Victoria Shanghai Academy v. ESF

While I have no knowledge or experience with either school I had a somewhat similar predicament when it came to choosing a curriculum for my children. I am western and my husband is asian. I hear a lot criticism of the various asian school curricula from my friends from the west, particularly in concern to rote learning and time spent studying. However having put more than one child through such a system, I now have 2 at university 2 pre university, I can honestly say I believe rote teaching/learning has a place in education that the west may have overlooked. In particular when it come to languages with intricate script and math. I believe if the basics are hammered into you, your reasoning skills have a better foundation to be enhanced as they develop. In saying this what I found lacking in my childrens schooling was research skills and encouragement in the value of personal opinion. For me it was easier to encourage these skills at home than it would have been to teach what they gained from going through the school system they did. I am to this day glad we sent my children through the system we did. Hope this helps.

Thanks for your reply. I'm kinda leaning towards Victoria at the moment... if we could get a place!

I know this is an old threat I have resurrected but I'd be really interested in what decision Slammy you finally made for your child in VSA -v- ESF. I now have this decision to make and would be interested to hear more views on VSA -v- ESF for Primary school. My child already attends Victoria kindy and whilst we are a western family, I really love it and I'm so glad we made this decision. At 4 he now speak mandarin quite fluently and compared to his friends who attended schools like Sunshine House / Woodlands etc (non-local), he is streets ahead purely because of the mandarin immersion he has had at victoria. He also had a wonderful mandarin teacher at Victoria for K1 and K2. Anyone wil comments / reviews on this subject, would love to hear from.

Hi there, My oldest is the same age as yours so I'm now facing this decision, so I can't impart any extra wisdom about VSA! We are still leaning towards VSA because of the Chinese-language teaching. ESF only teach about 45 minutes a day of Mandarin and some ESF parents have expressed their disappointment to me about the Mandarin-ability of their kids. Like many parents say... if you want to change your mind later, it's easier to move the kid from a local school to ESF (if a place is available) rather than vice-versa. Good luck with your application!

With the change in the ESF admissions policy, IF your child has is not enrolled in an ESF kindy by 2013/14, they will no longer earn priority for admission into an ESF primary school anyway. So, a Victoria kindergarten makes more sense. As Slammy said, a bilingual child can always move into an ESF school, but it doesn't work the other way around. Also, if VSA is your absolute #1 choice, they are introducing a debenture for entry into 2014/15 and thereafter. For $500,000 (refundable), you'd almost be guaranteed entry. Same applies to ESF with their Nomination Rights Scheme. Many parents are disappointed with the Mandarin at ESF but, to be fair, they have never pretended to offer anything other than some CSL classes. You don't go to an ESF school for the Mandarin. Hope that helps.

Hi, Just to clarify, the debenture is no guarantee to get in the school though. Like other schools, VSA says on their website that buying the debenture would give you priority for an interview only and no guarantee of a place. It's also not compulsory for every student, ie, you don't have to buy a debenture to go to the school.

Thanks for all the replies and also the clarification from Slammy about the debenture which I understood was the case. We now have recevied a place at ESF but still want to pursue VSA. Unfortunately VSA dont offer places until May, whereas ESF confirmation has to be completed by April. Therefore, really interested to hear from others as to experiences with VSA? I'm interested as to what sports the kids do at VSA. From my tour of VSA, I noticed none of the sports had winning teams, always 2nd and 3rd places. Do they compete with other schools etc. How will a western child survive in the playground if the language is mainly cantonese? Although I worried about mandarin going into kindy and later found my child just worked with the language and loves it now! Any other comments, particularly from point of view of western kids in VSA, would be most appreciated.

Hi. I'm in a similar position re Victoria vs ESF, but for K1. My daughter has fortunately got offers for both and we are having a tough time deciding which one to go for. Victoria actually needs to have a deposit paid up by tomorrow so need to make our decision very very soon :) We only speak English at home and we like Victoria for the Chinese and think it will offer a good grounding of Chinese to our daughter. However, I think ultimately we want our daughter to go ESF primary as its more in line with the UK making it easier if we ever move back to the UK. So now we are faced with either choosing ESF kindly so she can get priority into primary (the last year before they change this priority) or going to Victoria and then hoping we will get a space at ESF primary. In addition, ESF offer sibling priority which will be good for my younger son (born dragon year so expect competition to be fierce). Does anyone also know how hard it is to get into VSA if you are already in their kindy? - I hear the interview is in both English and Mandarin. We don't speak Mandarin at all so wonder whether we would be able to support her through VSA.

Hopefully my reply is not too late. If you go to ESF Kindy you will no longer have priority to go to ESF school. Personally I like Victoria Kindy better and I have experience with both. Regarding mandarin, as long as your child is fluent in English, you should be fine to get into VSA. What decision did you make?

Hi, Attended an information session at VSA last night. Some information: Previously, only Victoria Kindergarten students could apply for VSA but this year they opened it up to outside applicants. In 2011, there were 300+ applicants. In 2012, there were 500+, and this year, there were 800+ applicants for 168 school places. There are no plans to increase the number of P1 places. First interview is for the kids, in a group situation, such as reading them a story in English and Mandarin and asking them questions about it. And then seeing how they interact with each other. All applicants will be interviewed. Second interview is with the parents and this is only for those whose children passed the first interview. They want to know if the parents share the same philosophy as the school. Debenture will not give you priority for an interview. Attendance at Vic. kindergartens will, and having a sibling will allow your child to have a second interview six months later if their first is not successful. A debenture will give your child priority for admission if the child has passed the interview and there are other children at the same level - then they will admit those who hold a debenture. It would seem if you want your child to gain entry to VSA, make sure they are proficient in either English or Mandarin!

Don't know anything about Victoria but if smycheung's daughter is starting K1 at ESF kindy this year, she will still have priority for interview to get into ESF Primary - the last group to have this priority. Since ESF is her preferred primary school, ESF kindy might be a better choice for her.

Hi, We are going through the same and would love to know more from parents on VSA vs ESF. In particular, is English standard at VSA good enough given that mostly students are from HK and Cantonese speaking. Furthermore, if they speak Cantonese in the playgrounds, etc. how good is their Mandarin. We want to choose VSA mainly to get our child to learn Mandarin (in a school that is not so "local" or strict, and yet an IB school). But at the same time, we want to ensure that we do not jeopardize our child's English. And we definitely do not want him to be confused with Mandarin and Cantonese (informal language at school), and end up not even learning decent Mandarin. Any thoughts on this? Would greatly appreciate other parents views...