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Are kindergartens really necessary to get a place in a primary school?

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  1. #1

    Question Are kindergartens really necessary to get a place in a primary school?

    Both my husband and I come from countries where children stay at home until the age of 5-6, when they start primary school. Kindergarten is only used as childcare, if both parents and grandparents are at work.

    In Hong Kong we feel a lot of pressure to send our daughter to pre-school at the tender age of 1-2 years. Why? What would happen if we leave her at home until it's time to start primary school? Do any expats have experience with stay-at-home kids successfully entering primary school?

    Child will have to go to a private school, as she speaks no Cantonese or Mandarin.


  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tomochka:
    Both my husband and I come from countries where children stay at home until the age of 5-6, when they start primary school. Kindergarten is only used as childcare, if both parents and grandparents are at work.

    In Hong Kong we feel a lot of pressure to send our daughter to pre-school at the tender age of 1-2 years. Why? What would happen if we leave her at home until it's time to start primary school? Do any expats have experience with stay-at-home kids successfully entering primary school?

    Child will have to go to a private school, as she speaks no Cantonese or Mandarin.
    if you do not send them to school this will happen:



    If you send them...this will happen:



    Kidding (hmm?)

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Tomochka:
    Both my husband and I come from countries where children stay at home until the age of 5-6, when they start primary school. Kindergarten is only used as childcare, if both parents and grandparents are at work.

    In Hong Kong we feel a lot of pressure to send our daughter to pre-school at the tender age of 1-2 years. Why? What would happen if we leave her at home until it's time to start primary school? Do any expats have experience with stay-at-home kids successfully entering primary school?

    Child will have to go to a private school, as she speaks no Cantonese or Mandarin.
    Usually Kindergarten (K1) doesn't start until the year in which the child turns 3. The earliest would be age 2 years 8 months at the start of September if the kids is born in late December. Kindergarten is not needed to get into a school, but it can help if after a school interview the school has some doubts, in which case they may call the Kindergarten for a reference. If you want to extend the entry of Kindergarten as long as possible, I'd suggest you wait until (K2), the year in which you apply for ESF schools and some of the International schools, or (K3) for some of the other International and DSS schools. My boy started full-day Primary 1 at age 4. Things start a little earlier in Hong Kong.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by civil_servant:
    My boy started full-day Primary 1 at age 4. Things start a little earlier in Hong Kong.
    eh how did your kid get in Primary school at age 4??

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by chuckster007:
    eh how did your kid get in Primary school at age 4??
    In the ESF system any child born Oct-Dec begins primary at age 4.
    chuckster007 likes this.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by merchantms:
    In the ESF system any child born Oct-Dec begins primary at age 4.
    Ah, learnt something new today. cheers

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tomochka:
    In Hong Kong we feel a lot of pressure to send our daughter to pre-school at the tender age of 1-2 years. Why? What would happen if we leave her at home until it's time to start primary school? Do any expats have experience with stay-at-home kids successfully entering primary school?
    There is no school that starts at 1 in HK. Children can join prenursery after they are 2 years old, or kindergarten when they are 2 years 8 months old. Both are optional.

    If your child is aiming for international school, English is your home language, and one parent is at home, then I believe you can skip preschool completely and apply straight for primary school. Otherwise I would suggest if you really want to get into a nice international school, to choose a preschool that will prepare your child for it. Every case I know where the child didn't attend nursery/kindergarten and got accepted directly to primary, had a mom at home and were British/American/Australian i.e. native English and genuine expats (not ethnically or historically Chinese). However they were in playgroups at places like Woodlands etc. so they weren't completely at home with no exposure to school.

  8. #8

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    ESF Proposed school fees for academic year 2017-18 - Primary schools (Years 1 to 2) :HK$106,500 paid over 10 months
    F##K ME, Ill keep my kid in Kindergarten for 2 more years LOL

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    Does sending to Kindergarten help getting a place in primary school? In our case I guess it did as the school related to our kindergarten (also private, but very "local") more or less accepted our little one without a lot of fuss while the other school (international) made us go through the complete multiple interviews process and their various presentataions (where they said for every spot there are like 70 something kids applying). So from a feeling, I guess it helps.

    We didn't send ours to prenursery, let them be kids... however, she started (a private local Cantonese) Kindergarten with 3+ and she loved it. The kids are really nice in the local kindergartens, in my opinion better behaved and nicer (somebody will come in and shoot me for that) than the brats at international kindergartens... (my observation). She did not speak a lot of canto at that time, but within 6 months she caught up and is fluent (for her age) now. Some of our friends have their kids in english/international kindergartens, but when they play with local kids (ie. soccer class) they simply can't talk or understand the coach...

    If you intend to stay in HK for a while, I'd say send your kid(s) to kindergarten and try to find a good balance between local and international, or just local all the way (there is still time for taking it more serious about "learning" at a later age) to get them some canto. The socializing will do the good, and so will speaking Cantonese. If you don't intend to stay, well I'd still send them to some kindergarten for at least 2 years to get them a good social life outside of the home and increase your chances of getting into a primary school.

    Last edited by 100LL; 27-03-2017 at 02:44 PM.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by chuckster007:
    F##K ME, Ill keep my kid in Kindergarten for 2 more years LOL
    That's still cheap compared to other International schools. What's your plan? Local or DSS school?

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