English Language Schooling
 

Can anyone point me in the right direction regarding english language schools in HKG for children. Obviously there is a wide variety, but is there a central registery of them. I have a 5 year old daughter, and am looking at this fall.

regards,

d.

One of them is British Council Hong Kong. There are variety of courses specially designed for children. It is located in Admiralty, 5 mins walk from Admiralty MTR Station.

You can take a look at
http://www.britishcouncil.org/hongkong

http://www.esf.edu.hk/
http://www.dbis.edu.hk/index.php
http://www.sunshinehouse.com.hk/home.htm
http://www.hkis.edu.hk/
http://www.fis.edu.hk/?i=en-GB
http://www.cdnis.edu.hk/
http://www.ibo.org/school/search/ind...d_schools=Find
http://www.phoenix.edu.hk/welcome/about.htm
http://www.cis.edu.hk/index.htm
http://renaissance.esf.edu.hk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_school
http://dbpis.esf.edu.hk/

Start looking early. School places are at a premium and not assured. I got my kid into an ESF school in March one year, one of the last two places available for the next school year!

One of the problems is that since the handover, the regular schools in HK have been teaching in Cantonese whereas before, English was the primary education language. Most Chinese parent realise that the best way for their kids to progress is for them to learn in English (HK University uses English, so if they don't speak it they are excluding themselves from tertiary education options) so there is a lot of pressure on places. Some chinese kids are brought up speaking just English to give them an advantage in the selection process.

This problem is only going to get worse - we know of people who have cancelled their move to HK because they couldn't get their kids into an English school. Ther's a large English school being built in Discovery bay, but 70% of the kids have to be permanent HK ID card holders thus excluding a lot of ex-pats. And home education isn't an option. By HK law, your kids have to go to a school.

But the Chinese education system here is very good. If you aren't dependant on them following an overseas syllabus and you are planning to stay here for a while, why not consider sending them to a local school? I know more than one family who have done that. The kids pick up the language very quickly and grow up bi-lingual. If you want your kids to learn a second language for their future life, Cantonese and Putonghua are going to be more useful than French or German IMHO!