International Christian School

Anyone with kids in Kindergarten or early Elementary at ICS? How is it? How much homework do the kids have? How often do they learn Putonghua? Any other comments?

Where is this ICS school?

Fotan, Hong Kong.

My 3 year old just started ICS kindergarten 2 months ago and the kindergarten and elementary sections are in Fotan, New Territories. The school is in the shopping center (Jubliee Court) near KCR Fotan station. The current facility seems far from satisfaction since it's in the shopping center and it is kinda "old". They've just taken up the construction of a new school building which will be completed in 2007 near KCR Shek Mun station. ICS is, at the moment, a purely English-speaking Kindergarten, which seems a bit unususal, while more international kindergartens offer Chinese lesson in their curriculum these days. The school, however, opens after-school mandarin class at cheaper rate (about $100/hour) from 4 years old. My daughter is in K1 and there's no homework at all. I am not sure about K2 and Pre-Grade 1, but there shouldn't be a heavy load of homework at either grade which could eat up much time of the children after school. They teach the children with lots of emphasis on Christianity. The children learn stories from Bible and songs to praise the God. Personally, neither my husband or I am a christian, but I've been so impressed with the way they teach and what they teach. I'm very much happy with the school. The teachers do treat the children with "love and respect". As I've had a chance to be in the class as a volunteer helper, I've seen the teachers treat them equally. Some seem a bit naughty, restless, grumpy and difficult to work with other kids, but the teachers are always trying their best to teach each of them how important and special they are and the God is always watching their good behavior. At first, I assumed that the school would emphasize the academic achievement even at kindergarten level, but they are actually focusing more on discipline. My child loves to go to school and she often says, "I can do good things." She seems more proud of herself since she joined ICS. Hope that helps to give you a glance of the school.

Thanks Caty, that is really useful. Do you know anything about the new school building facilities?

you can check out their website. www.ics.edu.hk

Yes, I have, I wanted more information.

They had the drawing of the new school building up in the school website before but now it's been deleted. The new building is supposed to accommodate the students from Pre-Grade 1 to G12. Most likely, the kindergarten section will remain in the current building. But not yet officially announced. They've just done the groundbreaking work recently. The campus will have Chapel, Science labs, Swimming pool, Two llibraries, Cafeteria, Gymnasia and Wired campus and some more features. The site is right next to the expressway at the back of Shek Mun station.

Thanks caty, so good facilities then? Although next to an expressway doesn't sound good, but then I guess the air quality everywhere is terrible.

Oh, yes. It looks really fancy. I know your concern about the environment, and that's what I thought as well. But that expressway normally gets jammed only for a few hours in the morning heading for the tunnel. So it won't be as bad as, for example, waterloo road in Kowloon which is always heavy in traffic with many "good" schools along.