International Montessori School debenture

K

kyky

Guest
I'm seriously considering enrolling my daughter in this school as I've heard lots of positive feedback from friends back in the US with kids in montessori schools.

When I called to talk to the administrator and asked about the $50,000 debenture, I was very surprised to find that she said she had to get info from the principal and will get back to me. After a series of emails back and forth, I've yet to receive a confirmation on a date for a school tour and still no info on how the debenture works. (sigh.....)

Can someone in the know or moms with kids already in this school tell me if the debenture is refundable, if so, when? Can we withdraw any time and still get it all back? How does it work? Is this school producing happy and independent kids? Any take on the school will be of great help to me. thanks.
 
if you want happy & independent children, i heard Highgate House is better. they use Waldorf Steiner method. my daughter is going there & she loves it. my friend who has a 6 yo daughter going to international school said that Highgate produces happy & confident children while IMS produces children who are strong academically, but not as socialable.

i remember someone else had made that comment here at geobaby regarding her child going to IMS and not sociable cos they always work by themselves. My daughter is going to the toddler group at IMS, they do work by themselves. She's been at IMS since Feb & she hardly knows & recognises her classmates. But she recognises her classmates from Highgate at a distance. I wonder if they work alone once they get into kindergarten at IMS? (sorry to have lead this thread into another topic)
 
Thanks so much for your input, joanne. Actually, I was wondering about the sociable aspect myself as we did a trial class at the new montessori school in Sheung Wan and all my little girl did was worked by herself most of the hour and had a mere 10 min of circle/story time. That's why I really wanted to visit IMS and see if it's any different, more group time in kindergarten, maybe?

hmmm...based on my observation and your experience, I guess all the montessori schools in HK are the same...My friends in the States, too, were saying how this type of school is more academically challenging and that their kids were happy. I guess not all Montessori schools are run the same way even though they're using the same method of teaching.

For me, I just want my little one to be happy and she seems happier working at her own pace. She's quite sociable and vocal and I don't want that to change. SIGH...I guess I'll have to wait for the school tour to decide if this type of school is best for my daughter.

btw, joanne, do you know how the debenture works?
 
HI Joannek,
my daughter is going to the summer class (parent & child)at Highgate as well! Is your daughter going to nursery class already? I'm also wondering if she should continue at Highgate or try Montessori... I tried to enroll in the Sept class but they are all full and I need to be on the waiting list. Did you have to wait to get in? If so, how long did you have to wait? Also, do you know which international school do their students usually go afterwards?
Pls. pm me if you want!!
Thanks!!



joannek said:
if you want happy & independent children, i heard Highgate House is better. they use Waldorf Steiner method. my daughter is going there & she loves it. my friend who has a 6 yo daughter going to international school said that Highgate produces happy & confident children while IMS produces children who are strong academically, but not as socialable.

i remember someone else had made that comment here at geobaby regarding her child going to IMS and not sociable cos they always work by themselves. My daughter is going to the toddler group at IMS, they do work by themselves. She's been at IMS since Feb & she hardly knows & recognises her classmates. But she recognises her classmates from Highgate at a distance. I wonder if they work alone once they get into kindergarten at IMS? (sorry to have lead this thread into another topic)
Click to expand...
 
my daughter's been going to highgate since she was 1 (which was Feb 2006). all the moms & children love Highgate. My daughter once had a crisis at IMS playgroup, and she refused to go to IMS again. everytime we turned into that street, she'd started screaming "home". then she'd keep saying "highgate highgate". Highgate is a place where she feels safe & happy! she's still in Seedlings (mother & child prep-nursery class) but will be moving to Nursery in Sept. Since she's been going to Highgate for so long, she has priority to get into their Nursery Class. They only have 2 Nursery class, one with 8 students (2 teachers), the other with 18 (3 teachers). So space are very limited & sought after. She has a classmate from Seedlings who didn't get in the 3 day Nursery, only the 2 Day one was available for him, cos despite he is a currrent student, he joined only beginning of this year.
 
Hi Bbky,

Hope you had a good holiday.

Although I attended the IMS school tour, I was busy holding my baby and making sure he didn't start crying and cause a scene, so I didn't quite catch what was said about the debenture. Anyway, my older son was offered a place and in the offer letter, it only mentions about debenture transfers.

'The transfer of debentures is subject to approval by the Board of the International Montessori Education Foundation. Each debenture is fully transferable 1 year after its date of issuance or 3 months after the date on which the Nominee ceases to be a student of any school operated by IMEF, whichever date is the later. The cost of transfer of a personal debenture is HK$10,000'. Debentures can only be transferred after all outstanding charges have been paid. Any outstanding amount will be deducted from the proceeds derived from the transfer of the debenture.'

I too called up to ask further questions about the debenture and got a similar response from the receptionist. I also received an offer letter via email and it said in that email, that for any enquiries, to email [email protected]. I simply pressed the reply button to ask questions about the debenture but never got a reply and only later realised that the email would have gone directly to one of the principals from whom the offer letter email had come. Still, they could have replied to me but they didn't.

I spoke to a friend who sent her children to Montessori kindergartens (not IMS) and she said, when her children started primary school, they were not happy to be told by their teacher to stop the task they were doing and start another task as in the Montessori system, the children are allowed to work at their own pace and finish what they are doing before moving on to the next task. So her kids were saying to the teacher that they were not finished yet and it took some time for them to adjust to the normal education system. I could see myself having similar problems with my son, and so decided that perhaps the Montessori system was not right for him. Perhaps if we were here for the entire duration of his primary education or if we knew that wherever we went, we could easily enrol him in a montessori education system, that would have been fine but we're only here for another 2 years, and he will start school in another country (don't know where yet) and so it seemed, the normal education system would be the best choice for him.
 
Thanks for your reply!
Just one more question: Do you know what schools do Highgate students get into for Primary?
Thanks and regards,
Meimei


joannek said:
my daughter's been going to highgate since she was 1 (which was Feb 2006). all the moms & children love Highgate. My daughter once had a crisis at IMS playgroup, and she refused to go to IMS again. everytime we turned into that street, she'd started screaming "home". then she'd keep saying "highgate highgate". Highgate is a place where she feels safe & happy! she's still in Seedlings (mother & child prep-nursery class) but will be moving to Nursery in Sept. Since she's been going to Highgate for so long, she has priority to get into their Nursery Class. They only have 2 Nursery class, one with 8 students (2 teachers), the other with 18 (3 teachers). So space are very limited & sought after. She has a classmate from Seedlings who didn't get in the 3 day Nursery, only the 2 Day one was available for him, cos despite he is a currrent student, he joined only beginning of this year.
Click to expand...
 
since they only have small amt of students, the admin ppl tell me they go everywhere. mostly, i remember the Peak (ESF). some to GSIS, some french Intl, some CIS, some ESF, some Kellett, some leave HK.
 
Thanks Joannek!
Maybe I'll see you at Highgate! Pls. let me know if you want to meet up.

joannek said:
since they only have small amt of students, the admin ppl tell me they go everywhere. mostly, i remember the Peak (ESF). some to GSIS, some french Intl, some CIS, some ESF, some Kellett, some leave HK.
Click to expand...
 
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