[canuckinhk]

Originally Posted by jayinhongkong

Have friends who went to Canadian International School, but lookin at how they turned out, the ESF might well be your best bet.

just curious... what problems do you see with your CDNIS friends?

[blackbird]

No offense or anything...GSIS is a school full of spoilt kids...i, personally have met some of them..they are seriously cocky..and very proud of themselves. and, i know some year 8's and 9's..who go clubbing out in Lan Kwai fong or whereevr. However,it is a school with a lot of extra curricular activities and highly motivated. From sports to arts, GSIS is definitely one of the top in HK.

I think Kennedy School is the most preferable choice. It is a truly safe and solid bet. Good school with good teachers.

I'm only a 14 year old stuying at KGV (King Geroge the Fifth)
i'm making a comment from past experiences =]

William

[jayinhongkong]

lol...well, the only CIS kids I know are pretty far out...but their parents don't seem to mind. Don't really wanna get into details, but yeah, they're a 'special breed', but then again, I only know 3 of em.

[sharonwong]

thanks for the insights. i guess avoiding the issue of "drugs" is inevitable too. it happens in the states too. i wonder as a parent how much of it can be avoided.

ESF school maybe the better choice at the moment.

I think it's difficult to say "X school is like this blabla.." because there are lots of different types of ppl in every school. And when you're actually in the school, you don't really care about who's on drugs or whatever..it only affects you if you want it to really..all intl schools have drug problems anyway.

I went to Island School and I did really enjoy it. I definitely think it's a friendly place..more so towards the upper years. Some of the lower yr kids are pretty stuck up but I think that's just general immaturity. And you do get yr 8s and 9s going to Wanchai to get drunk on Friday nights which is just wrong. There are lots of hard-working people..lots of rich ppl with drivers etc..quite a lot of ppl who transferred from local schools..I think that ppl whose families focus on academic studies do really well regardless of which intl school they goto so you wouldn't have to worry there. Apart from a few exceptions, I think people are down to earth and very normal in IS.

[sharonwong]

i believe that if the family unit is tight and the mother or caretaker is very attentive and the kids get lots of love and were taught what is right and wrong, the risks are lower for drug abuse and other social problems. it's not easy to bring kids up these days with so much material, privileges, and money. i guess all schools have similar problems whether local or international. i just hope i will be capable of handling problems once arise.

[thayet]

ESF schools are good, I go to KGV myself,.(Year 13, last year) Personally I think the ESF schools are better as the university acceptance rate are almost 98% (and no, not all of us are snobbish people). Every school will have snobbish kids, but not all of us are like that

[rausch]

Originally Posted by thayet

ESF schools are good, I go to KGV myself,.(Year 13, last year) Personally I think the ESF schools are better as the university acceptance rate are almost 98% (and no, not all of us are snobbish people). Every school will have snobbish kids, but not all of us are like that

I go to GSIS (year 13) and I do think international schools are better. Personally, I think loads of ESF students are stuck up and a lot of them lack basic knowledge, which kind of shocked me. I guess people like GSIS because of the excellent academic offer and because not everyone at our school is cocky or spoilt, in fact, its the other way around. Despite many having wealthy parents, the kids are quite natural and NOT stuck up.I can say this because I've been in an 'Elite' boarding school(full of royalty and company bosses' kids) in Germany and I know how stuck up rich kids can be. It's definitely not the case at GSIS.
As to acceptance rates (A-Levels;see quote) this only goes for the UK and the US.
IB and Abitur (the German version of A-Levels, much tougher though) are accepted worldwide and are a lot more acknowledged.

[sharonwong]

thank you rausch and thayet for your insights. since you are students i'm sure your comments are true and well observed. now my other question is :times have changed. would you know from either your past experiences or your observations with your siblings and friends, how willing are the students attending let's say gsis or other international schools primary grades going further distances for playdates so forth. since students come from all over the island.

i think that the advantage of esf schools is that the children are bound to live in the neighborhood if not in the same complex and therefore classmates turning into after school buddies are more likely.

anyone else's comments are welcomed?

thank you

Originally Posted by sharonwong

i think that the advantage of esf schools is that the children are bound to live in the neighborhood if not in the same complex and therefore classmates turning into after school buddies are more likely.

anyone else's comments are welcomed?

thank you

Actually I live out of the zone for Island School and I was there for 7 years. Even though all my friends lived in Mid-levels and i was on the eastern side, it doesn't make a difference at all really