Pre-nursery/Kindergarten (possibly in Tseung Kwan O area)

T

TKLMom

Registered User
Hello,

We've just moved to Tiu Keng Leng in the Tseung Kwan O area, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on a good pre-nursery school? My son is just a year old, however I've found out he needs to apply now if he wants to attend pre-nursery. As education doesn't start this early from where we're from, I'm wondering if moms here found pre-nursery necessary for their kids, or if they waited until their kids were old enough for K1?

There is also such a breadth of education options here, that I'm feeling a bit lost on where to begin. Before moving to Hong Kong, I was just planning on sending my son to whichever school was nearby, but here it seems that it's better to send him further away if it's a better school. I've been reading through the threads, but I'm also confused on some of the school acronyms - what is DSS or ESF etc. stand for? And how have moms made their decision on what school to send their children to? I've seen on some school websites, that they have the list of schools their graduating class have been able to move on to - so does the pre-nursery/kindergarten your kid attends determine the likelihood of future school prospects?

Apologies for the long post! Just feeling confused as to the options and not very confident as to what to do! Would appreciate any suggestions and advice from other moms!

Thank you in advance!
 
I am trying to answer your question, but i am a green mother as well, hope it works. Yes, if your kid is borned on 2014, it is time to apply for prenursary 2016/17. I think to attend or not the pre nursary are both fine, not an necessary. they usually put their kids into the pre nursary held by their target kindgarten and it is an strategy to secure the seat for k1.

For tko zone, you can also find the kindergarten in sai kung and clearwater bay, woodland, garden house, skip and sunshine house.
 
Esf = english school foundation, a train through association from kindergarten to secondary school.

Dss = direct subsidy scheme school
 
Hi Mocheng!

Thank you for the information! I've registered with a couple of schools in the area now - HKSPC Nursery at Ocean Shores, Grace Garden, Boxhill (Tseung Kwan O), and Deborah. I hope we get into one of them. As to why these schools, I mainly chose these for their location as applications are due, and being new to HK, I didn't really have time to look into them in too much detail. I'm mainly hoping that my little one will have some structured activity during the day, and get to interact with other kids. As for the education bit of it, I'm hoping there isn't too much variation between schools since it's just pre-nursery - I assume he'll learn more than not attending! Also, even if we then decide that we want to apply to another kindergarten and not the one he ends up in for pre-nursery, I'm hoping the fact that he attended a pre-nursery program at all will be helpful towards that next interview.

Does anyone here on Geobaby have experience with any of the above schools? If so, I'd love to hear your feedback! For HKSPC and Deborah, I actually applied for the Cantonese speaking class - since baby is so young, I'd love for him to pick up the language. Grace Garden and Boxhill are English speaking. Does anyone also have experience with full day programs vs. half day? Would also love to know if parents found pros/cons with either.

Thanks in advance!
TKLMom
 
You don't have to do pre-nursery; we didn't as my son was the youngest in his class when he started K1 anyway. Some kids love going to school early, but mine weren't ready. Plenty of schools will accept you into K1 without pre-nursery though we did get some surprised looks. You can also check out Mills International in Yau Tong. My son went to Deborah before we switched him to Mills as he didn't settle into Deborah even after a year. I know others who were not happy there too, but I also know kids who were fine there. It's certainly very reasonably priced.
 
Hi Charade,

Thanks for the feedback, and I will definitely look into Mills International as well. We just wanted to make sure we applied so we had the option - we'll definitely pay close attention to our child though to see if he is ready for it - he's also younger as well, so we could wait till K1. Is the price at Mills reasonable as well?

Thanks!
 
Um mills is more in line with international school pricing. It's 6300 for 10 months as of now, while Deborah was then 3800 at that time.
 
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