ISF Academy

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Crunch:

I read your thread with interests. I would like to know how is your nephew's chinese level after being with ISF. I like the idea of their teach mothod ie. creative, fun and flexible. But I question whether it is the most effective for chinese teaching? It seems to me that Chinese teaching requires rather rigorous and rigid teaching to get good basics. Some of the parents I talke to said their kids are confident about speaking Chinese, but their level is not necessary that great, compared to KCI and other local schools. your thoughts?
 
Singleworkingmother, I'm curious to your reasoning on why you would rate ISF higher than KCI local stream that you would move your happy child from KCI to ISF. From what I've heard from KCI, it is a school with good established reputation.

As for the current applicants in ISF, I recall that last year, they even made the local chinese paper in the Pokfulam area, that stated they had over 150 applicants and would only accept 50 or so (at that time they were only going to open 2-3 Foundation years classes), but later I heard they started 7-8 Foundation year classes. So perhaps the numbers thrown out is simply an attempt to create their own "buzz" & up their desirability factor.
 
HKfornow

You have raised a good question and I am still trying to figure out myself.

When I went to the open house, I like the campus and their teaching philosophy (being fun, creative and open). And lots of my Hong Kong friends told me that KCI primary is not a top school and has a rigid teaching style. Frankly speaking, I am rather confused.
 
singleworkingmother,
My son is in FY this year. If you like local school, then go for KCI. If you like the teaching style of IS, then ISF.
 
Singleworkingmother, I guess the school you are trying to compare with ISF is KCS (instead of KCI), Kiangsu & Chekiang School. Their international section, which of course has more emphasis on English than Chinese, is called KCIS (Kiangsu & Chekiang International School).

I think it still very much depends on parents' expectations of their child's education. Some parents may want their kids to excel academically and prefer a more rigorous teaching style (then a good-reputation "local school" may suit you better), while some parents may think it's more important for their kids to gain a strong interest in learning and value their creativity and ability of critical thinking higher than good grades (then schools like ISF may suite you better)...

I don't have personal experience with KCS, but know that it does have a reputation of being "old-fashioned" and "rigid". I also have a close friend (Mandarin speaking) who pulled his son out of it for this reason and sent him to St. Stephen's instead. (Please note that I?m only referring to the local stream of the school and not the international one.)

As for this year's Foundation Year admissions at ISF, what I heard (from friend's friend) was about 120 admissions out of about 240 applications. The school seemed to try to keep the numbers confidential so this is not by any means the "official number".
 
thank you all for sharing.

could anyone please hellp me with the following:

1. what the 8am morning assembly at ISF for foudation year students is about?
2. For founation year students, after lunch, what do they really do? someone say free activities and someone say they have to go back to classrooms? I understand that if they are picked up by school buses, then they will have to wait for 3-3:30pm. So that's a long time for them to hang around on the campus.
3. With the new expansion of a new building for secondary, how does the playground space and playtime work for primary students?
 
scli2000,

Why would the school keep the numbers of applicants confidential?

if what you heard is true and the school keep the number of applicants confidential thus can we say that it means that not many people applying at ISF?
 
1. what the 8am morning assembly at ISF for foudation year students is about? ---> foundation year have the same assembly with Primary.
2. For founation year students, after lunch, what do they really do? someone say free activities and someone say they have to go back to classrooms? I understand that if they are picked up by school buses, then they will have to wait for 3-3:30pm. So that's a long time for them to hang around on the campus.
--> there are 2 lessons after lunch. FY finish the school @ 2:30, then the student can have ECA. You can pick up your kids at 2:30. If you take the school bus, then the student will stay in the classroom and wait until 3:30. Usually the students are having snack, playing, drawing.
3. With the new expansion of a new building for secondary, how does the playground space and playtime work for primary students?
---> Actually, it will expanse the Primary Section, P1 & FY will stay in Primary building and other will go to secondary.
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Meowmeowjo, as for why the school keeps the numbers confidential, I have no idea and am not interested to figure that out. I just knew during the interview process when some parents asked certain teacher how many applications they've received, he or she wouldn't answer. The school is new and very unique in HK. It doesn't suit everybody and so I won't base my kid's schooling choice on how many applicants the school gets. I think too much speculation on the numbers is meaningless. Even if the "rumored numbers" were true, we still don't know how many of these applicants have permanent residence status and how many don't, which would affect their chances of admission as well.
 
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