Want help? Not being accepted by ESF?

popolung

I heard some ESF primary schools are starting to interview waiting list students, including some in Cat 2. So may have to be patience, of course you need to look for alternative too, hope it's not a bit late. Also keep talking to ESF Kennedy School and your kinder see if they have any progress...

popolung

原帖由 kcpapa 於 09-3-11 18:30 發表
May be you might know that CWB is very competitive this year.  We received a phone call on yesterday from CWB and they asked if we would consider to have an interview, not CWB but SJS.  Our daughter i ...

If you have offered to go interview in SJS, go for it unless you have other offer or you think SJS is too remote to go. SJS is a good school, and also if you finally can get it SJS, you will be easier to come back to CWBS or BHS, KJS, etc on next term. And if you are in SJS you will be bridged to Shatin College or KGV depend on your placement zone when you are in Y6 / Y7. Good Luck.

Did you also applied RC?

popolung

原帖由 King'sMom 於 09-3-11 15:43 發表


Thanks for your advice, Kcpapa. My child is in Cat 2. I have already checked if I can apply for another ESF, but the answer is NO. They said it's the ESF policy that I cannot apply for more than one ...

For ESF, you can apply the Gov't subsidized ESF Primary / Secondary school via ESF Center. They will allocate your children to a school according to your placement zone. This is why ESF center said you can only apply for 1 school only.

For ESF PIS (Private Independent School), like RC & DC, you can apply separately and there is no placement zone limitation and they basically serve whole HK (if your kid doesn't mind to travel far away).

So don't mix-up these 2 different kind of ESF schools. And since you are in the queue of one school, you can transfer to another, and even you can, you will have no advantage as all the queue is very long and you will be placed at the end of any queue.

popolung

原帖由 King'sMom 於 09-3-12 14:15 發表


OKmom,

I haven't asked them further. She just said that student has passed the interview but is on the waitlist.

I just have a chat with other International Kindergarten about my case and they sai ...

Beside the ESF school. you should also try to call ESF Center (in Stubbs Road) to check on your case, if you think you case is happened because of a mistake only. Good Luck.

popolung

原帖由 kcpapa 於 09-3-14 23:29 發表
I am a Cat 2 parent and my daughter is studying in ESF KG.  At the day when we applied ESF KG, we were told that almost 99% of the KG students can go into the primary school of ESF.  Unfortunately, af ...

Good luck to your kid's SJS interview. Though I know it may be far away, SJS is a very good school. and Shatin College is one of the best secondary school in ESF too.

Also if your kid want to come back to study in CWBS, take the SJS first and then wait till the 2009 term begin, miracle will happen. At least you have a seat in ESF school already by then.

popolung

原帖由 cchan0311 於 09-3-18 14:38 發表
Hi

I live in The Waterfront (Kowloon Station) and should apply Kowloon Junior School according to the catchment zone.  I found from the KJS website that there are 150 places in year 1, can anyone adv ...

very, very competitive. Questions:

1. Are you Cat 1 or Cat 2?

2. Do your kid in ESF Kinder or other?

popolung

原帖由 hkufrankie 於 09-3-18 18:51 發表
Cat 1: Native English Speaker (children can't speak in Chinese)
Cat 2: Fluent Eng speaker who can also speak Chinese.]原帖由 avalyl 於 09-3-18 15:58 發表 http://forum.edu-kingdom.com/images/common/bac ...

sound like we need to put a FAQ here for the Cat 1 / 2 thing:

http://www.esf.edu.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=1039&langNo=1

Admissions criteria

Places will be offered to successful applicants subject to availability.

Only one application may be submitted per student.
Students can only apply to the school in their zone (except Year One and Seven students applying during central applications).

Students must be able to cope with an English-medium curriculum. Please see language requirements

We prioritise applications by category (see below) and by date of application.

Applicants in category one will be invited for interview before those in category two, regardless of the date of application.

Category One

Children who speak English as a first or alternative language but do not speak Cantonese and/or read and write Chinese characters.

Category Two

Children who can access the local system but who also meet ESF's entrance requirements.

Within each category priority will be given to students who:

are siblings of children already attending an ESF school;
are attending an ESF Educational Services Ltd Kindergarten (for Year One only);
are former students returning from a period overseas;
have a parent who is a full-time employee of ESF;
are the children of former ESF students.

[ 本帖最後由 popolung 於 09-3-18 21:15 編輯 ]

popolung

原帖由 sillybabyq 於 09-3-19 01:03 發表
If my son is chinese but he can speak English only, Will he classify as Cat 1?

Does he has an overseas passport? Can he speak Cantonese?

With oversea passport can prove your kid to be Cat 1, but if he can speak Cantonese then most likely will be put into Cat 2.

popolung

原帖由 kcpapa 於 09-3-19 13:29 發表
Be smart in filling the form.  Some foreign passport "local HKG" holder speak only English.  So Cat 1.

Well, you can do that. But there are some ESF schools I heard that will try to test Cat 1 students if they can speak Cantonese. If yes, failed. So take your own risk if you do that. Of course somehow it is very hard this year to "be honest"!

Also, if we start to tell lies in the form since they are only 4, what are we supposed to do in the future? What if our kid tell lies to us?

popolung

原帖由 cchan0311 於 09-3-19 14:06 發表


It's really hard for my son to speak English only as his grandma and grandpa speak Cantonese.  Although my son can speak fluent English, he can also speak fluent Cantonese (but cannot read or write) ...

As told, take your own risk if you want to say he is English Speaking only.  Still have time for you to turnaround this (not impossible), and train him as speaking english only. But then there are a lot of things to change, like how he said going to "VV", the name of the helper, Daddy but not baba, etc. As simple as these pharses. Good Luck.

popolung

原帖由 Mornington 於 09-3-19 20:57 發表
Hi Popolung

Great to see from other threads that ESF CWB offered a place to your daughter.  Congratulations!

It surprised to me when saying that there was Cat 3 about two years ago.  Now that non-na ...

Thanks a lot. That really bother me for quite a while until she got admitted. Too bad there are some classmates failed in interviews though...

I am quite sure that the Cat system depends on if you hold an overseas passport, then what you wrote about the language proficiency of your kid.

If one want to hide about the kid's Cantonese speaking capability, either you have to train your kid not to speak Chinese at all time, or take your own risk. Some ESF may not test, but some does.. good luck.

popolung

原帖由 mother30 於 09-3-25 14:45 發表
popolung,
pls can you share how you promote your daughter's English language proficiency apart from the 3-hr kindy life?
My son is one of the youngest in class and his language skills (whether Cantone ...

As said before, there is no shortcuts. You need to spend more time with your daughter, read more storys, watch more English DVD, movie (with her not she watches alone), go to more English playgroup. On holiday go to some English speaking countries like UK, Australia or even Singapore. Soak her in complete English environment.

Parents need to sacrifice a lot. For example, can you give up what you like after your office hour, for example, not watching "Laughing Kor" at TVB and watch Playhouse Disney channel with your kids, or read story book with her? Ask yourselves. The more time you can be with her, the better future she will be. Good Luck.

popolung

原帖由 mother30 於 09-3-25 15:22 發表
while I understand the ESF category system does bother some parents...... I just want to share that even those in Cat 1 would worry about their kids not being admitted.... she is my Indian friend from ...

To be fair, normal ESF school (excluding RC & DC), received subsidy from HKSAR Gov't to educate kid who can't fit in local education system (since they can't speak cantonese), so parents should not blame the ESF system for Cat 2. For keen competition in Cat 1, it is because of the overwhelming demand this year, and also mean ESF doesn't take every Cat 1 they interviewed, so that at least standard is maintained (up to the level they require is good English skill as this is their medium of teaching in school)

popolung

原帖由 mother30 於 09-3-27 22:57 發表
popolung,
Thanks for your sharing.

welcome!