I will be having the same dilemma next year so I would also like to get more information.
Which kindergarten is your child attending now?
My son is currently at Nursery at HLYIS, and I've been extremely pleased with the school and teachers so far. My original plan was to keep my son at HLYIS, but some other parents mentioned switching to other schools including ESF Shatin and ESF Renaissance and that has got me thinking....
For me, the pros for switching to ESF would be the lower costs (although another thread mentioned you get what you pay for!) and also the academic history of ESF Shatin College.
HLYIS (in collaboration with some other schools) now has a new secondary school and although it's many years away for my son, I do wonder how well the students will perform academically. Also if I do not get my son into ESF Shatin Junior, I guess his chances of being accepted into ESF Shatin College would be quite slim. Of course, I might be thinking too far ahead - we might not still be in HK or we might even have moved over to Kowloon/HK side.
However, I really like the HLYIS environment and the family feel about the place, and being able to have a quick chat with the teacher whenever I pick up my son. Parents are very involved in the running of the school, whereas with ESF I'm not sure how well informed parents are and how bureaucratic the school is.
The Mandarin programme at HLYIS is also much stronger than that at ESF Shatin.
One of the parents is a teacher at another ESF school and she says the environment at HLYIS is so much better. Also I've heard that ESF Shatin school is quite old looking and a bit run down.
But my main reason for leaning towards HLYIS is to do with my son's personality, he's more of the shy sensitive type so I feel he'll do better in smaller class sizes and also being in a smaller school. His development has improved so much since starting at HLYIS and he has really settled in. He's happy going to school and happy when I collect him so I would really hate to uproot him now.
You need to prioritize your criteria, be it cost, location, school size etc. But I think it's equally as important to select a school that's right for your child's personality/temperament so that they are happy, and especially since they are still very young and need nurturing to their full potential.
I would also love to hear from parents of kids attending ESF Shatin to get a better picture.