The pressures of School

Irony. My daughter is four. She has many years of school to go.. in fact, in many parts of the world, she wouldn’t be at school yet. Hong Kong starts formal schooling at three. They have kindergarten school (K1 and K2). When the kids are approximately 5, then they graduate to Primary School (P1 up) and so on… 

Bethany has to go to an english speaking school, which is a blessing and a curse all at once. It is a blessing, because she doesn’t come home with hours of homework every night and the pressures to perform, when at her age, learning should be about fun. However, places are limited at all levels of  english speaking schools because everyone, including locals, want their children in the english speaking system. 

So in September last year, we had to apply for Bethany to get into primary school as they placed her in K2 when she started at Kindergarten school. There is no guarantee of getting a place in primary school, because so many people apply, however, their primary requirement is comprehension and communication in the english language, which puts a native english speaker at an advantage. The schools we have applied to are not really private schools, they are funded in part by the Hong Kong government, which makes the fees ‘affordable’. They run a British curriculum, which is as close as we can get to the Australian system without sending Bethany to the Australian school.. which is on another island from us and costs a large amount more (very large), and even for Australians, has a huge waiting list.

To that end, on Wednesday Bethany had an INTERVIEW for primary school. The concept is almost foreign to me. Who would think their 4 year old would have to go for an interview just to be considered for primary school. But I digress. 

It was pointed out in the interview letter that both parents should attend. As we have yet to find a nanny, this involved the logistics of finding a really lovely friend who was willing to look after hurricane Mitchell for a couple of hours and Titus taking time off work. 

All sorted, we took a taxi to the primary school (parking is rare anywhere in Hong Kong) and waiting in the lobby office area (which was obviously well set up for this process) another 7 kids turned up (most from Bethany’s current school) with their parents. The vice-principal of junior school introduced himself to the group, explained the process would take about 45 minutes and that the children would be taken away to a classroom for assessment. Which is exactly what happened. For 45 to 50 minutes, we (the parents) were left sitting around the lobby while the children were assessed. We were obviously left wondering why both parents were required at the “interview”, unless it was to assess the ethnic make-up of each child… 

The essence of the interview from what we were told and what Bethany has mentioned was:

Group time where a story was read. 

Each child was asked to draw their family – mum, dad, siblings.

Questions were asked of each child individually about the picture they drew. eg: who is this? what does you mummy do? (to which Bethany answered ‘Mummy pushes the pram with Mitchell in it everywhere’)

Flash cards with animals and people ‘doing’ things were shown to each child individually and they were asked what the animal /person was. 

Group play time and tidy up before returning to parents.

The children came back to us, and we were simply told there were 125 places, letters would be sent out next week for acceptance/rejection, and a second round of interviews for those who are rejected would take place in july for any remaining available places. That was it. 

So now we wait. I am sure I am worrying over nothing, but you can’t help but worry. Children are unpredictable. The fact is, if Bethany doesn’t get in, there is NO school for her to go to, and we would have to look at home schooling. Almost every school here (aside from cantonese speaking public schools) have huge waiting lists. 

So, we wait, and cross our fingers. 

Since the interview Bethany has been asking every morning if she will now be going to her new school. She loved the primary school and was so excited she didn’t want to leave. I guess if she does get in, we won’t have a problem with her wanting to go to school each morning (to start with anyhow). 

 

In Mitchell news, he is finally starting to find his vocabulary and has all the important words:

Mummy, Daddy, Mickey (mouse), yes (he says it yeth), no, MINE!, taa, hi, bye bye, car and the ever essential anatomical word – pee-pee. Isn’t he such a boy?!