Good schools in Sai Kung / Clearwater Bay for 1.5 year old

My boy is about 18 month old. We are looking for a good playschool or nursery for him around Clearwater Bay or Sai Kung area. We have checked out Sunshine, Woodlands, Garden House and SKIP so far. For me, Sunshine and Woodlands are the traditional schools with a structured curriculum and something I am quite comfortable with. SKIP on the other hand is completely unstructured and the entire session is basically 'free play'. Garden House is a mix of both.

Any advice on which of these 4 will be the best for my child or any other suggestions? Selecting the right school is indeed mind boggling.

Hi espz,


Wondering if you've made the decision which school you're going with for your little boy. Currently we are considering Woodlands or Sunshine House. Our girl is at the same age as your boy. Do you know whether any of the school has the connection/relationship with ESF school. Appreciate your opinion. Thanks!

Thanks Cara. What is your opinion on Woodlands Sai Kung and Sunshine House Clearwater Bay?

Hi Petebern,

My son first attended Sunshine House for about 3 months only and we switched to Woodlands since August last year. We (and several other parents) did not like the teacher - she was not engaging and in fact seem quite "lazy" and disinterested in the kids. My son was bored and so was I and even my helper. At Woodlands, the school is much bigger and they even have an outdoor area. My son has been attending Woodlands for the past 6 months. We have just stopped and will start Garden House tomorrow in fact. We had initially wanted our son to have the "traditional" method of teaching and thought that either Sunshine or Woodlands could offer that. But after several months of observation, we, along with other parents noticed that there is really not much going on at school. Their 1.5 hours is split as follows - 15 minutes playtime where the kids basically play by themselves with teachers just standing there looking. Not even involved in the play. After, the teacher will announce it's cleanup time and everyone packs their toys away. Then the kids walk to their respective classroom and gets settled down (5 mins gone). Then it's circle time and everyone introduces themselves (another 5 mins gone after 10 kids or more). Then each child has to walk up to the front to paste a star on the tree. And depending on the theme for that month - usually Colors, the teacher will show the kids different objects of that particular color. (10 mins gone). After it's Art and Painting time - again the children are given the different tools to do their artwork by themselves with mum or helper. Teacher again is rarely involved. Just observing .... On rare occasions, the teacher will go to only 1 - 2 child and spend half a minute with him / her. (15 minutes gone). Then everyone washes their hands and it's snack time where teacher dishes out the snacks and drinks to each child without even describing what they are eating that day, whether they are enjoying their meal etc. (15 minutes gone). Then everyone clears up and gathers around for either 1 short story or 1 song that lasts for about a minute and then it's time to say goodbye. It was fine for us for a couple of months but after 6 months, we decided it was ridiculous to pay $5000/ month for this. We thought by opting for the Traditional method of teaching, there would be some form of curriculum but there is none. Nor is there real interaction between the teacher and each child. As this mum complaint to me the other day - "my son who has just turned 2 can count from 1-25 but the school taught him nothing". Actually same for my son - he knows all his alphabets, understands almost everything you ask him, knows the names of many different objects, animals,

where he stays, even mum and dad's name. But we (and our helper) taught him all these. Nothing from the school. Many of my friends have raised similar concerns like mine so we really don't know which school would offer some form of curriculum so our toddlers aged between 2 - 3 years old can have some form of formal lessons be it singing, reading, learning alphabets, numbers etc. Since he's not learning much from the traditional schools, we have decided to let him try Garden House where the emphasis is to learn through play (baking, gardening, sewing, singing, dancing etc)and the classes are small with 2 teachers. So we hope that there will be more interaction and attention given to each child.

Hi I just wanted to say that I love Sunshine house and my daughter points at it every time we drive past and wants to go to school. The day is structured but I felt that it was a lot of fun and that my daughter learn't a lot. I also notice that how involved either the accompanying parent or helper is massively affects how much the child learns if their helper/mum doesn't join in neither will they. My daughter now attends Monday, Wednesday and Friday unaccompanied in the bilingual class, we made this decision when my husband came home from work one day whilst an older girl also at sunshine house in the year above was at ours she was able to have a conversation with him in Mandarin, there are no Mandarin speakers in her household she only learns it at school.

I also attend SKIP with my daughter and its fab a great place to meet like minded parents get the kids to socialize and really spark their imagination.

We did a stint at garden house their ethos is different they do not put an emphasis on reading and writing more on imaginative play but it is quite structured, the classrooms are large and spacious and the teachers very friendly, we did immersion Mandarin there and my daughter definitely learnt a lot. The only reason I chose sunshine house over them was my daughters love of sunshine house, I liked both. But like Cara I definitely think that checking out the local school system would be valuable for our kids and have applied to Lok Yuk for next year.