English speaking kid to local school?

L

Leeah's mom

Registered User
I was wondering does anyone send their child(who only knows English) to local school ??

I heard some parents send their children to local school purposely to let them pick up mandarine easily .

I heard also local schools have levels, so some good local school fees are as high as international ones.

Does any one know much about it??

I was thinking of sending my child to international school cos she only speaks and understands English (we're not cantonese)
but my husband says it will be better for my daughter to go to good local school to learn mandarin then she can write, read and talk in mandarine?? He thinks speaking English and mandarin will be very useful in the future.

Can any one give me some advice ? and recommendations on good local school choices in N,T as well please. I want to find some information.
 
I work as a NET in a local primary school. As far as I know, most primary schools have Cantonese as Medium of Instruction. Do check on the school before deciding. Cantonese is not mandarin. I also hate to say this...But even with English lessons, instructions are given in Cantonese. I actually had to stop a couple of teachers from translating everything that I say.
 
local schools DO NOT use mandarin... they use cantonese...so picking up mandarin would not be as easily done. most of the local schools have mandarin lessons the same as they have english lessons.

most local schools are run completely differently than international schools. you would need to contact the education department to find out more information about enrolling in them.

also, i would ONLY enroll my child in a local school if the child is very young. it would be too difficult for an older child to learn enough cantonese to survive fast enough. also, there is a HUGE emphasis on grades and exams. if your child is not academically inclined and not prepared to do hours of homework every night, then local schools are not for you!

good luck with your decision.
 
I forgot to add....notices are in chinese as well. And basically everything is thought in Cantonese and when they write, they write traditional characters. So it can be very difficult if you want to help your kid with homework. And the kids have loads and loads of homework as well
 
You may want to consider PMI or EMIs if you are concerned about Cantonese. In these schools, English or Putonghua (Mandarin) is used as a medium of instruction. The concentration of non-Chinese kids would generally be higher in these schools.
 
Leeah's mom said:
I was wondering does anyone send their child(who only knows English) to local school ??

I heard some parents send their children to local school purposely to let them pick up mandarine easily .

I heard also local schools have levels, so some good local school fees are as high as international ones.

Does any one know much about it??

I was thinking of sending my child to international school cos she only speaks and understands English (we're not cantonese)
but my husband says it will be better for my daughter to go to good local school to learn mandarin then she can write, read and talk in mandarine?? He thinks speaking English and mandarin will be very useful in the future.

Can any one give me some advice ? and recommendations on good local school choices in N,T as well please. I want to find some information.
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You can go to some DSS or private school. The subjects are by English and Putonghua. They will accept some non-Chinese speaking student such as PLK TSL, St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary & Primary School and PLK CKY.
 
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
 
My son is not even a year old and already we have started thinking about his future schooling....and if we were to stay in HK I think Mandarin would be a great language for him to learn. However there are a number of concerns I have with him attending a local school in the future,

a). Neither my husband nor I speak Cantonese or Mandarin so we would be unable to help him with his homework, which would cause problems. Not only that but parent/teacher meetings would be conducted in Cantonese/Mandarin and also any communication with the school and teachers. We would have to rely on someone in the school who spoke decent enough English to translate everything and that's bound to cause frustration etc.

b). Local schools are run very differently from Western schools. In the majority it's all about academic grades and performance, and there is a lot of studying and revising and cramming for exams. I would worry about that dampening my sons creativity and would worry that if he isn't academically inclined- but more inclined towards sports, or music, or drama then this would be neglected.

But every child is different, as is every parent, so you would have to make the best decision for you.
 
thank you.. and more questions..

Thank you all of you for kind replies.

I have some more questons..

Spockey, as you told me Where is PIM or EMIS? Can you tell me the full name. I never heard of those schools. thanks

Angelmhhui, you mentions DDS, PLK and CKY, could you please explain to me? are they school names????
I also never heard of them, so I don't know how to start to find information. can you tell me the full name as well? or possibly website if you know please.. I would really appreciate.


It's so hard to make the decision. Even my husband and I have different opinions, so it will be hard to satisfy both of us.

Thank you all of you for kind replies again.
 
Leeah's mum

PMI is an acronym for Putonghua as a Medium of Instruction
EMI is an acronym for English as a Medium of Instruction

Both are types of schools that exists in Hong Kong apart from your regular schools which use Cantonese as a Medium of Instruction.

The "Medium of Instruction" that a school uses will affect how subjects like Mathematics, General Studies, Art etc. is taught. In an EMI, they are supposed to be taught in English.

I don't know which PMI school is good or which EMI is good. I only know that Kowloon Tong Government Primary is a great school to send a local kid to. Unfortunately though, it uses Cantonese as a medium of instruction.

Good Luck with your search.
 
If you say pre-school my son is studying in Parkview International Pre-school located at Kowloon Station of MTR, it's a brand new school just open in this month. You can apply for local stream which they have two class teachers one is Cantonese and the other is Mandarin.

Hope this helps!
 
Universe, I live at The Waterfront and am very interested in PIPS Kowloon. I know it's just opened but how does your kid find it? Which year are they in? Are you in the Cantonese or Mandarin stream? They told me that the class size for local stream is 28 kids which I think is very large.

Would be interested to hear more....
 
Hi,
I am sending my 3 year old to Cantonese local kindy next month.
The school is called Tsung Tsin Mission Graceful Kindergarten in Kam Tai, Shatin area.
I think he is at the age where he is very confident and can handle half a day learning a new language and I don't particularly care if he "passes" the subjects at this age anyway.
I am lucky though because my husband is the NET teacher there so I think I have a big benefit with that as he can keep an eye on things as my son is the only westerner enrolled.

I am interested in the PIPS school also for the Mandarin stream in the future once my son can survive in cantonese. But I also am considering Renaissance as it is so close to us and I have heard good things about there mandarin instruction.

Universe - how much does PIPS cost per month??
 
Leeah's mom said:
Thank you all of you for kind replies.

I have some more questons..
Angelmhhui,[/B] you mentions DDS, PLK and CKY, could you please explain to me? are they school names????

Leeah's mom,

DSS - Direct Subsidy School (Government has subsidy to the school).
Private - No Subsidy from Govt.

This is the web site of H.K. local primary school. You can find the information of local primary school here.
http://chsc.edb.hkedcity.net/primary/


a. P.L.K. Camoes Tan Siu Lin Primary School
http://www.plkctslps.edu.hk
b. St. Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary & Primary School
http://www.smcesps.edu.hk
c. Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School
http://www.cky.edu.hk

My daugther is 4 years old, so I am also looking for primary school. Personally I prefer St. Margaret. The school will group the students into different grouping by their academic level and review periodically.

:yeah2
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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.
 
"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.

:flower:
 
angelmhhui said:
"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.

:flower:
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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
 
talk2amy said:
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
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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 :flower:
 
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