From Int'l Kindergarten back to Local Primary School

Golf

Dear all,

Can anybody give me some advice on the topic?

1) My family would like to send my son to Int'l Kindergarten in the 1st 3 years, strength his English Language and build up his interest in English Reading.

2) But due to financial issue, we plan to send him back to Local Primary School

3) for pt.1, is this worth?  Is this effective?  Or they will forget the things they learn in Kindergarten Level?

4) Will those 私校 or 直資 consider the Int'l School student? Any parents experienced that before....

Tks for your advice!!

oooray

not a easy task to achieve optimum result. Here is my experience:
1. Studying in REAL int'l kindergarten means u are going to  sacrifice Chinese level. U need to invest additional resources (time and/or $$$) to improve Chinese standard not far behind those in local kindergarten;
2. no comment. personal decision;
3. Worth? Give and take (Good English/Weak Chinese or vice versa). Effective? 3 hours a day is not enough to have good English. If you can provide high percent English environment outside the school (e.g. speak 100% English at home), English will become his "mother tongue". Language ability will not be lost if you can keep using it. A friend of mine whose son spoke German before 3 year old but after came back to HK he forgot everything at 5 (no chance to practice here)
4. No experience. As far as I know, 私校 or 直資 are not inexpensive at all.
Your choice theoretically works but is pretty risky. Be anticipate that Your child and your family would experience possible huge pressure/contradictions in the coming years.
If you merely want your son to have good English Standard, there are thousand of effective and less expensive ways than spending 2 years in International Kindergarten (no K3 in International Kindergarten.)
...If you are talking about "LOCAL" International Kindergarten, they are another story...

Good Luck!

WYmom

If plan to study in local or DSS primary schools, your kid will need to have good Chinese standard as well.  So will be better to choose local bilingual international kinders rather than real international kinders.

sks

Hi Golf,

I will let my daughter studying in Inter Kinder, but it does not mean I will only fix my target on inter primary. I will consider local and inter primary too.

However, you must make sure you need to teach your child the Chinese (words & pronunciation) to ensure that he/she could pick up the Chinese when he/she study in local primary.

For me, I don’t think my choice will be fixed as from my selection on the type of kinder. Therefore, I keep on training my daughter to recognize the Chinese words to let her have more choice of primary.

KaKaYa

For HK primary school should be finished K3 and go to Primary Section. But Int'l school should be promoted from K2. I don't know how to select the local primary.

sks 寫道:
Hi Golf,

I will let my daughter studying in Inter Kinder, but it does not mean I will only fix my target on inter primary. I will consider local and inter primary too.

However, you must make sure you need to teach your child the Chinese (words & pronunciation) to ensure that he/she could pick up the Chinese when he/she study in local primary.

For me, I don’t think my choice will be fixed as from my selection on the type of kinder. Therefore, I keep on training my daughter to recognize the Chinese words to let her have more choice of primary.

sks

Hi KaKaYa,

It is right that the entry age of primary for local and inter is different. Therefore, if you want to let your child study in local primary, you need to make the decision when the child is in K2. The plan could be as follows:
1)        K1+K2 in inter kinder and K3 in local kinder > local primary
2)        K1-K3 in inter kinder (some inter kinder provide K3) > local primary

However, it is a must to teach the child chinese.

From my point, I just want to let my child have more choice (for primary selection) even she is in inter kinder.

Up to now, my plan for her education is in IS. However, as I mention, there is not only one road for inter kinder child if the parent teach the child Chinese at home.     

KaKaYa

I was apply the ESF primary school this year. But not yet? Do you have any IS for my choice.
Thank you!
Now My daughter is studying  K2 in Local kindergarten. Please advice?

sks 寫道:
Hi KaKaYa,

It is right that the entry age of primary for local and inter is different. Therefore, if you want to let your child study in local primary, you need to make the decision when the child is in K2. The plan could be as follows:
1)        K1+K2 in inter kinder and K3 in local kinder > local primary
2)        K1-K3 in inter kinder (some inter kinder provide K3) > local primary

However, it is a must to teach the child chinese.

From my point, I just want to let my child have more choice (for primary selection) even she is in inter kinder.

Up to now, my plan for her education is in IS. However, as I mention, there is not only one road for inter kinder child if the parent teach the child Chinese at home.     

sks

Hi KaKaYa,

I do not have much information about primary school as my child is only 2 years old. There are two years more for me to search information.

For ESF, it should be based on catchments zone, therefore the choice is not much. Only one for one catchments zone + RC (which is private independent ESF and does not constraint by catchments zone).

If your child is in K2, you should help her/him to apply ESF immediately as I see from other thread that ESF is now interviewing the child for the coming P1.

By the way, why you decide to let your child study in Inter School, but not continue in the local school?

琬晴B

Hi sks,

We are pretty much on the same page at the moment.

琬晴B

sks

Hi  琬晴B,

Ha.., cos our child is at the same age and we have similar plan for their education.

Oh.. we still have 2 years to make the decision, local vs inter..   

However, I need to teach my daughter Chinese myself, you could rely on KCS for Chinese learning.

KaKaYa

According your home address:e.g:Kowloon Junior School
Zone: Areas south-west of Cherry Street and Ferry Street, the east side of Nathan Road to Boundary Street, including Yau Yat Chuen, then eastwards to the Choi Hung interchange. Areas south of Clearwater Bay Road, including Diamond Hill, Hammer Hill, Kowloon Bay, Telford Gardens, Lam Tin (excluding Sceneway Gardens which is Clearwater Bay School), Yau Tong, Ma Wan, Tung Chung and Laguna City, but excluding Tseung Kwan O.
Private independent ESF isRenaissance College
5 Hang Ming Street, Ma On Shan
New Territories, Hong Kong
In fact  of ,the Central applications for Year One (born in 2002) to ESF for 2007/2008 Application period: 1-22 September 2006. I hadn't sent the application on time. So only waiting for next time interview's date.(Applications received after 22 September 2006 will be prioritised both by category and date of application. Late applications should be sent to the school in zone.)
My husband liked her to study abroad when she is in college.We hope she can enjoy the school's life in the future. site:
Now she is fine , studying in famous kindergarten with primary school & secondary school. It's doesn't matter for her future. But we need her independent and have good planning by herself. No need often to exam and exam in whole year.
I f you've any queries, we may take a look this web-
http://www.esf.edu.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=32&langNo=1

sks 寫道:
Hi KaKaYa,

I do not have much information about primary school as my child is only 2 years old. There are two years more for me to search information.

For ESF, it should be based on catchments zone, therefore the choice is not much. Only one for one catchments zone + RC (which is private independent ESF and does not constraint by catchments zone).

If your child is in K2, you should help her/him to apply ESF immediately as I see from other thread that ESF is now interviewing the child for the coming P1.

By the way, why you decide to let your child study in Inter School, but not continue in the local school?

sks

Hi KaKaYa,
My catchment zone is KJS too.
And I will apply RC too.
However, I don't know which one is better KJS or RC.   
There are many discussion on RC, however not much about KJS.

Oh.. your child is so bright. She should be studying in many parents' dream kinder.

My child will study in inter kinder, therefore I think the kinder will inform me when to apply ESF primary.

It is the same that my husband would like my daughter to study in IS , but I prefer local DSS as I want her to learn more Chinese.

cocobean225

sks,

As I read from other threads, we should declare our priority when applying to both ESF primary and RC. In case we choose ESF as priority, application to RC will be on hold and vice versa.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

sks

cocobean225,

Yes, it is.

cocobean225 寫道:
As I read from other threads, we should declare our priority when applying to both ESF primary and RC. In case we choose ESF as priority, application to RC will be on hold and vice versa.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

schiu999

Have you and your family considered any bi-lingual kindergarten, e.g. Learning Habitat, Think, Victoria and etc.  Of course, all depends on your home locations.  In fact, according to what you mentioned, it appears not worth to send your child to international kindergarten, just because you aim at laying good English foundation for your child.  

According to my experience (I did send my child to ESF kindergarten for a couple of weeks, but for some reason we withdrew), it really helped my child to strengthen her English proficiency in terms of his willingness to speak English.  

My personal views are that the effectiveness of learning English at kindergarten level depends:

1.  Your child's character - if your child is outgoing, your child may still be able to gain sufficient English proficiency at some bi-lingual school because it has half school time for learning English.

2.  Home environment is very very important at all.  I speak English to my child, my child communicates with our maid with English, I read English books to my child, my child just watches English TV, my child attends English speaking playgroup ... etc.  Though my child is studying local kindergarten, my child is still admitted by RC.  

Last but not least, you must be very careful before making any decision, because in local kindergarten children will start learning writing during first semister of K2, but international kindergarten demands quite minimal level of writing skill (remember here is writing skill but not drawing skill), what international school normally expects children could write their name.  So, putting your child to international kindergarten then back to normal school, there will be big gap for your child's writing ability.  

For your last question, even your child is in international primary school P1, you child is eligible to join the big lottery for all gov't and subsidized primary school P1, so no worry about local private school and DSS.  

Golf 寫道:
Dear all,

Can anybody give me some advice on the topic?

1) My family would like to send my son to Int'l Kindergarten in the 1st 3 years, strength his English Language and build up his interest in English Reading.

2) But due to financial issue, we plan to send him back to Local Primary School

3) for pt.1, is this worth?  Is this effective?  Or they will forget the things they learn in Kindergarten Level?

4) Will those 私校 or 直資 consider the Int'l School student? Any parents experienced that before....

Tks for your advice!!