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IMS or KCIS?

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    IMS or KCIS?

    Hi All,

    My son received offers from these 2 schools, and I'd like to get some inputs on them, to see which one will be more suitable for him. He's currently 5yo, so it'd be an entry to Casa/Prep year - which then continue to Primary years.

    A bit of background about us:
    - We moved to HK from Australia. Plan to stay until at least the time when my son finishes Primary years (7 years from now), or maybe longer, then back to Australia - but this may change if our work situation changes.
    - We speak English at home. My son could only speak English now plus few Mandarin words from summer class.
    - Both my husband & I were South East Asian born Chinese. But had lived in Australia for a while. Husband can speak & write Chinese, I can only speak basic Mandarin.

    One of our wishes moving to HK (aside from better work offer) is to expose my son's to Chinese culture and be able to learn Mandarin easier. But we'd prefer to send him to Intl school as our longer term plan is to eventually move back to Australia and as mentioned before, work may bring us back to Australia sooner than planned - so it'd be easier for my son's to adopt back if he goes to English medium school in HK.

    The pros and cons of the above choices - as I see it - are below. Wonder if anyone with info (or better - with kids in these schools) could provide some inputs on them?

    IMS
    + more explorationary learning with montessori system
    + full immersion - all classes were thought by 2 teachers: english & mandarin speaking
    - not to sure how easy to later on move from montessori system to normal schooling?
    - not sure how well the full immersion works?
    - more expensive school fee

    KCIS
    + more established school with track record of mandarin teaching
    + cheaper school fee (around 1/2 of IMS)
    - heard it's rote learning?
    - mandarin will be taught as a 2nd language only: 40-60 mins a day, will this be enough?


    Many thanks All.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Happy Valley
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    I cant comment on IMS but can comment on KCIS.
    - there is not a lot of Mandarin. Its an english school with a small Mandarin component. If Chinese is important to you then IMS will probably be more suitable.
    - it is *NOT* rote learning. That belongs to their sister school (KCS).

    If you are going to be here for 7 years and maybe more, you should really consider giving your child some Cantonese exposure as well.


  3. #3

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    Mar 2012
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    6

    IMS is primarily an English medium school as well. They do have an English speaking teacher and a Mandarin speaking teacher in each class, but the English speaking teacher is the main instructor and most of the kids are expat kids who really can't converse in Mandarin. Also, keep in mind that montessori curiculum is very different from traditional school.


  4. #4

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    Aug 2012
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    Howardcoombs & Blueblue - thanks for the info. Seems like neither school will produce truly bilingual children. Just wonder which international school is more likely to do this?

    Howardcoombs - I'm thinking of some Cantonese exposure too, for both myself and my son. Had seen ads for adults classes, but hasn't seen any for kids. Is there any of these classes around?

    Blueblue - yes, we're aware that montessori curriculum is different from a normal school. The IMS lady said in open house that the learning is benchmark against normal school curriculum every year, so will not be an issue, but I'm interested to hear from parents if transition to normal school will be easy later on. Does your child go to IMS?


  5. #5

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    ISF, CIS, YCIS all offer immersion level Mandarin and produce fully bilingual kids.

    BritOzMum likes this.

  6. #6

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    Aug 2012
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    Thanks Howard.

    We did apply to CIS and ISF, but didn't even get an interview
    YCIS is not in our consideration as don't want my son to spend too much time in traveling (on top of the full day school and homework).

    You mentioned not a lot of Mandarin in KCIS, is it just 'very lightweight' or is it something quite substantial but 1 or 2 year behind KCS standard? Thanks.


  7. #7

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    Oct 2008
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    Happy Valley
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    The mandarin in KCIS is available at 3 levels. The students are broken into 3 groups: native, good and basic depending on their level and their home environment. However, no matter what the level they only get around 1hour per day which is not really enough for fluency.

    It cannot really compare with KCS which is mostly Mandarin with only 1h of English per day.

    kristaje likes this.

  8. #8

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    Aug 2012
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    Thanks Howard for the detail explanation. That really helps.


  9. #9

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    Jan 2005
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    Hong Kong
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    Exclamation

    Quote Originally Posted by Blueblue
    IMS is primarily an English medium school as well. They do have an English speaking teacher and a Mandarin speaking teacher in each class, but the English speaking teacher is the main instructor and most of the kids are expat kids who really can't converse in Mandarin. Also, keep in mind that montessori curiculum is very different from traditional school.
    This reply would indicate Bluebird doesn't have a child in IMS.

    The level of Putonghua is high in IMS.

    My daughters studied in IMS from Casa and are now in ELementary. They speak fluent Putonghua and are learning to read and write (a lot!). I've been told they speak proper Putonghua (with no accent).

    We have a friend who left IMS Casa to go to ISF, she said her son's Putonghua is intensive but the ENglish and Mathematics is far behind Montessori. (they were learning more in the Casa years at IMS than they are learning in the Primary years now at ISF)

    Something to bear in mind.

    I hope kristaje asked around and didn't just base your conclusion on this thread!

  10. #10

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    Aug 2012
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    Hi somebodyfamous,

    Thanks for your reply.

    My son is in IMS Casa now, and we are very happy with how much he learns everyday. It's amazing really.

    The putonghua (pth) level is indeed very high. I attended the primary introduction session (as my son is moving to primary next year) few weeks back. The session included visit to the classrooms running at the time and I was very impressed with the level of pth displayed by the kids, both in the 1st and 2nd streams.

    Just an fyi to other parents considering IMS, in primary years the kids are streamed into 2 streams for their pth classes:

    (1) native learning, which uses the local chinese textbooks of the SAME YEAR! I was very surprised to see this, especially when told that 70% of kids that had gone through 3y of Casa at IMS will go to this stream! Indeed during my visit, many of the kids in the stream 1 classroom were foreigner with no pth-speaking parents.

    (2) pth as 2nd language, this stream is further split into 8 levels of competencies, to cater for kids with early to advance pth levels. I asked about possibility of kids from this stream to continue to other international school with heavier chinese focus (ie. CIS, KCIS, SIS, ISF) and was told that their graduates from this stream went to those schools with no problem, except for ISF - as they haven't had a graduate continuing there.


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