Batgung

So far in this series of articles about primary school choice, I've outlined the basics of the primary school application process in Hong Kong, and set out a timeline to help parents plan. But I've said very little about what parents should actually look for in a school, so that’s the precise purpose here. Read more »

In the previous article in this series on primary school applications in Hong Kong, I sketched out the boundaries of the local school choice battlefield, introducing the basic types of local Hong Kong schools, and how they go about admitting students. Read more »

Today I’m kicking off a longish (okay: practically endless) series on the primary school application process here in Hong Kong. I’ve got some inherent interest in school choice policy, but my real motivation is much simpler: the Family Tall has just been through the whole process in getting Daughter Tall a primary school place for next September. Read more »

Has anyone heard of this school? It supposed to be an international through school leading to IB diploma. The medium of instruction is mainly English and supplemented with Putungua. Any ideas?

Here's an update on Daughter Tall's primary school application process. Now that the ticking clock counting down the seconds until she'll be a P1 student has become a virtual tympani in our brains -- after all, there's only a year and two months to go -- it's just about all we've been thinking about anyway.

Well, it's been nice. After a flurry of worry about choosing a kindergarten for Daughter Tall, Mrs Tall and I have been able to cruise for a couple of years.  Read more »

I wanted to call this article ‘Why Daughter Tall’s English Homework takes 37 seconds, whereas her Chinese homework takes 37 minutes’, but that seemed a bit much.

Never the less, most nights it’s more or less true.  Read more »

This time last year we were taking MissB along to kindergarten interviews. She’s just finishing her first term, and I'm pleased to report it's turned out really well. But though we're happy with our choice, it seems noone else is! Read more »

I was chatting with one of my colleagues the other day about schools in Hong Kong. He’d recently watched a documentary about one of Hong Kong’s most reputable secondary schools. He found the students’ – and staff’s – academic single-mindedness and general fervor impressive, but not in an entirely favorable way. He wondered if some of this intensity might be the product of transference – that is, the pious zeal of the some of the school’s staff and supporters who were members of religious orders seemed to spill over into their educational thought and work, shaping the school’s whole culture. Read more »

In my first kindergarten article, I described what kindergarten interviews in Hong Kong are actually like. I also updated you on Daughter Tall’s progress in the kindergarten we eventually chose. MrB has also chronicled his family’s adventures in kindergarten choice. Read more »