HKIS vs. FIS

[capricorn]

Dear moms:
My kids got accepted in HKIS for G1 and G2 this year. I was very excited at first. But I have my concerns of this choice as well. First of all, HKIS is not IB but IB is the trend worldwide now. Second, culture-wise, I found it as a "true" American school which I don't mind at all (I grow up in the states) but I kind of prefer children to be in a more cultural dynamic environment, mix with children from different world. We will have another choice next year in FIS (international stream). It would be nice if someone can give me more feedbacks about those two schools. Thanks.

 

[sea princess]

Hi
I can only comment on FIS. We are in the international stream and have been very happy. In our daughters class of 24 students, there are 11 different nationalities represented. For us, that was a huge deciding factor chosing this school over the others she recieved offers from. it's also a wonderful opportunity to be around native french speakers and her language skills are coming along really well.

One draw back is that it is a pretty academic school and according to some of my friends that have children in HKIS, our daughter is a fair bit ahead in coursework for her age group. That obviously wont appeal to every family/child but worth mentioning. This suits our daughter as she is bright and needs a fair bit of stimulation, but for others it may be too much?

the teachers from the international stream are mostly English, Scottish, Australian, New Zealanders. The specialist teachers are true specialist teachers - french, chinese etc. From P2, there are three of four years of male teachers which is fantastic if you have a boy (considering teaching is a female dominated profession).

Hope this helps a little?

 

[capricorn]

Hi, Sea Princess:
Thank you so much for the insights. We applied HKIS and FIS as well. Unfortunately we need to wait for our debenture to be mature for the school to give us seats. We got into HKIS first. I was happy at first but lately I am not so impressed with school's academic program anymore. Their Chinese language is poor, there is not so much spelling, writing training, math is so easy that my children can finish them within 3 mins....I just feel like my children not on progress since they got into HKIS. Of course, they are happy and starting to make friends, too. But I am worried about their learning capability which is slowing down. I heard that FIS is all about academic, but is it so restrict that children are not having fun but study only? Our debenture maturity is coming soon. I am not sure if my children can pass their tests anymore.