Schools?

[wawa]

I am doing a little research to get my facts straight before any interviews. I have a 1 year old and would like to know what schooling is available in Honk Kong. Names of schools or websites would be perfect.

Thanks in advance

[Far canal]

Wawa

I hope you are not considering sending your 1 year old to school? There are many schools in HK with good reputation, however, due to the multi-cultural nature of the place and the schools available some are more suitable than others.

A good starting point are the ESF (English Schools Foundation) schools based on the English Education System, however, there are a number of International schools which may be more suitable for you such as the French International, German Swiss, Canadian (I think) plus a few others which I am not familair with.

Depends on your intended length of stay and your cultural background. Normal schooling starts a about 5 years old although many start kindergarden at 3.

[This message has been edited by Far canal (edited 07 March 2001).]

[Dodgy One]

Wawa,
Glad to see you doing research first. The answer is that the availability of Primary education is patchy. If you live on Discovery Bay then the only way to get into the International school there is to put the child's name down at birth, pay for the pre-school years out of your own pocket (Cathay doesn't pay) and then your child will get a place in P1. Cathay only pays for 90% of the cheapest education available (ESF) from age 5.
You will be amazed at the cost of decent education here. Budget for about 30,000HKD per year for kindergarten/Reception classes out of your own pocket. If you don't go to ESF (which isn't the ENGLISH education that you may think it is) then CX contribution remains at 90% of the ESF fees. This will leave a considerable shortfall.
One other school that hasn't been mentioned on the list is Kellett School. www.kellettschool.com (http://www.kellettschool.com)

Fees: Reception 66,000HKD pa
P1-P6 77,000HKD pa

Hope that this helps

[mcdude]

English Schools Foundation website;

http://www.esf.edu.hk

Places can be hard to get in the ESF schools but they are obliged to give priority to English speaking children of expatriates first.

They also require proof that you live within the "zone" of the school you are applying for. This can put you in a bit of a Catch 22 when it comes to sign for a lease on a flat/house. Most people are "generally" happy with ESF, but the fully-fledged international schools enjoy a very good reputation (add the Aussie school to the list!)

However most are not so happy with the kindergarten business... I mean system. As noted above as a CX/KA pilot it takes a while to get used to paying HK$3-4000 a month for it (plus transport etc).

Rgds

[srl]

I am a bit late in reponding to this one but was hoping you guys may be able to elaborate. I have an interview coming up and have been to the schools websites and been in contact thru email but cant really ask what their school are like(biased answers). so does anyone out there send their kids to ESF and if so what do YOU think the standards like? I realise the international school are probably better(but might not be an initial option due waiting list). by the way my kids are quite young not due to start school for a year or so(added this because I believe the schools standards come more into play at higher educational levels). thank for any help you can give me

[srl]

.

[This message has been edited by srl (edited 26 March 2001).]

[ShyTorque]

srl,

From our experience of sending 3 of ours there in recent times (Kowloon Junior followed by King George V in '94-'98), ESF schools are really very good. The standards easily match or surpass those of UK state schools. The kids are worked hard and a lot of homework is set at an early age. The schools are equipped to an excellent standard. Our kids went to the top of the class in many subjects when they returned to UK schooling 3 years ago. Discipline was excellent and the kids respected the staff. Staff morale was higher than we have found on our return, perhaps not surprising as they do get paid a more decent salary in HK.

I would say you would be more than pleased with the results of sending your child there. I wish mine were back there!