[babyblue]

I want to send my kids to an international school that has excellent academic achievements as well as encouraging extracurricular activites such as sports.

I would like to see each school publish accurate results from GSCE, IB, HSC etc.. In Australia, the HSC results are published in detail including which schools have the most students in the top aggregate etc. It would be nice to know but of course it is hard here because each school has a different system.

Also, should I send my children to Reception or wait until Primary 1. Is it harder to enter P1 than Reception?

[Roger]

I can recommend a good international school in Fanling. Abundant Life Christian School uses the American School of Tomorrow curriculum, which encourages self-learning It has strong Christian principles and the curriculum is highly successful in the American context. However, as yet there is no Chinese language teaching, although they do plan to introduce it at a later time, so you'll have to make your own arrangements if you want your kids to learn Chinese. Phone Mr Dale Durant on 2673 7454 for more information.

[saundra]

I know that if you are in a P6 in a school such as LFIS, you have almost automatic entry into the secondary (providing you meet their minimum education standards). Not sure about ESF schools.

Speaking to locals, they say that it is very difficult for the students to move between the local and international systems, primarily due to the completely different methods of teaching.

[Joyce]

If you go to an ESF primary school, then you should have a place at an ESF secondary school.

Different international schools have different criteria though if your international school teaches in the English medium, for example, then your child should most definitely have proficiency in English. Best to contact each school directly about it's admissions policy. It is true that some children who have had most of their primary schooling in a local school may find it difficult to adjust to an international school learning environment in the latter primary years.

I think if you intend to send your child to an international school, it would be best to put their name down sooner rather than later as most of these schools have long waiting lists.

[Miggy]

Does anyone know if International Schools follow the zoning policy of the local schools?

I live in Sai Ying Pun and there are no International Schools here.

[svasbt]

rani:

I hope it's not too late for you to ask this question.

What do they think about non-Chinese speaker enrolling in a local school? Are they prepared to help them, or they'd rather discourage them form being there?

Thanks so much.

[rani]

Miggy - I believe only ESF has a zoning stucuture. Here's a map

http://www.esf.edu.hk/schools.html

[rani]

svasbt good question.

We've been looking at schools for Dhruv as well. As we're here for the long haul we're considering local schools. We went to have a look at one of the bi-lingual kindergartens in the area.

A couple of things that caught our attention -

1. None of the notices on the boards were in English.

2. The woman that gave us the tour was struggling to speak in English. We asked if there was a liaison in the school for non-Chinese parents. Unfortunately there isn't, so communicating with the teachers may be a challenge.

On a positive note, Dhruv is definitely going to pick up Cantonese/Mandarin in that environment.

Another friend of ours has her son in a local kindergarten and they make an effort to send circulars in English and Cantonese. However, grammatical mistakes and misused phrases have led them to send their son to school on holidays.