kindergarten review

R

reei

Registered User
hello,

i would like to know where can i get a book for the review of all kindergartens in hk, and details of their open days.
my daughter is turning 1 coming august, and i would like to spend the year.. visiting kindergartens, open houses.. and do a little survey . probably enrol her when she turns 2? is that how it works here?

thanks.
 
my son was 3 yrs 7 m when he started, my daughter will be the same.
personally, i could never send my children to "school" at 2 years, although i know most in hk do. for me, it's just too young. i think that they learn as much staying at home and going on outings with mummy, daddy or helper as they do in a "school" setting.

i didn't even want to send my son when he was 3y7m but felt i had to because there were literally no other kids his age around us that weren't going to school. if i'd lived more centralised, there is no way i would have sent him when i did. however, now he's finished one year, he absolutely loves it. he's going to go for a full day next year, because HE wants to.
 
no, i dont mean sending her to school when she turns 2. i mean registering her for school for the intake when she turns 3. i think in hk we have to apply like 1 year in advance for the coming intake, is that right?
 
depends on the school. we applied for the gov't voucher in january and once we received it in May (?) we sent the application to my son's school. he was admitted in september. we LOVE his school and would highly recommend it to anyone. it is a local school but they have a lot of expat children. the language of instruction is cantonese with a few classes in english.

we only went to see a couple of kindies in our area at the time and knew instantly when we went into his school that that was the school we wanted. it was very laid back, not stressful and the kids looked happy!

i know a lot of parents really stress out about finding a kindergarten, but i think it is really unnecessary and only plays into the system. it is, afterall, just kindergarten... it's not going to affect their entrance into Oxford or Cambridge or something like that.

again, just my opinion, and i know there are plenty of people in hk that disagree with me on that...

good luck!
 
Get the the School Book Complete Guide to Childrens English Language Education. They are giving it free with the Playtimes Magazine Summer 2009 issue. This has all the schools and u can decide which one u want to call and go visit . Mostly all schools have 1-2 open days a month.
 
but, as you said, it only covers ENGLISH schools...we wanted our kids to go to cantonese kindergarten.

i don't even know if the schools we approached had open days or not... we just knocked on the door. we looked at 2 in sai kung where we live and 2 in tsing yi, where i work.
 
yes u can get it at dymocks or u could get it free sometimes from B2B or if u dont get it call 29736131 and they will send u the copy
 
Depending on whether you are putting your kid to a local or international school. If you read chinese and want to know more about the local school system. Eugene Club has an annual review on the kindergartens. You can get it in any local newstand or Eugene Club. But most schools in HK do need to send in their applications a year ahead. At least the more pouplar ones that I know.
 
unfortunately in HK, if you decide to join then local stream then which kindy your kids go to has some influence on which primary schools you get into, and to be honest, there are not a huge number of local schools which I would like to put my kids in....

I wish it is diff here in Hk but thats the reality ( as I have been told by a number of parents !)
 
sorry, i still don't buy into all of that. if you spend time with your child and teach your child and take your child out, join occasional playgroup/gym whatever classes, you should NOT have any problems getting into a primary school. it is NOT where your child "studied" (it is kindergarten afterall) that is important in interviews... what IS important is confidence, oral ability, aural ability, understanding, confidence, confidence, and confidence.

at least that is my experience after teaching young children in hk for the past 14 years...

i do know that many local parents believe that the only ways for your child to develop the above qualities come from attending school.
 
carang said:
depends on the school. we applied for the gov't voucher in january and once we received it in May (?) we sent the application to my son's school. he was admitted in september. we LOVE his school and would highly recommend it to anyone. it is a local school but they have a lot of expat children. the language of instruction is cantonese with a few classes in english.

we only went to see a couple of kindies in our area at the time and knew instantly when we went into his school that that was the school we wanted. it was very laid back, not stressful and the kids looked happy!

i know a lot of parents really stress out about finding a kindergarten, but i think it is really unnecessary and only plays into the system. it is, afterall, just kindergarten... it's not going to affect their entrance into Oxford or Cambridge or something like that.

again, just my opinion, and i know there are plenty of people in hk that disagree with me on that...

good luck!
Click to expand...

Hi cara,

Which school is your son going to? How much are the fees? It's really great that you qualify for the voucher scheme with this school. Do you know when the earliest is that you can apply for the voucher?

t2
 
because my son's birthday falls in february (as does my daughter's), we had to wait until he was almost 3 before we could apply. i think they have to be 2y8m by sept 1 to apply in january of that year for the following september...

does that make sense?

so, if your little one will be 2yr8m by sept 1 (or is it 30?) 2009, then you could have applied back in january this year.

my kids miss the deadline by 5 & 4 weeks respectively, so they have to wait another year to start school. when the smallest kids in my son's class were 2y8m, my son was one of the eldest at 3y7m.


ANYONE here on a work visa, with a valid hkid or a permanent resident can apply for the voucher.

it is ONLY able to be used at kindergartens that follow LOCAL curriculum AND charge less than a certain amount per month.

the way it works for us is thus:

the fees at my son's school are $XXXX. the gov't pays a HUGE portion of the fees to the school for us. we pay the remainder. for us, that comes to $160/month. some other schools will be more. it just depends on their fees. you'll have to ask around if they accept the gov't voucher and how much the fees are.

we are EXTREMELY happy with the arrangement.

he goes to LOK YUK KINDERGARTEN in sai kung town.
 
yes, as Cara has said, it depends on when your child was born. my son was born in Jan so he won't be going to K1 until he's 3yrs8mths, which i'm delighted about. i personally wouldn't want him to be doing formal schooling any earlier than that. i also know another mum whose daughter was born in november and qualifies to enter school this coming year, but the mum has decided to delay that one year and let her be the eldest in the class.

a lot of kindergartens welcome school visits any day of the year (except summer hols) so it's just a matter of ringing them up and arranging a visit. also, most of them have their own websites so just do a bit of googling.
 
I'm excited for my son to start kindergarten because he loves interaction with people and other children and where we live is pretty rural (according to HK standards) so he is the only child his age in the immediate radius of us.

I already applied to two kindergartens for him. I actually applied for pre-kindergarten at both too--but it seems that I was too far down on the list and he won't be accepted into the pre-kindergarten classes this coming September. But, I've talked to the schools and he has been put onto the kindergarten waiting list already.

One school is very near to us--it's the only kindergarten so near to us in fact. If he goes to this kindergarten, we will qualify for the voucher program as its a local kindergarten with tuition fees falling under the government limit.

The other school is a spendy, private kindergarten which I'm actually not too impressed with--further away and when I toured that one, right at the height of the swine flu outbreak (early May 2009) the place was, in my opinion, far below the standard it should have been for cleanliness--especially considering that parents pay such a high monthly fee for their children to go there half-day! I hope some of that money is being invested back into hiring a janitor and buying a bottle of bleach! (It really was pretty nasty--if you want the name of the school, PM me).

It seems that because my son was born in November, like fingerscrossed's friend's daughter, he will be able to start in September of 2010. That's excellent news for us!

Now, that must mean that we can apply for the voucher scheme in January 2010, right carang?
 
yep, should be able to. You can find info on the edb website. If I remember correctly, the school gave us the application.... But I could be wrong on that....
 
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