Kiangsu & Chekiang and Victoria Educational Kindergarten

Hi everyone,


Our daughter has been accepted into Kiangsu & Chekiang and Victoria Educational Kindergarten for nursery starting mid 2014. Neither my wife nor I have a background in Cantonese or Mandarin, however as we are in HK for the long haul it is our desire to give our child an opportunity to get exposure in Mandarin.


I would really appreciate if I would be able to share any parents experience with either school. It would be useful to get a perspective on homework, kids happiness, class mix and interaction with teachers, especially in terms of helping with Chinese homework for non Chinese speaking families. Please feel free to send me a message here or drop me a line..


Much appreciated.

my son was in Victoria, I think the school is good in doing a structured approach to schooling for Chinese Cantonese and English

I think for pre school right up to primany it is a great place, after that I think the focus is a more learning rich envrion

Hi Bandelero,


Thanks for the reply. However, I am not sure what you mean by 'I think for pre school right up to primany it is a great place, after that I think the focus is a more learning rich environ'. Could you clarify

I used to give private tutoring to Kiangsu&Chekiang students esp. helping improve their Mandarin skills. They have homework and different activities. If parents don't speak Chinese, you may consider find a tutor to help... But it's really good for kids to get Mandarin exposure when s/he is little.

I have experience with RightMind pre-nursery (age 2) and Victoria Kindergarten (ages 2 until 5), and ESF K1. My children will then go onto Victoria Shanghai Academy for their primary and secondary education, which is a Mandarin-English school, teaching IB.


Victoria Kindergarten is great. They are a well-organised school with excellent facilities (I'm speaking specifically about South Horizons campus.)


K3 has a LOT of homework - they teach the kids a lot of stuff because they are primarily helping kids get entry to the top local schools. This homework will decrease at P1 level at the VSA (Victoria Shanghai Academy) because that primary school is more like an international school.


We hire a Mandarin tutor for our K3 and K1 daughters. You definitely need help at K3 level. You can probably get away with trying to work it out by yourself, but you will never be able to read the Chinese books that the younger kids bring home for their parents to read.


I started my eldest in tri-lingual (Canto / Mando / English) but found that this was more geared to local parents who want their kids to learn English with a smattering of Mandarin. Consequently, I thought my daughter didn't learn much in Chinese languages. However, the native English-speaking bilingual students (who do Mando and Eng) seem to have better Mandarin skills.


Consequently, I enrolled my daughter in the bilingual stream for K3. My youngest went to RightMind nursery, which I thought was brilliant (Mando and Eng) and is now at K1 in bilingual stream at Victoria.


I've been very happy with my choice.

My son went through KCS from Nursery/Kindergarten to finish the Primary School (local section).


There was a definite emphasis on mandarin vocabulary and pronunciation during the Nursery stage through to the start of Primary School. After this the teaching in Primary concentrated on written characters.


At the outset the class was mixed between western, Eurasian and Chinese kids. In general the western kids picked up an understanding of mandarin but were reluctant to speak. My understanding is that unless kids see that this is a working language ie. they get to speak outside the classroom, they are hesitant to embrace the language - hence the need for a home tutor if mandarin not spoken at home. Those kids that flourished in mandarin (written and spoken) were those that had help outside the classroom, ideally a parent to practice and guide the child.


The European parents struggled in that the school notices and homework was mainly in Chinese so they were unsure what was going on - but this may now have changed.


The style of teaching is traditionally based in that the school provides the bare bones so the parents need to be proactive in keeping on top of what was happening at the school. There are continuous tests and class rankings so it is quite competitive. This culminates in the final year of Primary as all the kids are trying to get best marks possible to get into good secondary schools. The teachers are, however, very good in terms of communicating with the parents over any concerns they/you might have and adapting lessons or teaching style to get the best from your child.


I found (I'm from UK, my wife Taiwan) KCS to be a great school - very different from my schooling experience - with comparatively higher academic workload but still a positive experience for my son. The piece of advice that cannot be underestimated is the need for a Mandarin tutor/speaker outside of school who the child may need to spend a couple of hours with on a regular basis (possibly daily) which requires a commitment from the parents both financially and with time.