保良局蔡繼有學校

father_ho

Dear kyliema,

Sorry may be it make it confused, both series is joinly published by Nat. Geo. and Peking Univ. Press. Actually, National Geo. published lots of books which is hard to read for non-native speaker, some by themself and some joinly done though different Press, I found these series are just suitable for Pri. and sec. student. The titles are as belows:

(14 books) A-series
國家地理英語閱讀與寫作訓練叢書  北京大學               
Communication Around the World        全球傳播        $20.00
Cultures and Celebrations        文化與慶典        $20.00
Immigration To The United States        美國移民        $20.00
Inventions Bring Change        發明改變生活        $20.00
Providing Goods        商品供給        $20.00
Trade Across Time and Cultures        跨時間和文化的貿易        $20.00
Using Earth's Resources        利用地球資源        $20.00
Animals in Their Habitats        動物栖息地        $20.00
Cells at Work        細胞在工作        $20.00
Energy        能量        $20.00
Extreme Weather        極端的天氣        $20.00
Life Cycles        生命周期        $20.00
Shaping Earth's Surface        地表形態的塑造        $20.00
Using Simple Machine        簡單機械        $20.00

(18 books) B-series
國家地理學生英語主題閱讀訓練叢書    北京大學               
1        Superdome        超級穹頂         16.80
2        From Tree to Me        樹木與人         16.80
3        Grand Canyon        大峽谷         16.80
4        Volcanoes        火山噴發         16.80
5        Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone        貝爾與電話         16.80
6        Exploring Tide Pools        潮池探奇         16.80
7        My Town at Work        我的小鎮         16.80
8        Climbing Mount Everest        珠峰探險         16.80
9        Divers of the Deep Sea        深海潛水員         16.80
10        Meet Jane Goodall        珍妮．古多爾與黑猩猩         16.80
11        My Balloon Ride        熱氣球之旅         16.80
12        Changes All Around Us        變化無處不在         16.80
13        Glass        玻璃         16.80
14        Amazing Ants        神奇的螞蟻         16.80
15        Animal Records        動物之最         16.80
16        Appalachian Trail        阿巴拉契亞山道         16.80
17        Birthstones        誕生石         16.80
18        Great Barrier Reef        大堡礁         16.80

I know both series are adopted by some secondary schools as reader in Hong Kong but I can't find the B-series cover in net(since it was published on 4-2006). Also, you can order(they have sample but not complete series) through the below bookshop in Hong Kong:

新思維書店               
旺角西洋菜街南74-84號旺角城市中心9樓906-907室       
http://www.ideabookshop.com               
電話︰2398-0808 / 傳真︰2398-9802

It is a great series in suitable level with great photos which will attract(you actually me) your kids to read through it. I am sure your kids will benefit from it.

father_ho

Dear CYCmama,

I went to the new shenshen bookstore (not the old one) last sunday and I purchased most of the books but in different place within the shop(both two series). The remaining books I just found several days ago in Mongkok bookstore which I quoted before. I just visited the Mongkok bookstore this afternoon and still found the books with same price (of course not the complete series). I suggest you to visit the store once to see if you are actually interested and the saleman actually quoted what you want.

Thanks and hope you enjoy,

father_ho

Dear rhythmwawa,

I went to the 少年宮 MTR station bookstore. I found some on the G/F english book section, some on basement secondary student suppl. reading section, some on basement science section. Actually the new book store is equipped with searching computer which you can enter the name of book or ISBN no. and it will show you the map where the books are.

One feeling is the local chinese student still not yet appreciate what is the importance of reader (most of the 14 book series are neatly postioned and I can't find a kids to take a look on it). They just focus on suppl. exercise just like most of the HK traditional school approach. If one day they awake, it will be the end on most of HK student.

Hope it can help

father_ho

Dear heiditop,

If that is the case, either you found the wrong place since I went to the main store building on 少年宮 place and my friend said there actually has several building or it is the strong power of BK that blow it out. Now, you can order through the method I mentioned or as yeen said through DD. In any method, I suggest you make it fast since I just check the Beking Press web and the result is they are also out of stock (May be it is too low demand in mainland). Hope all parents who interested in it will find it somehow.

Thanks,

father_ho

Dear parents,

For those who had brought the NG theme set series, please don't forget to download the teacher guide from official NG web as follows (one of it):

http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@GAdgXDUm9GLRU/Pages/product.web?nocache@3+record@P6618


Hope this can help more,

father_ho

Dear BookloverJ,

May be you are right that Non-JUPAS way to get into the local U's are difficult than the traditional school, but in the long run, local U's are accepting student from all over the world to boost up themself as world class U and if your kid are bright enough(as suggested by 15marks : ), parent should not worry about that. I just thinking if you look around which DSS and private school can claim themselves will not follow the HK exam. system(except IS) completely. Creative will separate class, ST. Paul also, Logo also and some others I can't remember. Only the school claim they will not follow the traditional system then they will have the freedom to train student as like IS does. Otherwise they will just in the middle and lastly back to mechanical/duck feeding one since they need the performance to showoff. That's the main reason for me to let my kids study here. I am not to sell this school but if you can find same condition school in the market, I am more than willing to know about it.

father_ho

Dear kyliema2006,

You are more than correct and very good observation. In fact, my elder kid studying P4 now, he also say within his class, there are some student performance is far below and some far above standard. So for existing CKY parent, please also bear in mind that there will some sort of selection and examination in the higher year anyway and if their kids performance is not good enough, they will face difficulty in continuing their study.

For the reading habit, I still think it is the problem of parent since I still believe every child actually behave some sort similar and the only different is their environment during their childhood period. You can talk, read, accomplish your kids to read but bear in mind don't change all in a sudden since even adult may not like to change as such.

father_ho

Dear pc528,

CKY of course is expensive and the reason had said a lot. Whether it is worth or not is your decision. For kids, I don't believe they hate reading, only the system/parents make them hate reading. If you take a walk through the public lib. during hoilday, you will see lots of kids just copying the book title, summary and that's all since the school just required them to do so(fill in the reading list sheet). For CKY, if your kid don't like, they need not to fill in anything but as a parent, you know them best and it is your responsibility to select books which will attract them most. Reading is just an enjoyment for CKY student. That's the difference!

father_ho

Dear Tim928,

Wellcome to CKY, my son is studying Y4 but not the class of yours. I would like to advise if your son is switching from traditional school to CKY, he will feel very comfortable at the very beginning(especially due with minute math and english sentence structure and grammer) and try not to misunderstand the suitation. Try to spend more time on reading fiction book(like Magic tree house, adventure box etc.) non-fiction book(National Geo. series) to used to diff. vocab., Chinese can start to read Chinese history books. Also, PTH, try more listen to PTH story book and get used to speak, read loud in front of people(even the pron. is not very accurate). Hope it can help and he enjoy his school life.

father_ho

Dear lamsuetwai,

Let me supplement a bit on English lesson, try take a look on the following link on NG school web and click on the Learning Master and teacher guide, you will understand how CKY teach. They only use story books for teaching.

http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@k0fqPG_2kDm_2/Pages/product.web?nocache@10+record@P11328

Hope it can help

father_ho

Dear tim928,

Actually, I don't know how the school did it, but the fact that student are encouraged to speak loud in front of class. For Math., they use english text and workbook. If any further information you will require, please raise and I assure that CKY parent will help. Actually, CKY may not be the perfect, it will depends on who will the kids meet the class teacher, it did varies a lot since their study much depends on how the class teacher conduct.

father_ho

Dear parent,

Voc42 may amplified the situation(I guess). As you  know my kids are studying in the school and I would like to share some experience with the existing and potential CKY parent. For my elder kid who studying P4, up to now my opinion towards the teacher is
Y1 Chinese teacher OK, English teacher OK,
Y2 Chinese teacher so,so, English teacher excellent,
Y3 Chinese teacher OK, English teacher   ,
Y4 Chinese teacher OK, English teacher OK,
For my younger kid,
Y1 Chinese teacher OK, English teacher OK.
In all, may not be the perfect one but at least up to my expectation (frankly speaking I still can't find a school all the student will not need to take local examin and with enough Chinese element and with reasonable school fee). I think the principal may not ignore feedback (if any) from parent but the respond always slow in educational field. I once send an email to the adminstration but they replied me months afterwards.
It's true that IS like education mode is difficult to manage both from parent and school point. For school, they need time to observe staff performance and not easy to lay off the contract bounded staff(only try to rectify the situation). For parent, we can just closely observe our kid and make necessary supplement when due with different situation.

father_ho

Dear lamsuetwai,

Sorry that I don't know how to type Chinese, I will try my best to answer your questions as far as I know.
Beside story book teaching, I didn't observe they formally teach phonics but there are worksheets concerning this. Grammer, proposition etc., they teach the meaning rather than just memorizing as reflected from the worksheets. Writing, they start to emphasis on Y4 onwards and frankly speaking are depends on how your kids ability. It is not to say they need not write before Y4 but the sentence structure and presentation are not the main concern in Y1 to Y3. During these three year, they are required to read, read and read to capture vocab. and adj. as much as they can and I totally agree with that since I once study a course and told within the ages, their ability is excellent in capturing unrelated words.
For Class teachers, one in Chinese(PTH) and one in English(may be ABC or NET).
For Chinese, the standard is in line with local school(I observed).
For Math, they did use Longman textbook, workbook and the depth seems also in line with main stream but in english(Can't remember is it Longman Hong Kong or elsewhere) . To me the books seem more creative in presentation than the local texbook(ie. not much in mechanical cal. but rather the meaning of Math.). So don't comparing the speed of their cal. with the local student, you will upset.
Just discussed some related issue with my friend and they ask why it is so improtant all the student should not take local exam. To me, taking local exam will kill the kids interest since they need to get back to the traditional mode in comparing speed, reflects action and all the concentration is towards the scoring mark. If part of the student take local and part of it take IBD, it will create labelling effect. It doesn't mean we need to protect them as greenhouse plant, the pressure will naturally come from themself as peer group did comparing how much knowledge they did learn, just without the label and they will not hate learning as they will see themselve as loser if their score is below others. I alway discuss with my kids and expressed they are just comparing their yesterday, that is the most important issue.

father_ho

Dear WY,

Regarding Baptist U Primary, Pui Kiu, I can supplement a bit. It's true for lower primary, their approach are more or less the same, but since Baptist U secondary school will feed their student to corresponding U., Pui Kiu principal did told me they would not opt for IB since it's too expensive. It means they need to switch back to traditional system sometime afterwards and most likely in upper pri. to lower secondary. That's my concern and just back to duck feeding situation unless whole HK education system did changed at that time but I see little chance of being like that at the moment.

I did admit "it is very difficult to choose among these non-traditional bilingual new schools" and just seems by chance to find suitable one for our kids. We can only trust our sensation and numerous discussions to spot out which school can commit their promise.

father_ho

Dear karismum,

As I said many times before, every student does having different ability towards Chinese, English on aspects like reading, writing, speaking, listening and different ability on reasoning, virtual thinking towards science, math. etc. What is the difference for student study in CKY type school is they are not forced to memorising all those material they feel difficult(as we does in the past) but rather try to help them catch up with those weak area. I will not say it just the school's business, they are not Jesus. When you feel your kid doesn't match the standard with the local school in some areas, you need to improve them by yourself and find some supplement book for them to 'learn'. Please bear in mind not selecting those very boring exercise book which is not in line with school's teaching culture. I recently find some english books from singapore publisher which is also very creative (they change quicker than HK which still emphasis on memorising and mechanical work). For Chinese subject, I do not feel any problem with the school syllabus.

I still ask the same question, which school can also provide bilingual teaching, english school, one dragon, all student not taking HK local exam. I am not blindly support the school but I still can't find something similar.

father_ho

Dear che,

Please don't misunderstand that IB assessment can for sure your kid to get into the top U. whether in HK or other place. It just an assessment method which led to the school adopting it will/can not force the student to memorise the knowledge or repeatedly ask the student to perform mechanical work in order to increase their speed and accuracy. I think we are parent(s) to select some meaningful education to our kid, whether they can achieve top result will depends on their ability afterwards.

For the confidence problem, CKY is the first PLK private school which you may/will feel they are using the school as some pilot study and if the result is good and worth to promote, other PLK school will follow the step in different degree depends on the constraint and school culture. I have great confident they will not let this pilot one sidetracked. For the school admin., you should not expect much since they just run for several years and still there is a huge project for them to face (move and rebuild school) and in the mean time they cannot stop the intake of student that led to the present difficult situation (two campus located far away). I can foresee lots of parent will finally not choosing CKY due to the traffic problem but the school cannot do much and just hoping that this "dark age" will soon elapse. Maybe you can say it's just like a test to the loyalty of the parent to the school

father_ho

原文章由 kyliema2006 於 07-7-12 14:54 發表


同意貓公子的說法，每個【豬肉獎】對小朋友來說，都是很有意義的，是一份認同，更會多一份自信。所以學校如已許可承諾，就應該兌現。樂器練習的獎項又或者獎學金的數量，對於每個曾經付出的孩子來說，都是一 ...

Dear parent,

Please don't worry at least for the coming year regarding the increase in school fee. I did ask one of the "senior" staff that the fee will not increase further for next year. But who knows future? It's quite upset we need to pay so much as we just want our kids to have a meaningful learning environment.