Kindergarten, HELP Please!

O

oreomama

Registered User
Dear All Geo-mamas & Geo-papas,

Happy New Year!

My family is shifting to HK this February. We are Singaporeans but have been staying in Beijing for 2 years. I have 2 toddler boys (aged 3 years+ and 20 months old). And my elder boy is attending an International Montessori Kindy in Beijing.

My husband's office is at ShaTin, so we are looking at apartment and school around that area. I have enquired about a few schools such as ESF Wu Kai Sha, Greenfield Intl and Think Intl, all have no vacancy for my elder boy. A big headache for me! As some international school's fee are very expensive and always full house, i have problem finding a suitable school for my boys. I am looking at bilingual school that teach in both English and Putonghua. My elder boy has strong liking in Chinese and he speaks very fluently, hence i like to find a school that can further enhance his forte in this.

I would appreciate any advices and leads to good schools around ShaTin, Taipo, Ma On Shan.. Thank you so much!

Oh ya, is it a common practice for HK's school to enrol student mid-semester?
 
Check into private pre-schools and kindergartens such as:

Tutor Time
Woodlands Pre-School Hong Kong (I think they have a Montessori in Midlevels). Their Peak campus has a bilingual program in the afternoons.

There are many others.

If you hold a Singapore passport you have a space available (I think) at the Singapore International School. Not sure if they have any pre-school programs though.
 
You can consider Zebedee International at Tai Po: www.zebedee.edu.hk . They have a good English & Mandarin programme. We are Malaysian Chinese living in Fotan, Shatin. My toddler (22 mths) will be starting playgroup there (English & Mandarin sessions) next month after CNY. I visited the school and did trial classes and had a long conversation with the Mandarin teacher, a PRC national. The school seems very friendly towards kids & parents, well-resourced, and I believe they still have places. I also checked out a few more kindergartens around Shatin but was less impressed. An American expat mum I know sends her boy to kindergarten at Zebedee and has high praise for it - they checked out no less than 12 schools!!

For accommodation, consider The Grandville at Fo Tan, which is a relatively new development built by Wing Tai. Many young families there. You can PM me if you have more questions.
 
My husband's Singaporean, too, and my second child is born in Singapore. :) We have three boys, ages 5, 2 and 2 months. The eldest is attending Kiangsu Chekiang School (KCS) in K3, which is a Mandarin medium school where all subjects are taught in Mandarin except English. We moved back to Hong kong this summer and was able to obtain one of two remaining places before school started. You might want to call them right away and see if they'll have a place for your elder son right away. They also start admitting 2 year olds in the fall, so you can inquire about places for your younger son as well, but nursery places are very sought after. The school is located in North Point and we live in Western Mid-levels. They do have schoolbuses, so you might also want to get a list of where they pick-up/drop-off kids so that you can have a choice of places to live. The public transport system here is pretty much second to none, so the family doesn't have to live near Shatin.

However, if you're keen on Shatin, I would also suggest looking at International Christian School, which is located in Shatin itself. As with all international schools, there's probably a waiting list, but you might be fortunate to find a vacancy mid-year that would be suitable for your children.
 
I am Singaporean with a 2.5yrs girl, she is currently attending pre nursery at a international kindy in Tseung Kwan O but I also need to start looking for a good school for her as everyone says school in this area is not too good..pressure!
I am concerned about teaching in both Engliah and Putonghua, updated resources, friendly teachers and the school's vigilance on child safety and hygience. Also considering Singapore International School as a backup resort, but I wonder if there are any good schools outside the HK island or not so far as Kowloon Tong?
Thanks all
 
Not kindergarten but for later... Try Renaissance College. I've just had our child interviewed there and am truly impressed by the school's organisation, quality of education (from parents with children already there) and quality of Putonghua education.
 
singapore int'l school is on the complete opposite side of hk to where they want to live!

for the area that you mentioned, you may want to look at living nearer to sai kung. it's only a 15 minute drive to ma on shan/shatin (i do it daily).

there is an excellent kindergarten that uses cantonese to teach. there are LOTS of expats & mixed couples who send their children to it (myself included). it's called SAI KUNG LOK YUK KINDERGARTEN.

many children from this school then move onto a local gov't primary school that has the designation of being a school for non-chinese speaking children. that means that parents can choose the language of instruction for various classes. ie) chinese language can be either cantonese or mandarin, mathematics is either cantonese or english. this means that the kids are exposed to all three languages. i've heard nothing but good things about this school and we are very excited for our eldest to start there in september with many of his kindergarten classmates.
 
Help please, we missed both full-day daycare and K1 interview dates for my 25 months young daughter (At a time our less than 10days hired helper said she comtemplated jumping out of the 16 storey window with our daughter).

We suspected helper was misinformed about us by an outsider that we didn't know but all is good now with the same helper however, getting to the bottom of such threat resulted into school placement problem for our baby.

We live in Shatin and would appreciate any help for any nearby school. Thank you.
 
i'm sorry to derail the thread, but you have a helper who has threatened to jump out of the window WITH your child and you are keeping her???? are you completely INSANE? i honestly can't believe that you would honestly keep someone who has threatened this whether or not she was "misinformed" about your family! she is mentally ill, it seems to me, and she should NOT be left with your child!

forget schooling, find a helper you can trust. someone who will make your child's well-being their #1 priority.
 
Thanks Carang, we spoke with her agency several times and with her (more than enough) since then.
She knew she made serious mistake going that way no matter who or what might have influence her.

I have been home watching her behavior and moves. We also had cameras installed even before she started with
us and she's been really good.

She's now with us for three months and we are all happy. She wasn't crazy but just childish fearing that she wouldn't last with us as we fired several helpers who weren't suitable for us..... so it was definitely caused by another helper in our building. We're guarding our kids more than normal and aren't insane to endanger our kids.
 
i honestly can't imagine leaving my kids at home alone with her... if that's how she handles stress...but it is your child and up to you, not me, whether or not she's the right person to be caring for your child.

as for schools, you don't mention anything other than you live in shatin... what are your other requirements? do you drive? or are you looking for public transport? or will you try to make use of a school bus? how far are you willing to let your child "commute"? do you want english/cantonese/mandarin? are you looking for full-day or 1/2-day? what kind of fees are you prepared to pay?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top