cannan kindergarten
- Thread starter bunda
- Start date
Hi,
I've just visited Cannan Kindergarten few days ago. It's a good one with clean environment and very spacious. Their playgroup is for 15months baby onward and nursery from 2 year old. However their playgroup is being
conducted mainly in Cantonese. Nursery classes with be host by 1 native english teacher and 1 local. Teacher/student ratio will be 1:10.
It's overall a good kindergarten with reasonable school fees.
I've just visited Cannan Kindergarten few days ago. It's a good one with clean environment and very spacious. Their playgroup is for 15months baby onward and nursery from 2 year old. However their playgroup is being
conducted mainly in Cantonese. Nursery classes with be host by 1 native english teacher and 1 local. Teacher/student ratio will be 1:10.
It's overall a good kindergarten with reasonable school fees.
My 28 month old has been going to Cannan Kindergarten on Caine Road since August and loves it. It is something she looks forward to everyday! I went to visit the school in person and felt that the teacher and principle was very helpful and took time to answer my questions. There is no homework as such, except there is a story and song book that you read/sing through with your child. The lessons are mainly conducted in cantonese though there are some classes taught by native English and Mandarin teachers.
carang
Registered User
well, it was a very long time ago that i worked there. when i worked there, there were sometimes 48 students in a class. if you search the archive of the south china morning post, they were actually fined for overcrowding.
i was a native English teacher there. at that time, i spent 20 minutes in each class each day. the rest of the day was cantonese. there was a native Mandarin teacher that came a few times per week. this may have changed since i was there.
as for acceptance into "prestigeous" schools. that does not depend on the kindergaten that the child attended. it depends on the abilities of the child him/herself.
if you want a four year old to do double digit mathematics, you are crazy. i'm sorry, but in my ten years of teaching in HK i cannot tell you the number of times parents set unrealistic expectations on their children. a four year old, or even a five year old should NOT be able or expected to do this type of mathematics.
a child at this age, should be learning how to hold a pencil properly, maybe even how to write his/her name. they should be learning how to make friends, how to interact with people, manners, how to share, how to use their imagination, NOT complex mathematics.
this is one of the reasons that i left teaching in a "local" school/kindergarten setting.
please, PLEASE allow your child to be a child. they will have enough pressure as they get older(please note child/teenage suicide rates in HK). do not pressure them at this age!
these last few paragraphs are of course my own humble opinion. i DO understand the competition to get into the "prestigeous" schools, however, if your child is well rounded, he/she will have a better chance. the same holds true for international schools.
i was a native English teacher there. at that time, i spent 20 minutes in each class each day. the rest of the day was cantonese. there was a native Mandarin teacher that came a few times per week. this may have changed since i was there.
as for acceptance into "prestigeous" schools. that does not depend on the kindergaten that the child attended. it depends on the abilities of the child him/herself.
if you want a four year old to do double digit mathematics, you are crazy. i'm sorry, but in my ten years of teaching in HK i cannot tell you the number of times parents set unrealistic expectations on their children. a four year old, or even a five year old should NOT be able or expected to do this type of mathematics.
a child at this age, should be learning how to hold a pencil properly, maybe even how to write his/her name. they should be learning how to make friends, how to interact with people, manners, how to share, how to use their imagination, NOT complex mathematics.
this is one of the reasons that i left teaching in a "local" school/kindergarten setting.
please, PLEASE allow your child to be a child. they will have enough pressure as they get older(please note child/teenage suicide rates in HK). do not pressure them at this age!
these last few paragraphs are of course my own humble opinion. i DO understand the competition to get into the "prestigeous" schools, however, if your child is well rounded, he/she will have a better chance. the same holds true for international schools.
Carang,
Thanks very much for your prompt reply. I do agree with your opinions. However, if you want to enter the local school system and want your child to learn Chinese, you have no choice but to compete with others for places, otherwise you are left with few opportunites: band 3 (only 3 bands nowadays) schools in a far away district, with poor English and academic results and poor social conduct. One of my student's mother had the whole family move to Kowloon Tong just to stay away from poor conduct schools.
I have been a private tutor since a teenager, and I had been a full time tutor for about 3 years before and after my daughter was born. I had students from DGS. DBS and Maryknoll. Their syllabuses weren't that scary or difficult, not even for the English subject. They're just difficult to enter. I heard from a mother that the Kowloon Tong kindies had quotas for these prestigious schools, so I suspect Canaan has too. I like my daughter to enter a prestigious school, but I stay away from the Kowloon Tong kindies because my daughter is a slower learner compared to other kids, I want her to do when she can instead of pushing. However, the kindie she has entered in the neighbourhood turns out to be a pushy one. Her coming exam is in end October, God! Besides, many kids who got accepted by these prestigious schools may become lazy since they've learned all the stuff for P1-P2 while in kindergarten, and then realise they can't catch up by P3.
I don't expect my child to do double-digit addition at age 5, but somebody told me some prestigious primary schools ask for this in their entrance exams. However, if you want to enter a good school anywhere in the world, you have to compete. WHAT I OBJECT IS PUSHING THE CHILD TOO EARLY, SUFFOCATING HIS/HER STUDIES. HOWEVER, MOTHERS IN HK ARE LEFT WITH NO CHOICE, OTHERWISE THE GOOD SCHOOLS ARE GONE.
I've seen successful and poor students, often the product of too early pushing, which their mothers agree. They are often very smart kids who have lost interest in studying.
Thanks very much for your prompt reply. I do agree with your opinions. However, if you want to enter the local school system and want your child to learn Chinese, you have no choice but to compete with others for places, otherwise you are left with few opportunites: band 3 (only 3 bands nowadays) schools in a far away district, with poor English and academic results and poor social conduct. One of my student's mother had the whole family move to Kowloon Tong just to stay away from poor conduct schools.
I have been a private tutor since a teenager, and I had been a full time tutor for about 3 years before and after my daughter was born. I had students from DGS. DBS and Maryknoll. Their syllabuses weren't that scary or difficult, not even for the English subject. They're just difficult to enter. I heard from a mother that the Kowloon Tong kindies had quotas for these prestigious schools, so I suspect Canaan has too. I like my daughter to enter a prestigious school, but I stay away from the Kowloon Tong kindies because my daughter is a slower learner compared to other kids, I want her to do when she can instead of pushing. However, the kindie she has entered in the neighbourhood turns out to be a pushy one. Her coming exam is in end October, God! Besides, many kids who got accepted by these prestigious schools may become lazy since they've learned all the stuff for P1-P2 while in kindergarten, and then realise they can't catch up by P3.
I don't expect my child to do double-digit addition at age 5, but somebody told me some prestigious primary schools ask for this in their entrance exams. However, if you want to enter a good school anywhere in the world, you have to compete. WHAT I OBJECT IS PUSHING THE CHILD TOO EARLY, SUFFOCATING HIS/HER STUDIES. HOWEVER, MOTHERS IN HK ARE LEFT WITH NO CHOICE, OTHERWISE THE GOOD SCHOOLS ARE GONE.
I've seen successful and poor students, often the product of too early pushing, which their mothers agree. They are often very smart kids who have lost interest in studying.
I have taught in a number of local and international schools in HK, from kindergarten through to secondary.
The biggest problem I have always had with the local school system is that the children who emerge from it seem, as a group, to completely lack the ability to think for themselves. Whilst maths and written language skills are undoubtedly important (especially somehere like HK where children are regularly exposed as many as three languages) the ability to think creatively, and to think independantly, are much more important in the long term.
I used to tutor a child, who at 4, was given sheets and sheets of homework every night -transcribing Chinese characters, simple mathematics, English spelling lists. Every time I visited her home (sometimes several times a week) she would be sitting at her tiny desk, bored out of her mind, ploughing through these mind numbing tasks.
Educational experts and child psychologists the world over agree that independant play are just as important (if not more so) than rote learning.
I would try to find a KG that emphasises play and creativity over the % of children who got into DGS (and by the way, the students I have from DGS are all trying to get into international schools.......)
Good Luck!
The biggest problem I have always had with the local school system is that the children who emerge from it seem, as a group, to completely lack the ability to think for themselves. Whilst maths and written language skills are undoubtedly important (especially somehere like HK where children are regularly exposed as many as three languages) the ability to think creatively, and to think independantly, are much more important in the long term.
I used to tutor a child, who at 4, was given sheets and sheets of homework every night -transcribing Chinese characters, simple mathematics, English spelling lists. Every time I visited her home (sometimes several times a week) she would be sitting at her tiny desk, bored out of her mind, ploughing through these mind numbing tasks.
Educational experts and child psychologists the world over agree that independant play are just as important (if not more so) than rote learning.
I would try to find a KG that emphasises play and creativity over the % of children who got into DGS (and by the way, the students I have from DGS are all trying to get into international schools.......)
Good Luck!
Cannan
This is quite an old thread, but I'd like to share my experiences with Cannan Kindergarten's tutoring centre. I worked there about six months ago and found it poorly run. Each week they shifted the teachers around, resulting in teachers having different students each week. This makes it extraordinarily difficult to get to know the kids. I was also disappointed with the materials given to teachers to teach the class. Flashcards were used every week and teachers were not allowed to bring any of their own materials. The art section was a joke, teachers were practically expected to do the craft for the children so parents would receive a pretty piece of art. Children were not given the freedom to use their creativity to create original works. Lastly, when classes ran short, as they often did, TA's would sometimes do the work for the kids.
All in all, I wound up quitting after a few weeks. Judging from my conversation with the other teachers, I wasn't alone. I'd rather work in a school which offers value for money.
(sorry for the long post
This is quite an old thread, but I'd like to share my experiences with Cannan Kindergarten's tutoring centre. I worked there about six months ago and found it poorly run. Each week they shifted the teachers around, resulting in teachers having different students each week. This makes it extraordinarily difficult to get to know the kids. I was also disappointed with the materials given to teachers to teach the class. Flashcards were used every week and teachers were not allowed to bring any of their own materials. The art section was a joke, teachers were practically expected to do the craft for the children so parents would receive a pretty piece of art. Children were not given the freedom to use their creativity to create original works. Lastly, when classes ran short, as they often did, TA's would sometimes do the work for the kids.
All in all, I wound up quitting after a few weeks. Judging from my conversation with the other teachers, I wasn't alone. I'd rather work in a school which offers value for money.
(sorry for the long post