ESF kindy- delaying entry year

[alibali]

Hi,
wondering if anyone has been in the same situation and what they ended up doing. My daughter was offered a place at the ESF kindy in Clearwater Bay. However, my husband and I decided to turn down the spot as her birthday is just 3 days before the birth year cutoff, meaning that she would be the youngest in the class. We would rather delay her so that she'd be the oldest, more confident, potty trained, etc. However, the kindergarten just informed me today that I really can't delay her entry because the ESF primary schools only look at birth years when grouping children into the P1, P2, etc. classes. If I delayed my daughter at kindy, the primary would try to make her skip P1 to get her into the right age band and that might cause all kind of bureaucratic nightmares according to the head of the kindy. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or have you delayed entry into Woodland preschool, but still planning on getting your child into an ESF primary school... I'm a bit frustrated at how black and white the ESF system is..

 

[snagito]

I think it depends on the ESF kindy. The Sheung Wan branch offered us the option of delaying a year as we had the same situation as you - we chose to go ahead though, but they did make the offer so I think you should definitely look into it. Hope that helps.

 

[carang]

i was one of the youngest in school and never had any problems.

i'm having the opposite problem. my son's birthday is in february and his best friend's is exactly 2 months earlier. she will be one year ahead of him at school... there's no way around it, even though emotionally, physically and socially they are the same.

my son will be the oldest in class and is right now in the local kindy that he goes to.

the other thing you could do is look at SAI KUNG LOK YUK kindergarten. it is local and instruction is mostly in chinese, however they have quite a few western children and quite a few mixed as well. so they are used to non-chinese speaking children. they send all notices home in either english or chinese.

my son loves it there. and that's not even the best part....

if you have HKID card (which you must if you live here) then you can apply for the gov't voucher... when you receive it, the 1/2 day school costs.... $160/MONTH!!!

 

[alibali]

thanks for the tip Carang. Unfortunately, the Abacus Kindy is not willing to delay our daughter. They only offer that she can repeat K1 or K2 if they and the primary school feel that it is appropriate. However, my husband called the primary school today and the folks there say it is not required for her to attend 2 years of kindergarten before attending their primary school. As long as we apply according to her birth year and she can "pass" the primary school interview, she is eligible to go to their school with only one year of kindy or no kindergarten at all. Of course, the esf kindy kids will get priority within her category. If this is the story, then we will probably keep her in Garden House preschool, have her do 1 year of kindy with them next year and then fingers crossed she gets into the ESF primary school after that. Need to triple check the story with abacus and the clearwater bay school though...

 

[MommyTo3]

I have the same concern with my twins since they were born end of November (full term, without issues). They're currently in preschool settings 2 mornings a week (26 month old) and will start 5 morning from September (2y8m) and then in 2010 I would have to apply for ESF for school year 2011/2012 (they were born in 2006).

Back home there would be 2 classes in between my oldest (May) and the twins (November) with a usual September 1st (or October 1st cut off) but now just one. My oldest got accepted at ESF so the twins will have priority as well.

I am just going with the flow and we'll see when we get there. They first need to double their age (!) and we may not even be in HK anymore; you never know these days, but I understand your concern.

 

[FFONG]

my daughter is now in ESF Abacus (CWB) Kinder, and she born in Nov. We didn't delayed her entry so she is just 4+ now studying K2 and she had no problem at all, I think you should try it. Abacus is a good school. And your kid will just go back to school and have fun, no worry. Let your kid meet more kids and play is the best way to build her confident, not keep her at home for 1 more year to let her be more mature. No pressure at all in Abacus, and my daughter loves to go to kinder everyday.

 

[evesaikung]

hi alibali,
i totally agree with ffong. i think you don't have to worry too much as kid can learn very fast especially with other kids together. in fact, my son is also born on 28 dec 06, we live in sai kung and the esf wks has offered him a place and i m going to put him there. when they go to interview for the esf primary, if they think your kid is not mature enough, then they will suggest you to repeat k2. you may also need to bear in mind that non esf kindy kid has no priority for the esf primary interview. also is your daughter in category 1 or 2? all this will affect her chance to into the esf primary school.