ESF kinder acceptance letter

B

barbiegirl

Registered User
Hi,

I have just received the acceptance letter from ESF kinder Sheung Wan. School tour will be arranged on 24 Jan 2008 afternoon. :yeah2

Any comments on this kinder? Are the teachers there nice? Pls share your experience. Thanks.
 
D was at ESF kindy last year. He loved it. Both the K1 teachers - Daisy and Lindsey are warm and great with the little ones. He's now in P1 and all his close friends are still from Kindy.
 
Hi, rani

Thanks for your prompt feedback, it sounds very encouraging. I looked up kindy website, I see photos of key staffs there, I can see Daisy but not Lindsey, I guess she might have already left the kindy, what a pity. We are not yet informed of the offer for am or pm session, not until the day of school tour, are they going to inform us as well of who the class teacher is? From the website, it says the kindy offers two K1 classes, does it mean it has only one K1 class in each session? How big is a class? What teaching method are they using, montessori or traditional? Are they teaching phonics? Do they have outdoor activities, it seems no outdoor playground in the campus? Are the class comprised of mainly asians, does it provide a good English speaking environment? How about the chance to get into ESF primary, did anyone there fail to get a place in ESF in the past? We wish our little one can get into Kennedy S. when it is her turn for P1,how is the P1 place Kennedy S.? Do u think there is very high chance as long as we live in the right catchment area?

Sorry for asking heaps of questions:confused:, but I want to hear more of your first-hand experience on both kindy and primary, any good or not so good comments. Many thanks....:thanks
 
hi
my son went to esf kindy a few years ago. he had a great time with a fantastic teacher, michelle, who is no longer there, unfortunately.

they had two k1 classes in the am and two in the pm when he was a student (two years ago). they did not have outdoor activities, only rarely did they play outside.

while the school is affiliated with esf, children there have to have interviews to get into esf schools just like children at every other primary school.

there is a large debate on as to which schools in hong kong actually teach proper montessori methods, and i don't feel qualified to answer that question. what i will say is that i think the school is very good and your child will be happy there. and that's the foundation you really want for those first years, for a child to enjoy being in the learning environment!
 
Seb's dad,

Glad to hear that both you were happy with this school. Before, I have heard some bad comments from other sources that the school mix K1 & K2 and leave them play alone for most of the schooltime with little guidance from teachers, little interactions between children, and there are seldom singing or dancing time. :eek:This sounds very isolated and weird. Those bad comments raise my concerns, but now it seems your experience with this school were very positive, this reliefs my worries alot. Thanks for input from both you and Rani. We are now looking forward to attending the school tour and meeting the teachers there.:flower:

Does your son go to a esf primary school now? How do u find the school?
 
Hi Barbie,

There's a new principal at the kindy and things have changed a bit. When we got our acceptance later, it did state which session we had been accepted to. The first tour, you meet the principals and you get a presentation on the curriculum. After which you pay your deposit, and you're invited back to the school for a 2nd visit, where you find out which class your child is and meet the teacher.

I have heard they are following a more traditional method than before. Not sure what changes they have made.

They don't have their own outdoor playground, but take advantage of the public playground next door. Park visits are weekly. Their sports day is also held here.

My son is now at Kennedy school. All his friends who applied were accepted. We didn't hear of anyone who didn't get in but I'm not 100% sure.

HTH
 
Hi, Rani

Glad to hear that your son and his friends who applied were accepted to Kennedy school. How do u find this school? And how many P1 classes are there? Do they have lots of sports (eg. swimming), as the school locates near a sport field. Would like to hear your 1st hand experience.
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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Just wondering why......it seems no parent (except me) here applied to ESF kinder SW for sep2008 intake. Anyone else there??:confused: Hope to hear good news from any of u.
 
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?
 
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
 
just a question, not nasty in intent...

why would you apply to a school if you didn't want your child to go to it?

seems to me that you are taking a place that someone else would cherish. (kind of like the pregnant women registered at more than one private hospital.)
 
The thing about ESF Kindy they don't do Open Days. Only after you've been accepted, you're invited for a school tour. Then you pay the deposit. So you really don't have a choice but to apply.
 
Cara, as Rani has said, we have to apply for this kindy to gain a chance for a school tour, then we can find out more about it. We don't mean to hold many places, actually, other than my LO's current prenursery school, we only applied for ESF kindy as another choice.

Rani, thanks alot for your feedback. We had already accepted their offer before CNY. We did have some doubts after the tour, but we gained confidence after gathering some positive comments from some parents. So we're now looking forward for our LO's turn in the coming Sept, hope she will love this kindy we've choosen for her.
 
thanks, i didn't realise that they wouldn't let you look around until you had applied... seems kind of backwards to me.

like i said, i wasn't being nasty, just truly curious. my boy is now 3 and we are seriously debating whether we want him to go to kindergarten yet or not. so the information is very helpful!

thanks!
 
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