ESF kinder acceptance letter

[Seb's Dad]

i can manage some of these kennedy school questions as well....

kennedy school is a BIG school, there are five P1 classes. each class has 30 students, one teacher and one PA.

P1 students do not take swimming classes, P2 onwards, students do, right across the street at stanley ho sports centre.

kennedy school has excellent teachers and has proven themselves academically over the past years, coming in second over the past two years in such events as battle of the books and chess tournaments, which are open to ALL international schools in hong kong. while the school does not have the cosy feel that glenealy and the peak esf schools have, i find it to be very good.

some parents are concerned at the high percentage of esl students, however i do not feel this has affected english language learning in the classroom. the staff have a curriculum and they keep up with it.

hope this helps.

[rani]

Seb's Mom,

P1 students will start swimming this year. It will be in Term 3.

[barbiegirl]

Seb's mom,

Thx for your input. It sounds you know Kennedy school well, does your son go to this school as well?

[madaboutCows]

Hi, last year I turned down a place at the Sheung Wan ESF Kindergarten for all the reasons you've already mentioned. It did, however, have a really cosy feel to it and if my son hadn't already been settled somewhere else I might have given it a go. It depends what you want your child to get out of it.

HTH

[barbiegirl]

Hi, madaboutCows

Based on the positive responses from others plus we'd get a better chance to get an interview in ESF primary, i think we tend to give it a go, although our little one is settled well in another pre-school, i believe she will fit well in ESF kindy as long as it is a good kindy. We'd make the decision after we find out more in the introductory tour.

[barbiegirl]

Just wondering why......it seems no parent (except me) here applied to ESF kinder SW for sep2008 intake. Anyone else there?? Hope to hear good news from any of u.

[barbiegirl]

Rani,

We went to the school tour on Thurs. We are still thinking whether to accept the offer or not. They have an open plan setting, they stress alot on free play, and they dont have a snack time sitting together, instead the kids can get a snack at the table anytime during free play, the kids have their choices what they like to do during free play, one of the teachers mention that if a kid does not like drawing, he/she may end up not even touching the crayons during the whole term, it sounds strange. The kindy has a very free-style approach, which is very different from my LO's current preschool. i'm a bit worrying the kid will end up wandering around all the time, not willing to finish one thing before heading another one, ie. less discipline and less attentive because of too much freedom. Or i'm just over-worried??

As u mentioned the kindy has changed to a new principal and the curriculum might have changed also. Does it sound much different from when your son was with the school?

[rani]

Sorry for the late reply. I had written a long reply a couple of weeks ago, computer crashed as I was finishing. :(

I heard the Kindy was going to follow a more traditional approach. I guess they changed their minds.

Coming from a Montessori playgroup the free-style approach was what D was used to. Actually they really only have open-play for 1 hour in the morning followed by a class-based activity led by a teacher/assistant. And yes he did tend to do choose the same activities quite often - ie the sand pit, and art/crafts table. He's also a bad eater and I was afraid he wouldn't visit the snack table. His teacher was aware of this and would remind him to get a snack/water. So they did get a "gentle push" to try new things/activities. When he was in K2, to prepare them for P1 the kids had to bring in their own snack box. I heard from another teacher they decided to implement it for the K1 kids in term 2 as well.

HTH

HTH