[anindya]

My family of 4, daughter (7), wife, self and infant (to be born in Oct!) will need to relocate to Hong Kong (from New Delhi) after/ around January, 2005.
We have been advised to look at ESF schools for our daughter's schooling. Now, the questions are:
1. How difficult is it to get admission to ESF schools? Easy/ Difficult/ Impossible.

2. ESF insists that you can apply only when your entire family is fully resident in Hong Kong and you apply to the neighbourhood school. To us this poses a problem as we would ideally like to ensure our daughter gets admitted to a school and then look for housing conveniently located in the vicinity. Have others before me faced the same problem? Any suggestions?

3. ESF has 3 seasons for admissions: September, January and April. The school season in Delhi ends in March and as such I would prefer moving my family in April 2005. Unless of course, January happens to be the season where a large number of vacanacies are created. Can anyone guide me on this?

4. Any ESF (primary) school on HK Island where admission is likely to be easier (larger number of seats)?
Will be grateful for any helpful answers.
Thanks

[Hebe]

Did you try their website? They have all of their group information there. www.esf.edu.hk

[anindya]

Hi,
Yes I did try their website... all the information that I quoted in my post is from there. I also tried their telephone.. the IVR system told me about the 3 seasons of admission.
I saw a post in these pages which said that there is usually a 3 year wait-list for children to get into ESF schools Primary 2 and beyond. Which has got me panicked a bit.
Thanks

[KnowItAll]

>> usually a 3 year wait-list for children to get into ESF schools Primary 2 and beyond

This depends on the school. They usually try and fit you in, in another school.

I would recommend emailing them. They're very responsive.

[Troy]

Anindya

Speak to Jane Shayman(?) at the admissions office of Gleanelly at Midlevels. She was very helpful when I was looking at school options for my daughter. Incidently I had less than a 15 day waiting period ( for P2) so you may want to check up with her fast. In any case, I think even if you cannot be accomodated at a particular school, I think they try to fit your child in someplace else, in my case, they had mentioned the Peak School. Good Luck

[anindya]

Thanks Troy, that WAS very helpful. Let me call Jane Shayman when I am in HK next. In the meantime, let's see how much we can achieve on e-mail as Knowitall suggests.
Thanks again. you are wonderful people.
Anindya