Best Southside Public Schools

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southside852

Registered User
What is the best primary Chinese school on the southside?

I am looking for a school that also has an English element too or teaches in a bilingual setting. Does anyone know where I can find this out? Is there a website that rates schools and is in English?
 
southside,
do you know much about local schools? do you know what their teaching methods are?

are you local? or expat?

do your kids speak, read & write chinese?
 
i am an ex-pat and i actually do not know too much about the schools here. i just want to educate myself about the public system and am not sure on how to go about it this. is there ar specific area where schools perform better like in the States? any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
i've taught privately in hong kong for almost 14 years. in that time, i've noticed a few things about the students that they churn out:

1) VERY good at maths
2) imagination and creativity are usually "beaten" out of the children at a very early age, in their place rote learning, model answer memorisation and spewing out information without real understanding
3) in many, but not all, schools the level of english is appalling. there are some exceptions to the rule, but these schools are not 100% gov't funded and are EXTREMELY difficult to get into
4) in 99% of gov't schools the ability to read, write & speak chinese is of vital importance as many subjects are taught in chinese but even those that are taught in english, the teacher usually explains concepts in chinese.
5) i've looked at local exam papers. the teacher mark incorrect things correct, and visa versa. the number of english mistakes made by the teacher is appalling.

i have two children. my hubby is local. he was locally educated and he has decided that sending our children to a local school for primary is out of the question. i agree with him.

good luck with your decision.
 
I have also heard what carang has said about the schools, but can you name a few gov't primary school on the southside that have better reputations? I just read in The Standard about the huge intiative that the gov't is making in trying to improve english in the school and reduce labeling.
 
oops... forgot one of the most important ones...

HOMEWORK! expect LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of homework...

in north america, if a child continuously comes home with hours of homework, a visit to the teacher follows in short order.

in hong kong, if a child DOES NOT come home with 2-3 hours of homework everynight, the parents visit the teacher to ask, 'WHY IS THERE NO HOMEWORK?'
 
To be fair, there are some good primary schools that will work for expat families- i don't know which in particular on the Southside, you'll have to ask around. I know there's one in Tung Chung, one in KT and one in Tuen Mun.

There are some foreign kids (expat kids) who are in local systems and they cope. Homework policies vary from school to school - some are OTT because teachers are unrealistic about what they include in the curriculum and end up dumping most of classwork as homework. There's lots of rote learning and memorisation but school has really changed - that's the experience I have in the local primary school I taught at.

We did consider the local system and almost bit the bullet and enrolled our son in a kinder that would lead into a good local school but decided against it - not because of homework policies and a lot of the negative experiences but because we may be heading back in the near future. However, if we were going to stay in the long term, we would have no qualms - most of my colleagues at my current local secondary school have children who were part of the local school system and are now studying in top universities in the U.S./U.K. or in the top local high schools in H.K. and their advice was simply to ensure that if you are going to go local, ensure that whatever is left out e.g. creativity is supplemented as after school activities. Even homework policies have changed in some schools - at mine - Homework from ALL subjects should not exceed more than an hour in total and this is for a secondary school.

Good Luck!
 
spockey, then you are at a VERY progressive school!

i can tell you, from teaching privately, that some of my kids at P1 & P2 were coming home with 2 or more hours of homework on a daily basis! it was barbaric.

not only that but the parents DO try to provide "extra-curricular" activities to the point that I had a 6 year old taking 13 extra classes per week! I am NOT exaggerating at all.

i know that the gov't is trying to change the way schools operate, but when the parents are demanding more homework, often the schools/teachers oblige.
 
to answer your question southside852, i don't think there are any public primary schools on the southside. i think they are all private...i know there are some more progressive public primary schools, located on the kowloon side...
 
there must be a local gov't school on southside....anyone check the edb website? do they have a list?
 
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