Hello,
My family and I have an opportunity to move to Hong Kong in the next few months, and our oldest will be starting primary school in the fall. My work will have me in offices in Tai Wo Hau and Wan Chai, depending on the time of the week, and as such, we were thinking that living somewhere like Tsing Yi or Tsuen Wan along the West Rail/Tung Chung lines might offer the best combination of affordability (looking for a 3BR under 20k), and commute times between the two.
Our son is a native English speaker but, unfortunately, does not speak Chinese beyond some basic phrases, and given how late we appear to be in the registration process, it doesn't appear as though an international school or ESF school would be an option even if we could afford them, this year. As such, we're left wondering what kinds of options we should be looking at. A couple questions:
A. I've heard there is an EMI school based in Tsing Yi called Delia (Man Kiu) English Primary school. Anyone here have any experiences with them?
B. Any other options I should be looking at in that general area?
C. I'm not quite sure if/how geographic restrictions play into school selection in HK. If we lived in Tsuen Wan, would my son even be eligible to go to school in Tsing Yi , or do we have to more or less pick one or the other? I've seen discussions on busing children/commuting, but that seems to generally apply to International schools, so not sure how it applies to local-privates or local schools.
D. Looking outside of those areas, any places you can recommend living on a modest budget where there might be more educational options outside of International/ESF schools?
E. This is probably not a realistic or desirable outcome, but has anyone attempted to enroll their children in Chinese-medium schools without having much of a Chinese language background? Do local schools offer accelerated Chinese programs to help non-native children catch up to their Chinese-native peers, or would it be worth putting our child in an aggressive crash course in Chinese to prepare him for that possibility?
Any other thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
My family and I have an opportunity to move to Hong Kong in the next few months, and our oldest will be starting primary school in the fall. My work will have me in offices in Tai Wo Hau and Wan Chai, depending on the time of the week, and as such, we were thinking that living somewhere like Tsing Yi or Tsuen Wan along the West Rail/Tung Chung lines might offer the best combination of affordability (looking for a 3BR under 20k), and commute times between the two.
Our son is a native English speaker but, unfortunately, does not speak Chinese beyond some basic phrases, and given how late we appear to be in the registration process, it doesn't appear as though an international school or ESF school would be an option even if we could afford them, this year. As such, we're left wondering what kinds of options we should be looking at. A couple questions:
A. I've heard there is an EMI school based in Tsing Yi called Delia (Man Kiu) English Primary school. Anyone here have any experiences with them?
B. Any other options I should be looking at in that general area?
C. I'm not quite sure if/how geographic restrictions play into school selection in HK. If we lived in Tsuen Wan, would my son even be eligible to go to school in Tsing Yi , or do we have to more or less pick one or the other? I've seen discussions on busing children/commuting, but that seems to generally apply to International schools, so not sure how it applies to local-privates or local schools.
D. Looking outside of those areas, any places you can recommend living on a modest budget where there might be more educational options outside of International/ESF schools?
E. This is probably not a realistic or desirable outcome, but has anyone attempted to enroll their children in Chinese-medium schools without having much of a Chinese language background? Do local schools offer accelerated Chinese programs to help non-native children catch up to their Chinese-native peers, or would it be worth putting our child in an aggressive crash course in Chinese to prepare him for that possibility?
Any other thoughts or advice would be appreciated.
