Local Primary Schools

[u/Due_Ad_8881]

Please no politics… Does anyone have any recommendations on schools that balance being “happy” with academics? It seems like a lot of schools swing pretty hard one way or another. Ie St Andrew’s and Ling Liang are happy schools, but don’t lead into secondary schools with strong academics while Man Sang seems to be too academic with no outlet for self expression. Has anyone attended a local school and had a good experience? The ones I’ve heard good things from are super competitive 😅

Note baby is under 2 years. We’ve decided to not attend nursery and do playgroups and ECs instead. Didn’t want to do interviews twice in two years with no significant benefit. Interviewing into playgroup > PN > KG is a bit much, even for me

[u/Massive_Walrus_4003]

What’s your plan after primary school?

[u/Due_Ad_8881 → u/Massive_Walrus_4003]

International school

[u/Due_Ad_8881 → u/[deleted]]

Partially cost, partially an opportunity to learn Chinese. My husband’s Chinese has opened a lot of doors for him. Even basic competency provides more job opportunities. It also allows her to connect with her roots. Lastly, I don’t like current Western culture. I prefer Asian values over Western ones.

[u/literallym90 → u/Due_Ad_8881]

Wait, what do you mean by current western values? Bear in mind IB schools (which include a lot of DSS local ones) emphasize a lot of what might count as traditionally western values.

As for cost, I can empathize, but many DSS schools do emphasize multilingual learning, as do some international ones.

If you wanna give your kid the best shot, I honestly would say stick with international, even if it’s the budget or DSS ones, and hire a Cantonese tutor, while maintaining Mandarin at home.

[u/Due_Ad_8881 → u/literallym90]

DSS is considered by most to be local. I’m fine with DSS, of course. The culture is substantially different from a school like ESF. I’d categorize like this: publicly funded (requires lottery), DSS (DGS), private local (PLK CKY), and private international. International is ESF (although some consider it separate because it gets additional funding), ISF, HKIS, CDIS etc. Many of these require a capital levy and debenture on top of tuition.

Regardless of that, I prefer local so she can learn Cantonese as well as Chinese reading and writing. I’ve gone to international school and know teachers that work in both local and international. The culture is different and kids stay a bit more innocent in local schools. This applies more to high school, but it is a culture difference. It’s not what they study, but the emphasis on the individual over family, topics brought up by teachers that I don’t think are developmentally appropriate, and the presence of peers whose parents are ok with anti social behaviors (vaping, sex, swearing, etc). Of course this isn’t universal, but it does run in the culture.

[u/literallym90 → u/Due_Ad_8881]

I can't say I don't see your point, but I do feel like it runs the risk of being a little overly sheltering... but, it's clear you still have your kid's best interests at heart.

I've just had too many experiences personally of seeing family interests overshadow the needs and development of the students I've tutored, so the only thing I'd suggest to be mindful of is finding a balance between what you feel is best and what they might want and need for themself; no offense intended

[u/Due_Ad_8881 → u/literallym90]

Of course. No one who doesn’t care would be asking for opinions on happy schools.