I heard also at that’s meeting ESF were adamant that they will not change summer or Easter holidays.
2 March
Start of April
After Easter
After summer
I heard also at that’s meeting ESF were adamant that they will not change summer or Easter holidays.
I spoke to a few expats in Vanuatu (whilst on holidays). A lot of people got paper divorces and sent family back to Australia for better schools, university, etc, handed over Australian property as settlement and kept paying for private school fees as child support.Original Post Deleted
I would get proper tax advice (this is not advice)...
My kids are getting online lessons every day- the teachers seem to be working hard to provide education under the current circumstances and things have been refined. The workload has been eased off as it was pretty monumental at the start. I am sure ESF's (and other's) position is that they are providing the children with education so they do not see a need for make up lessons. Lots of families (and teachers) will have holidays booked and I imagine the schools would be having extra classes for a small group of children who have remained through Easter break / the summer.
We are three weeks in now- this could go on for another six weeks or more. If teacher and kids step away now then this could be a very long break in education. There is no alternative for GCSE, A level, DP students, they are at crunch time, exams are coming up. Stopping and coming back isn't an option for the- it would be pointless..
It is unreasonable to have it both ways- online lessons now and extra classes later- the kids need a break!
Saw this just now:
https://www.facebook.com/bbcworldser...zA0MzYxNDk2Ng/
Last edited by kittykaitak; 22-02-2020 at 10:29 AM.
You’re missing the point. International schools main concern is that the extended closure will hurt them as families will leave. The reason is that international exams happen regardless of HK’s decision to shut down so the students are at a massive disadvantage compared to local students, because HK government can change the dates of local exams.
I do not believe for one second that ESF management has gone to meet the CE to promote the success of its online learning strategy. They either want schools reopened, or they want financial relief to protect them from the impact of the expat exodus.
Refusing to give up any holidays given how dire the situation supposedly is, is frankly pathetic. I can think of many ways eg offering bonus or overtime pay and using supply teachers, to give the children more days.
The CE let international schools have small exam groups. That’s a reasonable compromise.
As for holidays, as an anecdote at FIS, the French stream opted to shorten the Easter holidays while lengthening the March ones (which are during the closure), while the international stream (where a lot of parents have already booked their holidays) opted to keep Easter at 2 weeks and not change anything. I don’t think it was only teachers who opted to keep their holidays... parents too.
Why would the International stream have more booked holidays compared to the French stream? Genuinely curious here, I would have thought that both streams would consist mainly of expats, just that the latter would be Francophiles. So they'd have similar travel plans.
The international stream is known to be much more elitist and richer than the French stream. It’s mostly Australians, a few brits and a few locals these days. In contrast the French stream is more of a service obligation to enable all the French students in HK to enroll so you’d be surprised but not everyone is the kid of a regional director
Also just by asking around, a lot more French stream students stay during Easter.