ESF kinder acceptance letter

[barbiegirl]

Seb's mom,

Thx for your input. It sounds you know Kennedy school well, does your son go to this school as well?

 

[Babyface]

Hi, last year I turned down a place at the Sheung Wan ESF Kindergarten for all the reasons you've already mentioned. It did, however, have a really cosy feel to it and if my son hadn't already been settled somewhere else I might have given it a go. It depends what you want your child to get out of it.

HTH

 

[barbiegirl]

Hi, madaboutCows

Based on the positive responses from others plus we'd get a better chance to get an interview in ESF primary, i think we tend to give it a go, although our little one is settled well in another pre-school, i believe she will fit well in ESF kindy as long as it is a good kindy. We'd make the decision after we find out more in the introductory tour.

 

[barbiegirl]

Just wondering why......it seems no parent (except me) here applied to ESF kinder SW for sep2008 intake. Anyone else there?? Hope to hear good news from any of u.

 

[barbiegirl]

Rani,

We went to the school tour on Thurs. We are still thinking whether to accept the offer or not. They have an open plan setting, they stress alot on free play, and they dont have a snack time sitting together, instead the kids can get a snack at the table anytime during free play, the kids have their choices what they like to do during free play, one of the teachers mention that if a kid does not like drawing, he/she may end up not even touching the crayons during the whole term, it sounds strange. The kindy has a very free-style approach, which is very different from my LO's current preschool. i'm a bit worrying the kid will end up wandering around all the time, not willing to finish one thing before heading another one, ie. less discipline and less attentive because of too much freedom. Or i'm just over-worried??

As u mentioned the kindy has changed to a new principal and the curriculum might have changed also. Does it sound much different from when your son was with the school?

 

[rani]

Sorry for the late reply. I had written a long reply a couple of weeks ago, computer crashed as I was finishing.

I heard the Kindy was going to follow a more traditional approach. I guess they changed their minds.

Coming from a Montessori playgroup the free-style approach was what D was used to. Actually they really only have open-play for 1 hour in the morning followed by a class-based activity led by a teacher/assistant. And yes he did tend to do choose the same activities quite often - ie the sand pit, and art/crafts table. He's also a bad eater and I was afraid he wouldn't visit the snack table. His teacher was aware of this and would remind him to get a snack/water. So they did get a "gentle push" to try new things/activities. When he was in K2, to prepare them for P1 the kids had to bring in their own snack box. I heard from another teacher they decided to implement it for the K1 kids in term 2 as well.

HTH

HTH

 

[carang]

just a question, not nasty in intent...

why would you apply to a school if you didn't want your child to go to it?

seems to me that you are taking a place that someone else would cherish. (kind of like the pregnant women registered at more than one private hospital.)

 

[rani]

The thing about ESF Kindy they don't do Open Days. Only after you've been accepted, you're invited for a school tour. Then you pay the deposit. So you really don't have a choice but to apply.

 

[barbiegirl]

Cara, as Rani has said, we have to apply for this kindy to gain a chance for a school tour, then we can find out more about it. We don't mean to hold many places, actually, other than my LO's current prenursery school, we only applied for ESF kindy as another choice.

Rani, thanks alot for your feedback. We had already accepted their offer before CNY. We did have some doubts after the tour, but we gained confidence after gathering some positive comments from some parents. So we're now looking forward for our LO's turn in the coming Sept, hope she will love this kindy we've choosen for her.

 

[carang]

thanks, i didn't realise that they wouldn't let you look around until you had applied... seems kind of backwards to me.

like i said, i wasn't being nasty, just truly curious. my boy is now 3 and we are seriously debating whether we want him to go to kindergarten yet or not. so the information is very helpful!

thanks!