[sunniefaith]

Personally I prefer St. Margaret. The school will group the students into different grouping by their academic level and review periodically.

As a teacher, I've seen this fail or succeed is schools. By banding them according to their abilities can do more harm than good. Schools are moving away from this as it becomes a label on a child. Imagine students been in the lower ability class, they can get discouraged and in turn, they may not be motivated to do well. There's also a possibility that some kids spent all their 6 yrs in a primary school in a 'dumb' class. In the higher ability class, it can create more stress for the child as the child is competing with all the smart kids. And there are times that the child's results suffers because of the constant competition and also the lack of confidence. Personally, I much prefer a holistic look on the child's education rather than basing everything academically.

[angelmhhui]

"As a teacher, I've seen this fail or succeed is schools. By banding them according to their abilities can do more harm than good. Schools are moving away from this as it becomes a label on a child."

I am not the parent of St. Margaret. But I understand that the grouping does not like some local school's "精英班"(enrichment class) or "補底班"(remedial class). For example, there are 80 students from two classes then it will divide into 3 groups for English and other 3 group for Maths. The teaching method just like international school. Students will not label as good or bad. But anyway, parents should go to attend school briefing for details.

[sunniefaith]

Originally Posted by angelmhhui

"As a teacher, I've seen this fail or succeed is schools. By banding them according to their abilities can do more harm than good. Schools are moving away from this as it becomes a label on a child."

I am not the parent of St. Margaret. But I understand that the grouping does not like some local school's "精英班"(enrichment class) or "補底班"(remedial class). For example, there are 80 students from two classes then it will divide into 3 groups for English and other 3 group for Maths. The teaching method just like international school. Students will not label as good or bad. But anyway, parents should go to attend school briefing for details.

That's a good point. Attend the open day and the school briefing to get a better idea of the school before deciding which school to put your child in

[Gabriel ma]

Originally Posted by talk2amy

Does anyone know of any good Cantonese and Mandarin bilingual pre-schools in Kowloon? I am not fussed with English too much because both my husband and myself are native speakers. Thanks

Try Learning Habitat Kindergarten & Billingual Nursery school. http://www.learninghabitat.org/

Around 10-15% of the pupils are non-Chinese, e.g. native English speaking children, Japanese, Indian...etc. And most of the Chinese pupils and their parents can speak very good English.

For Pre-Nursery: 1 Cantonese + 1 Native English speaking teacher + 1 teaching assistant

For k1-K3: Local class (1 Cantonese + 1 Native English speaking teacher), Intl' class (1 Mandarin speaking teacher + 1 Native English speaking teacher)

For K2-K3 full day class: 1 Japanese lesson per week

That's mean, your child will learn 4 languages.

I knows a pupil who did not know any Chinese but became able to speak Mandarin after going to school for 3 months only.

Never look down on the children learning ability

[vegemite_kid]

I could not speak English when I started an English speaking school AND WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT to anyone. I spent the majority of my primary education in special english classes trying to catch up on the language.

If you know for certain that your child's entire education will be in Hong Kong or Cantonese schooling then that is one thing but taking the child out of a local school and into an English school elsewhere could be quite detrimental! (I still struggle at times - even today as my 'brain' is wired for another thought process -- language-wise).

Remember that international schools do do sessions in Chinese. My DD was doing 20 mins a day Mandarin and we now send her to Mandarin class every Sat for 90 mins (a playgroup) so that she can continue it. I think that this is enough for a 3 year old who is not Chinese. She sings songs and knows colours and we hope to continue it -- for how long I am not sure.

[carang]

yes, but veg... knowing you, i would NEVER guess that you didn't know english as a young'un!

and knowing more than one language can only help you in the future.

personally, i don't like local schools for reasons OTHER than the language they use.