooperative and behave very well. he answer all questions. he sit patiently on his chair even though he feels very sleepy after taking the medicine. he knows this is his dream school hence he tries hard to perform well.

we talk with principal ms lam (she is a very nice lady, very presentable and strong-minded style. she is confident in her leadership and curriculum model) and through out the process the atmosphere is happy with laughters, sharing of ideas with no conflict no arguments at all.

thanks everybody for your precious comment and information.

lets decide at mid Dec when all offers confirmed.
good luck to you too. hope you get your dream school as the best christmas gifts this year!

littlemak

dear gracechung,

thanks a lot for your kind comment and info.

i am very glad to hear that YW is not bad in language education. of course, as local school standard, it is quite good already.

how about the reading atmosphere? do the kids always take out a book from the pocket to read, just like (i heard) those in ChoiKaiYau?

how about the language spoken among the classmates and friends in school ? english or mandarin or most common is still cantonese?

I have heard that PLK:TSL the kids talk to each other in English. real or not?

littlemak

fsforth,

why do you say that if your kid is more "emotional" than should let him study in YW? do you mean that YW can handle kids better in their personality and emotional issues?

agree that the teachers at YW and RC are both love and caring and experience.

my son emotion-stable most of the time. however, he is very gentle and sensitive to others attitude towards him. he can be very sad if his friends don't play with him or if his teacher misunderstand him. i think he can benefit more from a small-class teaching style. but both YW and RC are big-class (33-35 per class with only 1 class-teacher). he will be very quiet if not encourage him to speak out in the class or not giving him enough chance to speak out.

I knowSFA is a very famous and good academically school. but i am likely to give up SFA as it is a big class-teaching style, and competition is super keen there. i don't want my son to get too upset if he study very hard but still always fail and always get poor ranking in the class exam.

seems RC and YW will not "open names" on the ranking list after the exam except the top 10 students. this is rather healthy and motivational to the students.

littlemak

Thanks fsforth,

I agree with you:
choose RC for younger sister higher chance to get a primary and secondary school.
Also, RC is a english primary school.

I give up the lucky draw for a co-ed primary school as I shouldn't let brother to take risk. He get RC (and maybe YW) by his own effort, he deserves a good school for him.

bbone

原帖由 fsforth 於 09-12-1 15:24 發表


同意! 哥哥有本事考到RC/SFC就唔應該為個妹而放棄, 無理由迫哥哥玩大抽獎

為左妹妹, 哥哥入RC會好d, 女仔去 in "男校"點都有些著數, 就算到時妹妹只係有waiting list, 都可以同學校商量下, 記得叫哥哥係RC 乖D,  ...

Agree. Everyone has his/her own path to go. It would be unfair to deprive older child's benefits. Maybe little sister is even smarter than big brother and get into DGS. You never know. But I would register all schools that give me offers and decide later.  Good Luck!

gracechung

YW同RC點比我唔知，因為我係九龍人，對香港學校唔清楚。

但我可以話你知，YW的語文教學辦得唔錯，林校長好重視語文科，工作紙設計得甚有水平。我好少返學校浦，識既老師唔多，但我遇見過既幾個英文老師都唔錯，聽口音應該從外國返黎。

舊年做家長義工(p1)，見某些班如果是英文老師做班主任，平日同學同班主任全英文對答，普通話班主任亦然。不過我個仔個班主任教數，就冇呢個優惠喇。

咁當然，yw同國際學校比，一定唔同level，但local school來說，一d都失禮。不過我同意同sfa比，一定唔夠sfa咁深。

至於校長退休問題，我唔擔心，因為睇得出校長的目標亦一路都做緊既係建立優質的教師團隊，眼下所見教師是年輕但有經驗果種，好既教師係唔需要校長睇住至識做野架！學校的教師團隊/教學路向既成，就不易動搖。

fsforth

原帖由 littlemak 於 09-12-1 15:49 發表
so, fsforth,
do you think RC is stronger in languages than YW?

呢樣我唔知道, 因為我放棄左RC 既offer, 無再收料..
但係如果你想幫妹妹就入RC, 因為RC是男女校...
而RC大部分老師教開男仔, 女仔普遍比男仔乖, 所以, 妹妹 in RC 成功率應該大過你去in其他女校

但係, 因為我個仔比較emotional, 如果比我二選一, 就一定係YW

YW小學程度應該唔會淺, 學術上可以放心, 只要有林校長一日, touch wood 講句如果個仔攪到要見校長, 在YW, 林校長應該會有solution 比你知點去幫個仔!

但又因為個Snoopy校長實在太好, 要搵人做得好過佢唔容易, 佢04年入英華, 而家都做左六年, 會唔會做多六年呢?
Anyway, 收左先再想...

littlemak

so, fsforth,
do you think RC is stronger in languages than YW?

fsforth

原帖由 VKwan 於 09-12-1 14:47 發表
既然你認為哥哥在學對妹妹有幫助，唔好揀yw啦。

但我本人意見唔係咁，哥哥應揀手中最好的offer不理男/男女校，妹妹自有佢既命運軌道，冇理由要影響到哥哥。 ...

同意! 哥哥有本事考到RC/SFC就唔應該為個妹而放棄, 無理由迫哥哥玩大抽獎

為左妹妹, 哥哥入RC會好d, 女仔去 in "男校"點都有些著數, 就算到時妹妹只係有waiting list, 都可以同學校商量下, 記得叫哥哥係RC 乖D, 老師對哥哥有好印象, 對妹妹都有幫助架

littlemak

So, if neglecting younger-sister influence, which is the best for elder-brother?

SFA? YingWa? RC?

which one would you prefer? which one stronger in language (eng & mandarin) and better to my son?

VKwan

既然你認為哥哥在學對妹妹有幫助，唔好揀yw啦。

但我本人意見唔係咁，哥哥應揀手中最好的offer不理男/男女校，妹妹自有佢既命運軌道，冇理由要影響到哥哥。

littlemak

fsforth,
offer on hand: sfa, rc.