when to apply for school

I'm a new parent and totally lost on when to apply for school. Someone told me as soon as the baby was born and others say a varying amount of times.


I would like to put my kid in a local school to pick up the lingo.


Any ideas or links to other forums?

There are several threads in this and the "Living in Hong Kong" forum.


Don't really know about local schools, but the time is "yesterday" for most international schools. The big exception is ESF where the application period is September of the year before your child is due to start. Note that ESF, Kellett start year 1 the year the child turns 5, while most other schools start at six or have non-calendar year cutoffs.

Before I had kids, I had also heard that you should apply for a school as soon as your baby is born.


Now that I have kids, I realise this is a slight exaggeration!


Like a friend once said to me, you don't need to worry about applying for kindergarten until your child turns 2. And by then, you'll probably be friends with other parents who have kids the same age, and they'll help you along with decisions and timing as well.


If you want to go local, you might want to consider pre-nursery, which starts for 2 year olds. It's not compulsory, but a lot of parents send their kids to pre-nursery because they want to get a place in a good local kindergarten (from age 3). Because if you've been to a good local kindy, then you have a chance to get into a good local primary school, etc etc.


So relax... and then after your child's first birthday, look around for a good kindergarten, or one that feeds into the primary school you want to use. See if they have pre-nursery for 2 year olds. Then the school will tell you WHEN you can apply for your child.

I agree and disagree with Slammy. It really depends on the school. If you want your kid to go to Kellett and you don't have a corporate debenture, apply at birth. If you're perfectly happy with ESF, no hurry.

Yes, I should probably add that my oldest child is only 2 years and a few months... so my experience of schooling is limited to local kindergartens and ESF. Haven't looked at any of the international schools. You can see on the ESF website that they are quite particular about when you can apply.