Kiangsu & Chekiang vs. Korean Int. School

Which one would you choose?


We are moving to HK from the UK later this year and we have a choice of sending our daughter (age 5) to one of these school next sept. We are keen for her to learn Mandarin but more importantly, to a school where she will have space to be creative and think for herself.


I grew up in HK and went to a traditional school, 40 to a class, lots of homework and very strict teachers. The last thing I want for her is that learning environment. My wife is from the UK and my daughter has English as her first language and she speaks some Cantonese. She is a reserved child and I feel a small class/ interactive environment would be best suited for her


Does any one have experience with these schools, any advice would be much appreciated.


Thanks

Not sure about Korean Int. but my son attends KCS. There is the local and international sides. My son attends the local side and it is very traditional and quite tough, however my son speaks fluent manarin and reads and writes chinese. The international side, which I assume you are looking at, conducts lessons in English with only limited time spent on learning mandarin. If you objective is to learn mandarin she would need some extra tuition.

My three children attend Rosaryhill primary school on Stubbs Road. We are delighted with the school and our children are very happy to date. The school has high academic expectations. There is quite some commitment to homework. They learn Chinese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish. My childrens' first language is English. The class sizes are small and the children are streamed according to their abilities.

I find the school allows the children to express their personalities and creativity. The level and methods of discipline are appropriate, and the children attending, appear to be well balanced individuals and well behaved.

We are really grateful to have this opportunity for our children to attend, what seems to us, to be a wonderful school.

As Topol said, K&C is two very different schools. The local stream is excellent for Mandarin but not for 'space, creativity and free thinking'.

Korean Int'l - I don't know much about except that it's not as popular as some others.

HTH!

Thank you for your replies.

It will be the international section that she will be attending at the K&C,

Are there any current parents who can share their experience?

Many thanks!

My son goes to KCIS and is 4. The Mandarin level at KCIS is OK - it's hard to determine how much to push them at this young age but they do one Mandarin class each day and he does get Mandarin homework.


Definitely KCIS is more relaxed than KCS and is perhaps more able to give kids the option to be a little more creative, however, I don't think you'd find it as open and carefree as a school back in the UK.


The great thing is that KCIS does follow the British National Curriculum, so in the event you do ever move back to the UK your daughter would be able to easily fit back in the school system there.


I'd also look into ESF and some of the other International Schools (eg. HKIS, Canadian Intl School etc) as a comparison.


I'd also start applying if you haven't already done so. It's now extremely difficult to get into KCIS and there's a wait list of 400 students. They use to accept on first come first serve basis but I believe they are now looking at accepting based on interviews. One good thing about KCIS (and I hope it doesn't change) is that it's a through train school so your daughter can go on to Primary & High School without changing schools. Given the tough situation alot of parents are put into at every entrance year (for Primary or High School), this is quite important if you can be guaranteed to go all the way through the school system.