Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai School
Thu, 2007-07-05 23:31 — Anonymous
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?
PLK Choi Kai Yau School
Hi there,
Try this URL: http://cky.edu.hk/
I believe most official information are all in there. Why don't you call them up asking for more information?
Best Regards,
T
Heard certain rumours abiut
Heard certain rumours abiut that school (good and bad)about the school, so wish to clarify those rumours if they are true or not
Rumours.....
Hi there,
Oh well, you have to ask an insider then. However base on my own experience as a student (back in the 70's) and as a parent now, there would always be opposite opinions. A school, no matter how good it is, it might not be suitable for everybody. This is the risk and the dilemma we parents all have to face.
Best Regards & Good luck.
T
PLKCKS
I have no insider's info on this one, except that it's the school that Daughter Tall's cousin was almost signed up for. Cousin Tall's a year older than Daugther Tall, and will be starting school this coming fall. Her parents had chosen this school for her, but changed their minds when Cousin Tall unexpectedly got a place in a very good school via the last round of the central allocation.
I know they were talking about PLKCKS as being a less-traditional kind of school, but with a very good reputation. But I'm not sure that it's an 'international school' in the same way as the ones expats send their kids to? That was not my impression, at least . . . .
Heard from parents whose
Heard from parents whose kids are in Po leung Kuk Choi Kai yau School, that many quit the school for "unknown" reasons.
There curriculum is kind of messy, as I was told, like condensing the 6 years of primary education into 5 years. Year 6 is suppose to be secondary one. Well kind of pushy I think. The kids quit probably because the foundation isn't well built and find it difficult to go on. Imagine condensing the 6 years into 5, assuming they are all geniuses. I also heard that the school disapproves private tuitions. In other words, from what I have heard, the school needs a lot of improvements well that is my point of view and does not represents any discretions
Yeah, I've also heard that
Yeah, I've also heard that in that school, the turnover rate of both the teachers and students are relatively high.
PLKCKY is NOT an
PLKCKY is NOT an international school. It is a less traditional school that is using english an a teaching medium. There are almost nil native english speaker.
It is very popular amongst those local chinese, who were not able to get a seat in a real international school.
PLKCKY
Tell you what I am one of the student in this school in p.7(form 2)
I am telling you, this is a great school, it has forigner teachers and great books for teaching. It is certaitly great enough for smart kids to study in!
plkcky
plkcky is a good school, and it is not a traditional school,stupid!!!
my child studies in cky. it
my child studies in cky. it is a very good school. children love to go to school and study. they love reading and speak fluent english & mandarin at a very young age. they are also good at projects and presentation. children who could survive in this school definitely are very self-learning & smart kids. it is definitely better than international schools as it uses international teachings but their mandarin level is definately higher. children speaks perfect mandarin. they are also confident and lively, not like those traditional schools. teachers' turn over rate are not any higher than other schools. my son is yr 3 and only 1 teacher left so far. some children left the school for various reasons. some left because they cannot adapt to the english & mandarin speaking envoronment. some left for free government schools. some left for international schools cause less homework. my friend's gave up her daughter's seat for a "very good" ie. very famous government school and she's regretting now. other parent friends let their children tried at y2 when they cannot get in initially. i think yr cousin miss out on a very good thing. good school or not it's not for us parents to study in. as long as the children are very happy and eager to learn, they'll get there some day. i hope those parents who only HEARD rumors do not believe it as it's mostly sour grapes phenominen!
i am 5e class ferrari
i am 5e class ferrari
who r u,and my chinese class
who r u,and my chinese class teacher is so...
CKY is an ideal school, from experienced parent
My daughter is at Y5 in CKY. I don't agree that the turnover rate of student is high. One of her classmate left the school last summer because he goes to study in England. Students there enjoy reading and learning. We, as parents, love the school and respect our principle Lau.............
In short, we love and support our school and are willing to introduce our school to frineds' kids.
CKY is definitely a ideal school and luckily my daughter was offered a seat in P1.
Parents of M.F.
I attended their introduction
I attended their introduction seminar last week. They seem to adopt an approach to train children who will be interested in studying, initiative, and strong in languages. However, since their biggest kids are only starting Form 4 (in the language of other main stream schools), there are no results from any public exams yet. For those who have kids studying in this school, may I ask, why are you so sure that their new approach, no matter how attractive it sounds, will ensure they can pass their public exam at Form 5 and also to enter into a good university afterall?
Your sharing will be much appreciated! Thank you.
btw, I notice there is entry point in the website, all I can see is the front page... any ideas?
My son is studying Grade 6 in
My son is studying Grade 6 in CKY. Although he is performing very well academically in last 5 years, I have the same worry everyday how well they can perform in future public exams (IGSCE, IS, etc) and struggling switch him back to traditional schools. However, I must admit that he had enjoyed very ideal primary school education in last 5 years. His capability in both English & Chinese Language (Putonghua) are much stronger than mine when I was at his age. I belonged to kind of "successful" student in my generation being able to get into a HK university in 1980s.
I had tried to make him sit in some open examinations to test his capability (e.g. Cambridge English Exam), he passed the 5th level (PET) when he was in Grade 4. I had observed his performance in New South Wales Assessment Test coordinated inside CKY (for the subjects English, Maths, Science) and the results are very positive. Although they started to learn secondary level subjects in Grade 6, I do not see he is weaker than myself when I was in form 1. Here and there, I saw the education method in CKY is working well.
Worries are always there but I don't feel I can find a school working better than CKY on him at this moment. His strong interest in learning, self-initiative character, self-confidence, ability to study indendently, - mostly built up in CKY.
To me, upto now, the primary education in CKY is at a very high standard.
CKY
Anon, thanks very much for this report on your son's experience at CKY. It sounds as if you're happy with the school, and all of us parents certainly understand the tendency to worry a bit!
Best wishes to you and your son.
Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School
Unfortunately, my daughter did not get into this school even though it has always been my first choice for her. I was just wondering how easy/difficult my chances are at putting her in during the mid term in the upper years? Has anyone tried and succeeded, please do share your experiences. Thanks!
Something from my inside
I also have heard some good things about this school CKY from my sister who's young daughter is in the school currently taking year 8. But, on the alternative, from the mouth of my sister to your ears, the school has lost some very good teachers last year. One, Mr. Wong Sir., teacher of the Geography was so popular that many of the students cried for weeks. You must wonder why a school, who is try to be best in all HK, would loose a such great teacher???
Hi there! I'm a student of
Hi there!
I'm a student of cky (honest), and yes the school is messy. It's in total chaos now, preparing for the Open Day. and also they always hand out notices to us regarding the events that is going to happen in just a week's time, so that's why it's so messy here.
and there are 3 most common reasons y teachers and students leave cky:
1. The school is too hard for the students
2. Too expensive
3. Dislike the school or found a better school to work in(teachers)
but the school's fun! and we get more precious opportunities than any other school in HK to go on to study tours around the world!
and i like the music it's enforcing.
It is a fallacy that many
It is a fallacy that many parents think international schools are better. My nephew used to study in an international primary school in Kowloon Tong before transfering to DBS for more traditional secondary education. This year, he has been taught mainly by local teachers. Though his English is already fluent, his English grade in DBS is only average. The reason is that traditional EMI schools put more emphasis on writing and language arts such as literature, and students in these schools tend to perform better than their peers in international school.
I think CKY is good in a sense that it positions itself between traditional and international. Yes, it's true that most teachers may not be native, but they have native fluency (as far as I observed during their open day). And to be frank, local teachers are not necessarily inferior coz they know how to push students to do better in public exams and are more willing to work long hours. All in all, my impression on the teachers in CKY is that they are all well-qualified and very devoted.
Well to my knowledge, the
Well to my knowledge, the motto of this school is "teach less learn more", which actually the majority students I know who are attending this school must participate in private tuition outside normal school hours in order to keep up with the pace, especially when they have reached the secondary section.
In addition, I got the impression only those who excel academically got the chance to participate in school plays etc. Each year, it is the same individuals who are either being the MCs and or participates in school plays, why not give others a try or a chance to take part? There isn't even an audition for the plays, the casts are picked by teachers. I guess you know what I want so say. If it is a language problem then what is the reason the linguistic skills of the students are so extreme? Some can speak with an native speaker accent while others do not? Personally, I think language is something that needs constant practice.
Then there is the science fair. Well, I got the impression that those who got the chance to exhibit their works are geniuses. There is time I got the opportunity to ask questions to the Yr6 and up. Many of them cannot answer my questions. And they actually do not really understand their work. There was one who was doing vitamin C. The student uses an indicator that will change color when the pH changes. The student does not know the full name of the indicator used. And the student does not know why the color change takes place. I mean that is the least they should know why the color change happened. So instead I have to tell them why etc.
Certainly, there are teachers who really want to help the students. There are actually some who do not mind help the students after school hours however the students all left for home because they need to take the schoolbus. What I want to say that every school has its own pros and cons. In order to improve, I think people should accept critics from both extremes not just taking credits and ignore critisms.
reply: chances of joining CKY
I do know some information that might be useful.
In 2009(last year), there are 1200 Y1 applicants and 300 applying for Y2-Y9.
We got 1-2 new students in most of the grades, filling up the spaces of some students that went studying overseas. So the school is choosing about 10-15 students out of 300.
The number of applicants increases dramatically every year and the school is choosing one out of ten Y1 applicants this year(2010).
I am not sure if this is true, but i heard that beg the principal is useful.
I hope this can help
Reply to the penultimate comment
Then ur information must b really our of date, cuz the official motto of the school is "evry child in the school is gd at something", which at some point is true. not all teachers follow that so call rule u talk about, especially not the primary teachers, but many teachers teaching us senior students do that.
And u r quite right about the linguistic skills of the students of this school. There is a huge range in capability of academics amongst the students. but this is not all the school's fault. although i do think that the school's teaching is part of the reason, the learning attitude of the students is the main part of the problem. bcuz no matter how hard the teachers remind the students to speak English more frequently in class, they all end up yelling in Cantonese anyway, and this includes the star students as well.
but it is a sad problem -- the school has the responsibility to continue is enforcement upon speaking the right language, bcuz it used to carry a strict system in speaking the right language when i was in primary, but once we got on to the secondary they gave us TOO MUCH freedom, and stopped pushing us to speak English. many students forgot the importance of speaking English in the school they're in (with all the resources they can't have in other schools) and their English skills actuallly gotten worse.
so that's y u end up seeing primary students with an excellent accent, along with the yr 9 girls and a few students in the secondary section...
and srry, the school does hold auditions for MCs and musical plays, though usually the teachers still recommend the usual cast bcuz they're the extremely clever ones -- many others who audition just don't have the skill. but this yr they finally let someone new to be Cinderella in the play Cinderella.
as for MCs, they normally don't let ppl audition bcuz of the time problem. they randomly pick a few students (known to be bright and clever) to be the MCs, which varies a lot actually. but on special occasions, they do hold some auditions, and if u ask the senior teachers if u can be an MC (of course, with the skill to be one) u do have the chance to be one.
but the main problem with the students is still this: many do not seek improvement. they ask for freedom and fun instead, becuz they are bearing a lot of pressure upon the projects. we're all trained to learn outside the classroom and don't revise too hard from primary, but going on to secondary we r suddenly given much work, bcuz of the IGSCE. so no wonder many ppl miss hw and try to rush it within the morning period or recess, thus turning in complete pieces of trash. and when the teachers try to help them through having them stay after school at the study club, they view it as a penalty, as bad as the homework club.
the prinicpal tries to set up an impression that the school is full of talented ppl (which is half true) and is especially talented in music, but instead showed its weakness in various events. that's sad actually.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Actually I am very updated than you could imagine. When the school first established, there was a forum in their website, but soon it was removed because of the many negative comments. Like I say, one must listen to both sides if one want to make improvements. Not just take credits...certainly, if those critics are not relevant than simply ignore them. Certainly, this is a subjective matter and differ from each individuals.
I must admit, the school has make improvements since it was first established. But still, nowadays, the school has neglected the non-academic side and only now concentrate on "producing" A-grade students. There used to be morning exercises before the class starts but now only the lower grades got to do them. Let me ask you this. How many so-called "10 straight A students" make it big in the society??? To my knowledge and I might be wrong, but thye majority of those who make it big are usually those who are not the 10 straight A students. The school's slogan"every child is good at something"...that every child is only a handful. The so-called good at something is rated by their academic performances. Only those whose grades are good, then they got the chance to be good at something. There are many good teachers at that school but they seldom stayed behind which is a pity.
the reason that many teachers
the reason that many teachers leave, is that the management does not always appreciate the teachers. there is no set standard and good teachers are treated horribly based on biased information that has no bearing on whether or not those teachers are actually doing their jobs. for instance, it is almost the end of the year and there are several teachers who still have not been informed if they will be given a contract for the next school year. many good teachers leave because they have no choice. a lot of them would love to stay out of love for the students, but are not given the chance.