Important: New ESF Calendar Proposal

[Seb's Dad]

no matter your views, write in and express them.

largely because of the opinions expressed by parents, fees were not raised for the 2009/2010 school year. it seems they are listening and care what parents think.

 

[rani]

I do agree that Term 1 is too long, but as working parent, 2 weeks holiday in Oct and 3 weeks in December will be hard for us.

Would prefer we stick with Model A.

One of my problems with ESF is that we only get progress reports once/term and that's towards the end of the term. And with Term 1 being so long, parents are in the dark. I mentioned this to a teacher/friend and suggested mid-term reports. She said that teachers are already overloaded and don't want more work. This is one of the reasons I think we need a 4th Term.

 

[MommyTo3]

wouldn't option 2 be best in that case, it's basically one less week in August and one more in October ... or would that still be hard for working parents?

 

[rani]

Option 2 would suit us, but with only 1 week break in Oct instead of 2.

 

[rani]

If you haven't sent in your feedback yet to ESF, the deadline has been extended to May 15th.

A provisional report, summarising comments received to date, apparently has been posted on the ESF website. Anyone found it yet?

 

[testuser]

http://www.esf.edu.hk/FileManager/E...word - calendar consultation.interim.anon.pdf

 

[testuser]

Gems include ...

“Parents who are barristers/solicitors or whose business revolves around the Courts often have no
choice but to take August as their month of holiday – requiring children to attend school for the whole
month of August will effectively mean that such children will have to leave the ESF system. I think that
the ESF should return to starting in September – this would shorten the first term and would solve the
problem. Shortening the term could be achieved by reducing the heavy emphasis on Mandarin
teaching which has already been introduced at the expense of activities Sport and Music and which is
not what the ESF was set up to do.

Since when do we have to care about barristers and solicitors as an important demographics?!?

Mandarin at the expense of Sport and Music??!?!?

 

[notmyaisle]

When do the schools usually publish their calendars?

Most employees have to "bid" for their leave/holidays. Does this consultation mean it will delay confirmation of dates?

 

[notmyaisle]

Just call me Numpty.

Found the Calendar on the website

 

[Seb's Dad]

will there be a change or increase of fees if either "b" or "c" is implemented? the kids will be in school for 11 full months. will we be charged such? i would like this question to be answered.