What schools are looking for at interviews

[VanillaCafe]

Are these interviews really as ridiculous as I think they are? How does one judge a child's potential with an interview when they are as young as 2 or 3? I've been asking this questions to all the schools I visited, mostly the answer is we are looking for happy, social, easy-going kids.

Well, I can see Obama and Bill Clinton are probably happy and social kids when they were 3. But what about the many other people who've made tremendous contribution to the society? Let's imagine if Einstein, Hemingway, even Bill Gates were born in Hong Kong and they had to pass interview to be admitted to schools, do you think they'll be admitted to the most sought-after schools here?

I do hope that I probably don't know the whole picture, that the interviews are more sophisticated than they appear, that they do have certain ways to scientifically identify a child's potential.

Can anyone help shed light on this? Especially if you've worked at the schools here and know the inside scoop.

 

[VanillaCafe]

Would appreciate any insight!

 

[carang]

i, personally, think that interviews for such youngsters are ridiculous. but the schools have the right to choose who attends whether we agree with it or not.

i wouldn't stress too much about it. it is the norm here and there's not much point in fighting the system.

 

[carang]

"that the interviews are more sophisticated than they appear, that they do have certain ways to scientifically identify a child's potential"

are you being sarcastic?

 

[reei]

if i were conducting the interviews, i would like to filter out the 'little emperors ' and 'little emperess' from my kindie..
i just got pushed by a little kid being carried by a maid in the lift today.. the maid apologise to me, and the mother standing on the side .. just kept quiet..
if u r wondering what interviews are about, how about sorting out these potentials..

 

[Elise]

The more exclusive schools will take students from their favourite kindergartens. The interview process expects these young children to demonstrate skills they have been forced to learn by rote. There has even been a booklet produced to assist parents in training their kids for interview. Some parents employ parents of former interviewees as tutors for the interviews. In addition, many parents put together DVDs of performances/award ceremonies/speech competitions, detailed portfolios/CVs full of certificates and written references from ALL courses ever attended. It's become a time of frenzy - believe me - as a teacher I hear it all. In my opinion, the schools are fostering all of this. Emperors/empresses? - with all the extra attention at interview time, kids feel exclusive, particularly when boundaries aren't set by parents.

 

[carang]

that is completely INSANE!

 

[hk1]

I had to interview for a kindergarten that I worked for and nope there was nothing scientific about what we were looking for. We looked for children being in the developmental norm for their age and to be perfectly honest we spent a lot of time talking to the parents to see if they would be happy with our school. The school is very inquiry based/play based so parents who wanted their children sitting down doing very academic work were not going to be happy with the school in the long run. We weeded these families out. I agree though was very weird to be interviewing 1 and 2 year olds...I mean really!

 

[fingerscrossed]

Yes, every kindergarten in HK, whether they're the most sought after ones or not, interview these poor kids who have no idea of what is going on. For some schools, it's just a procedure but for others who have 1200 applications for 120 places, it's a screening process. I have 2 interviews lined up in November for my 21mth old boy to enter into pre-nursery in Aug 2010. Honestly, I'm not expecting anything from these interviews and it's just going to be like any other day for my child. It's only pre-nursery and it really doesn't matter where you end up. My parents overseas think it's bizzare that firstly, little 1-2yr olds be interviewed and secondly, these interviews are held 10mths before the actual school term begins. That's HK for you!

 

[Buckeroo]

When we did a school tour for the school that my son eventually ended up in, the (then) director told me: "We don't expect the children to know their ABC's, shapes, and colors when they join us; it is our job to teach them those things." And that is how it should be.