German Swiss International School

Hi


Appreciate if anyone can share feedback on the German Swiss International School?

Personally we had quite a few issues with the school, it wasn't for us and we took our kids out after 2 years.

So now your children are in which school?

We moved them both to ESF where they were instantly much happier, and achieving much better results.

I heard exactly the same thing from a friend of mine. Her daughter too went to GSIS but it didnt work out and she goes to ESF and they both are very happy with the change.

Hi everyone, if you don't mind my asking, could you please elaborate the cases a bit more? To tell the truth, we are thinking of which schools to send our child to and German Swiss is one of our choices as they offered the place for her in this coming Aug. Thank you for sharing!

Hi everyone, if you don't mind my asking, could you please elaborate the cases a bit more? To tell the truth, we are thinking of which schools to send our child to and German Swiss is one of our choices as they offered the place for her in this coming Aug. Thank you for sharing!

Basically they pushed the kids too hard for our liking, my son joined in p2, he was getting 2 hours of homework a night, and having to redo it many times because his borders were not neat enough. Far too much for a 7 year old. I also found the kids had trouble bonding very well due to the lack of lunch break in primary. They didn't have much time together outside the classroom environment. My daughter joined in F1 in Secondary. In 2 years she went from being an extremely confident, very high graded student, to getting E's in some subjects, And despite many letters and e-mails trying to talk to the teachers, even the head we were getting no where. We got the impression that if you were a straight A student then great, but if you weren't then they didn't want to spend the time with you. So those things compounded with the cost of travel, and high cost of the school made the decision to switch to ESF easy. (where my daughter went on to get 8A's and 2 B's in her GCSE's). Socially it was hard too, we lived Kowloon side, and nobody on HK side was ever willing to come over to the 'dark side', I would always have to take my son to them for playdates, my daughter would always have to go to HK side to meet friends. When she started at KGV one of her first comments was that "the kids there were much more like her', and that although she had enjoyed GSIS while she was there,now she had left she could see all the problems with it. And the teacher on my sons first day at CWBS said it was amazing how well he had settled in straight away, and that it was good that he knew so many people, I told her that actually he didn't know anyone, she couldn't believe it. Neither of them really kept in touch with any friends they made in GSIS which I think is quite telling. I'm not saying that GSIS is not a good school, its has a very good and strong reputation, but for ourselves and our children it just didn't work.

Thanks a lot for your sharing, cd. This is actually the first sort of negative comment towards German Swiss as I don't know many parents/kids from this school and all I've known are normally raving about it. The bonding issue is kind of expected to me to happen as they spend, not "less time", but in a different way from other schools. But what about after-school activities? Did your son join any class after school? May I ask a bit more? What about parents' involvement and relationship with the school? Did you feel comfortable in communication with the school?

Hi,


Whilst we personally have never considered sending our kids there, I do have a couple of friends who were considering it for theirs. Both of them were actually offered places at the school btu turned them down after watching what their kids went through at the interview! They are both now going to ESF schools and are much happier.

sammy, s, that's interesting to hear. did those children have the places even before the interviews? are they German/Swiss/Austria citizens? How could the school actually break the news to the parents that they had second thought and wouldn't take the kids in???

We decided against GSIS when we moved to HK because of feedback similar to that of cd's above. We were afraid that our children would lose out on extra-curricular time etc. due to the academic pressure. We chose another International School (not ESF) with a fantastic atmosphere.


We soon realised that we had made a mistake as we noticed that the academics in the other school were average at best and that our children would really struggle to catch up if we ever moved home, so we switched to GSIS. We could npt be happier with the school. I must caveat this with the fact that we have very limited experience of the school, and we realise that so much is down the teacher that your child has in a given year. To say that ours had blossomed academically and socially is a huge understatement. The teacher is amazing and unbelievably dedicated. We do live on HK island, so have not encountered the playdate issues that cd had problems with. Because the primary school classes finish so early, there's plenty of time for my wife to bring the children to swimming, tennis etc.


There is as much parental involvement as you want. There is a roster of parents who come in on a weekly basis to work with small groups of children. Parents help to organise festivals etc. throughout the year. As with most schools, there is a class Mum in each class and a parental liason with the management committee, in addition to a 'Mother's Committee' that runs the school shop, fundraising events etc. Obviously, they are happy for as many parents as possible to help out with day trips etc. (at least that is the case with the younger ones).


There is an excellent programme of after school activities that includes everything from Mandarin classes to art to gymnastics, swimming and horse riding. This is more limited at the junior levels and develops as the children get older.


My major issue with the school is the lack of Mandarin teaching. It seems such a shame to live here and not learn Chinese at any meaningful level. They do not start until the children are about 8, which in my view is very late. As a result, many of the children do Putonghua after school, but at least the school hours allow for that. A minor point is that wed prefer the children to wear uniforms, but they seem to love wearing their own clothes (apart from PE).


All in all, there is no perfect school for every child, but so far this is as close to perfect as we'll ever find in HK for ours.

thank you for all the feedback. I am considering to apply for the school for my son for his kindergarden. Anyone who can share the interview experience would be most appreciated.

I also want to thank all of your sharing. Although each of us has different impressions/views/experiences with German Swiss, and none of the schools are perfect for all, we are very much inclined to take the offer from German Swiss this time. Especially our child has been found gifted and is very strong in language and math, we now have a gut feeling that German Swiss is the one which meets her needs. Again, thank you all!

Hi,


Sorry. Think I may have been a bit confusing in my previous comment. The school did not reject them, they rejected the school. Following the interview they both decided that they did not think the school was quite what they wanted for their kids abd declined the positions they were offered.