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Education System in HK

  1. #1
    Obiwan is offline Registered User
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    Education System in HK

    Am afraid I'm going to sound ignorant. Am a first time mom and a foreigner in Hong Kong. I don't know about the education system here.

    At what age do babies/kids go to playgroup/nursery/kindergarten etc?

    What is the youngest age a child can go to some form of play group, any good ones to recommend?


  2. #2
    woodstock07 is offline Registered User
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    A friend told me that PIPS (Parkview International Pre-school) has playgroups from age 1. I think it's 2 or 3x a week, 2 hours each session. Fees are around HK$3-4K/month.


  3. #3
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    there are dozens of possibilities for your little one.

    some playgroups are for 6m+. my own takes babies from 10-12m.

    local kindergartens/nurseries can take kids from as young as 18m-24m. most hk kids start sometime in this period. some hk kids wait until they are 2y8m to start at nursery.

    most hk children do 3 years of kindergarten before going into P1. international/ESF maybe different.

    eg. my son, born in feb, would start P1 in a local school in 2011. but, if i enroll him in ESF, he would start P1 in 2010.

    there is really no need to be spending $3-4k/month on playgroups. as far as i'm concerned that is daylight robbery.


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    cyberfish88 is offline Registered User
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    Cara,

    How come your son would start ESF one year earlier than the local system? I thought P1 was still age 5 for both? I too am struggling to understand how the local versus ESF systems work!


  5. #5
    yonge is offline Registered User
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    Bible Study Fellowship

    My mother is currently also bringing one of my sons with her to BSF where both the adult and the child are encouraged to study the same passage from the Christian bible in an age-appropriate way every week - songs, activities, etc. The eight year program is free and participants commit just one year at a time. Currently, they take children as young as two years, but I understand that in the US, they are experimenting with accommodating babies, so hopefully, we should see related changes rolling out here very soon.


  6. #6
    woodstock07 is offline Registered User
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    Quote Originally Posted by carang View Post
    there is really no need to be spending $3-4k/month on playgroups. as far as i'm concerned that is daylight robbery.
    I TOTALLY AGREE! It was shocking but I reckon PIPS cater mostly to expats (which I'm not) and that's probably why.

  7. #7
    carang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish88 View Post
    Cara,

    How come your son would start ESF one year earlier than the local system? I thought P1 was still age 5 for both? I too am struggling to understand how the local versus ESF systems work!
    don't ask me! we are trying to figure it out, too!

    my son was born in feb 2005. according to esf, he would start in 2010, so he would be 5.5 yrs old. but for the local school, he wouldn't start until 2011 at 6.5.

    we've actually decided, after A LOT of deliberation to try out a local school here in sai kung, for P1. we went on a tour of the school and were less discouraged than we intially were. they only had 39 students in P1 and they were split into 2 classes. we were informed that roughly 1/3 of all P1 students this year were mixed kids. we were a little concerned putting our shy son into a local school where he's be the ONLY child that was different.

    we have decided that if we truly want our kids to be completely bi-lingual, then the ONLY option we have is a local school, at least to start with. there is no way that any tutor would be able to teach enough to make a child bi-lingual when the second language is cantonese.

    if homework becomes a problem (he currently LOVES doing his kindergarten homework) then we will approach ESF later.

    all of this has actually helped me to decide that i need to do more work on my own chinese skills. i plan on enrolling at Chinese University for Cantontese classes. here's hoping that i'll be near-fluent in a couple of years time!

  8. #8
    Hannah's Mom is offline Registered User
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    "Originally Posted by cyberfish88
    Cara,

    How come your son would start ESF one year earlier than the local system? I thought P1 was still age 5 for both? I too am struggling to understand how the local versus ESF systems work!-----"
    ----------------------------

    It all depends on each schools "cut off dates". Some you have to be 5 by end August some you have to be 5 by December 31. My daughter being born in November is the youngest in her class. (CDNIS has a Dec. 31 cut off date) Not too sure when ESF date is. It is strange how all schools have different cut off dates though! My youngest is February so will actually start a whole year later than my first!


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