GSIS Year 1 Assessment

Has anyone been to GSIS's Year 1 assessment in January? We are scheduled for February. Appreciate if you could share your experience if you have been to the January session. Thank you.

Or if anyone has any experience with year 1 assessment at GSIS in the past, we are happy to have your sharing as well. Many thanks.

Patricia

Hi Patricia,

I have more than a passing familiarity with the interviews for Y1 at GSIS. Not sure what specific advice you would be looking for, but in general I would certainly be recommending to anyone that first and foremost they be choosing the right school for their child -- sometimes we can get caught up in trying so hard to help them pass that we forget that the school has to "pass" too. For example, in the case of GSIS, make sure the eventual combination of mandatory German and Mandarin is right for your family.

As you may know GSIS may be moving to Ma On Shan on a temporary basis. This move may suit your location or not...

The interview itself, which I am sure the school's admission office will freely tell you, entails taking a group of about 8 students to sit down with a group of teachers for an hour or so. As a parent you will wait and be given a 'talk' on the school by the Admissions staff and perhaps a member of school management.

During this time the children will be observed playing and interacting with other children while they play with some provided toys, and will be taken in turn to do some activities with the teachers: identifying letter names, sounds and possibly some words that begin with that sound; number concepts including counting forwards and backwards, before and after, etc; and some discussion intended to determine the child's level of English, which the school requires to be "equivalent to that of a native speaker".

Most of the academic content of the interview is certainly taught by Kindergarten programmes throughout Hong Kong, so if your child has picked up on this they should do well on these aspects.

Why children do not pass: My understanding (such that it is) is that children may not pass due to 1) non-native speaker equivalency, 2) readiness issues -- more common in May, June, July and August birthdays -- the youngest in GSIS's cut-off dates, 3) lack of age-appropriate academic knowledge 4) Potential presence of a special need that the school cannot service.

Some of this is just surmising but I hope it is helpful... I think most children just view such school interviews as a chance to visit a new school and to talk about themselves. My guess is that "over-preparation" or training will come across to interviewers as just that, and will likely make a child more nervous than prepared, and an interviewing teacher feel awkward, and ultimately stand in their way of getting to know the "real" child...

hmm,

Thank you for your feedback. Yes, we are aware of the move. GSIS is one of the schools we applied to. We will decide once we have offers from all of the school.

we are not trying to prepare for the interview. However, we heard GSIS's notoriously difficult and the fail rate is quite high.

Is your child currently attending GSIS? If so how do you like the school?

Originally Posted by hmm

Hi Patricia,

I have more than a passing familiarity with the interviews for Y1 at GSIS. Not sure what specific advice you would be looking for, but in general I would certainly be recommending to anyone that first and foremost they be choosing the right school for their child -- sometimes we can get caught up in trying so hard to help them pass that we forget that the school has to "pass" too. For example, in the case of GSIS, make sure the eventual combination of mandatory German and Mandarin is right for your family.

As you may know GSIS may be moving to Ma On Shan on a temporary basis. This move may suit your location or not...

The interview itself, which I am sure the school's admission office will freely tell you, entails taking a group of about 8 students to sit down with a group of teachers for an hour or so. As a parent you will wait and be given a 'talk' on the school by the Admissions staff and perhaps a member of school management.

During this time the children will be observed playing and interacting with other children while they play with some provided toys, and will be taken in turn to do some activities with the teachers: identifying letter names, sounds and possibly some words that begin with that sound; number concepts including counting forwards and backwards, before and after, etc; and some discussion intended to determine the child's level of English, which the school requires to be "equivalent to that of a native speaker".

Most of the academic content of the interview is certainly taught by Kindergarten programmes throughout Hong Kong, so if your child has picked up on this they should do well on these aspects.

Why children do not pass: My understanding (such that it is) is that children may not pass due to 1) non-native speaker equivalency, 2) readiness issues -- more common in May, June, July and August birthdays -- the youngest in GSIS's cut-off dates, 3) lack of age-appropriate academic knowledge 4) Potential presence of a special need that the school cannot service.

Some of this is just surmising but I hope it is helpful... I think most children just view such school interviews as a chance to visit a new school and to talk about themselves. My guess is that "over-preparation" or training will come across to interviewers as just that, and will likely make a child more nervous than prepared, and an interviewing teacher feel awkward, and ultimately stand in their way of getting to know the "real" child...

Our child goes to the GSIS I would rank the school very highly in what they do from a teaching point of view and our daughter has done well there and fits in perfectly. When it comes to the board of the school that is a different story but I will not go in to that here. I am sure that you have seen the discussions going on in respect to the board and the move to Ma On Shan with the temporary it could be longer 4 year move.

Re the interview it is traumatic for some kids and certain children are coached to make sure they do things the GSIS way. Not a relaxed situation to say the least. I agree with Hmmm it is you that are interviewing the school and not the school that is interviewing you.

Some one sent me pictures of where the new French elementary school is going to be and they look fantastic.

Thank you genome. We also applied to the French school but their waiting list is very long. It's amazing that if a child does not enter at reception, it's almost impossible to get a place.

That's one of the reasons why we have not considered the location yet. There seems to be a lot of applicants competing for small number of spaces everywhere. Getting into a school is our goal right now.

I read your other thread about the school move. When does the board have to make the final decision?

The GSIS needs to sign a lease supposedly by the end of March. I am hearing though that there are spaces in Peak School, Bradbury, HKIS, Kellett if they have a sibling in the school. There also does seem to be a large number of families leaving Hong Kong. I am sure you will be able to get a place.

genome,

Thanks for the heads up. Will definitely check on Kellett and HKIS. GSIS told us that they haven't had any families leaving the school (is it true, though?) Their space is still based on the number of students in Year 1 - K2 students. And their K2 is still at full capacity at the moment so they don't expect any more spaces becoming available. The french school has no space at all because there is no student leaving Reception.

that sounds really strange to me re gsis in that just in my daughters year alone in the last twelve months 12 children have left the school and eight of those were as a direct consequence of Ma On Shan so not sure who is letting you know that there were no spaces. When did they say they were full?

This is what I am told about Year 1. Is your daughter in year 1?

My daughter is not in year one. It may be worth double checking with the school in that there were instances where the administrator was not telling prospective parents about the move to Ma On Shan when it was well known that it was being spoken about. Could be worthwhile asking how many students they expect to leave and to work it back from there.