local or international?? hurry!!

S

shaz

Banned
Why local or why international, how do you choose?
My situation is this: I am British, hubby is Chinese and are son just finished his K1 at a local kindergarten. He joined Feb this year when he turned 3 and he will repeat K1. Although i dont feel he has too.
Anyway, i am quite keen to change him to an itnernational one but hubby wants local, this is tearing me apart as i dont know what's best. Any ideas please and quick because i need to make an application now. My other question is if he went to a local kindergarten could he have a chance in an international primary school being his mum is british and his english is very good? thanks
 
I am in a similar situation to you (me foreign, DH HK Chinese).. We had are kids in local schools until this year. Now my dd will be entering P4 and my son P2 (ESF system).

I think you can relax and send your son to local kindergarten. The big decision will be when he is in K2. The K3 year is the equivalent of the P1 ESF year.

If you apply to ESF, make sure you emphasize that he cannot cope in the loca; system. Otherwise he will most likely be waitlisted.
 
I was in similar situation a few years back. DH wanted my son to be in the same school he went to when he was little... I was upset but went along with it. After 2 horrible years (ie. 8-10 homework per day, school letters which I cannot make sense of cos they are in Chinese, school doesn't have a PTA and not to say tons of tests and exams), we ended up hating each other (the 3 of us), my son was scared stiff at around 6pm cos he knew I would be home soon... He won't finish homework till 11pm adn then we have to revised for tests and dictations. What did he get out of these 2 years? Basically Nil. We couldn't take it anymore cos we were worried about the rising of suicidal rates in students in HK so we tried to switch him back to INternational school (ESF.. he was 7 yrs), one school rejected him cos his English level is not up to their standard. We were lucky to have another school accepted him and he is now in Year 7 in South Island and having such a terrific time. Not only he is now growing up to be respectable boy, his knowledge surprises me too cos he now has time to read books. We can now go out on weekends adn enjoy life..

Local Schools? nah, never again. I can be contacted at [email protected] if you need to talk?

Cheers,
 
One very important note, if you are non-Chinese, you will not be able to help your child with his schoolwork, will your DH do that? How could he find time to do that cos that is almost a full time job!
 
definitely International!

I graduated from CIS a decade ago. Now I have my own baby who is just 6 months old. I have told my hubby who is HK Chinese (I, oversea Chinese) that our son will definitely have to go to an international school. School is supposed to be fun and I wouldn't want to waste the happiest years of my son in a local school. Although they have more hw, exams, etc... in local schools it doesn't mean that they learn more. Also, the personality of people from international and local schools are really different.

If you are going international, you have to figure out which system you want? American? then HKIS is the answer. My bro and sis went there and they both loved it. On the otherhand, CIS is a more conservative international school.

Good LUCK!
 
international vs ESF

what are the differences / advantages-disadvantages of INTL and ESF schools?

Is CIS international or esf? what does CIS stand for?
 
CIS

CIS: Chinese International School
It is located at Breamar Hill.

The curriculum at CIS is geared towards IB (International Baccalaureatte). I think for ESF (not sure) is towards A levels.

ESF is partly subsidized(?) by the hkg government. International schools aren't.

Hope this helps.
 
Dear Shaz,

If you are thinking of the local system you and your husband (as nearly everything is in Chinese) need to understand it. There are special seminars designed for the parents of K3 students so that they can understand the placement allocation for primary schools.

In the local system you still have the government schools (with the placement allocation) and the private schools (which often have kindergartens but some start at three years old and others at four years old). You need to understand the scheme in order to make sure your child has the best opportunities.

The schools are all banded into 5 bands. Children from a band one school do much better academically than children in a band five school. One of my nephews is currently in a band five primary school and the whole family is working together to get him moved from this school to a higher banded school. He is only 10 years old but they are all worried because the primary school he is at feeds into a secondary school which has very poor results.

You might get more information from the Education and Manpower Bureau web-site, http://www.ed.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeid=2&langno=1

Every year there are lots of adverts (including on the TV) about the deadline for the dates to fill in the forms for applying to primary school. This date is quite early in the school year. Then you are told if you?ve got the place in December/January time. If not you have another chance to get the school you wanted later on. If you don?t get the school you want you will be given a school as the government are obliged to school everyone. It is a very anxious time for parents of five year olds. Because as I mentioned above the band of the primary school affects the band of the secondary school which in turn affects the leaving qualifications.

As your son is only three years old you still have a lot of time to research everything. Don?t worry that he has been asked to restart K1 it is because the cut off date for each year is January 1st. Thus because he was born in 2001 he should be in K1. All the children in K1 this year were born in 2001. In fact it is a good thing because he will be one of the older ones in his year and so is more likely to do well at school.

Good luck with your decision-making. I found choosing schools the hardest decision to come to because so much seemed to be attached to it.

Best wishes,
Barb
 
Thanks everyone,

On the homework issue, hubby would have to do the chinese part of it and he works late usually so my poor son has to hang around for dad to come home - which is a no-no for me!

Well, I have till tomorrow to make my decision cause my son got accepted in K2 or Anchors and they need an answer tomorrow. Their K1 was full but the lady said she felt my son would be ok in K2 and to try it out with him. I love the fact that they have no pressure and learn through play. I have noticed a change in my son though he seems very shy around people and i think him being in the local school before caused this cause he knows he is different and it does affect him. People are always approaching him and saying where are you from and can u speak chinese and struff like that, he hates it!

When we were in uk for our summer vacation he wasn't shy with anyone even people he didn't know. I think now he associates everything around mum cause i'm british and he seems to get along with expats better. he spends most of the time with me too so i think on that note i should allow him to be raised in schools with a micture of kids, like eurasians and expats and some local. his happiness is the most important to me; not results!

well, i am going to go with anchors and try it for a year cause anyhow if my son can get a place at shatin junor then he'd start his pre-primary in jan 2006, so only 1.5 years at kindie left.

thanks all so much for your input here.

shaz
 
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