Q. Is interview required for admission to the Kindergarten? How will the interview be conducted?
A. A. Admission interviews are required for all applicants. Admission details will be uploaded to our website in late August every year. Briefing sessions will be held and application forms will be collected in September. Due to the large and increasing number of applicants, we may not be able to interview every applicant. Applicants will be shortlisted based on questionnaires completed by parents and interviews will be conducted in November. On the interview day, children and their parents will participate in group activities and have an interview with the principal, vice principal or head teachers. As we believe that every child is a competent learner, we will focus on the parenting style and philosophy of their parents. Parents can learn more about our curriculum model by visiting the “Curriculum Development” section of our website or signing up for the briefing session.
Q. Will transfer students admission be granted?
A. Yes, but it depends on the vacancies. To sign up, please contact Ms Chan by email at admissions_kg@kauyan.edu.hk or by phone at 28030304.
Q. Is school bus service available in Kowloon?
A. No. Long travelling time would affect student’s learning, so we hope children to attend school which is close to where they live. The school bus service is operated by a third-party provider. It covers all districts on Hong Kong Island. Please contact the school bus company for the service arrangement.
Q. Do you offer pre-nursery or playgroup programmes?
A. No. Kau Yan School only offers K1, K2 and K3 programmes in morning and afternoon sessions. Whole-day session is not available. For more information, please visit the “School Information” under “About KYS” section of our website.
Q. The curriculum focuses on children’s thinking development. How to approach their language development?
A. To stimulate children’s thinking development effectively, we must provide a lot of exploration experience through activities to help them develop from basic thinking (e.g. distinguishing and sorting, observing, comparing and contrasting, recalling, reasoning, comprehending, analogising, listing and sequencing, inferencing, matching, analysing, defining, and synthesising, etc.) to complex-level thinking (critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem-solving) gradually. Children will then understand the nature and method of learning, establish a good attitude towards it. Since the basic units of “thinking” are images, concepts, and language. Children can construct images in their brains through first person exploration, but the concepts developed from these images must rely on language to be expressed. Therefore, we value children’s language development. It is a core element of our thinking curriculum instead of a separate learning category. Thus, a progressive and comprehensive language curriculum that matches our children’s development is our primary focus throughout the learning process. (Excerpt from 2016-2017 Principal’s Message (3))
Q. When does a child learn to read and write?
A. It is mentioned in the “Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (2017)”* that “Learning to write should align with children’s physical development. Schools should not ask K1 children to hold a pencil and write. Teachers are recommended to arrange diversified activities to enhance children’s fine motor skills, facilitate their eye-hand co-ordination, and help them develop the concept of orientation and the proper sitting posture.” It is highlighted more than once in the guide that “Do not require children in nursery class (K1) to hold a pencil and write. Do not require children in lower and upper kindergarten classes (K2 and K3) to do mechanical copying and calculation, and do not arrange homework that is excessive, frequent and too difficult.” Although there is no writing training, our K1 teachers would do a lot of reading with children and introduce the words in the environment to them. We will also provide parents with weekly suggestions for pre-writing activities to train children’s hand-eye coordination. Exercise on lines and space will also be introduced in a later stage to prepare children for writing. In addition, there are many opportunities for children to make records with pictures and self-created symbols. In K2 and K3, our teachers will continue to do a lot of reading with children to improve their reading initiative and establish good reading habits. Gradually, the concepts of strokes, components, radicals, and character structures will be introduced. By understanding the meaning and evolution of the Chinese character components, children can develop knowledge and memory of characters. K2 and K3 children will also practice meaningful writing by keeping a diary, mostly with pictures at the beginning, and later with numbers and words. This way children will learn common words and sentence patterns slowly. K3 children are usually able to write a 60-word diary entry before they graduate. Through these activities, we hope that children can take the initiative to read, acquire the word-learning strategy, and get used to express themselves in writing, so that they will not lose the interest due to excessive stress.
(For more information of emergent literacies, please refer to 2016-2017 Principal’s message 1)2016-2017年度園長的話一
*Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (2017):
https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/preprimary/ENG_KGECG_2017.pdf
Q. Under this curriculum structure, will it be difficult for students to adapt to the primary school programme later?
A. Our programmes fully meet the requirements and learning objectives of the “Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (2017)” and can be bridged to general aided or government schools. Besides, our teachers will discuss with K3 children about life in primary school before the end of the semester, let them bring up their questions and worries. Teachers will help them cope with the mental transition, by taking them to different P1 class activities, interviewing primary school teachers, visiting primary school campus and participating in the emotional learning programme “Zippy’s friends”. Teachers will also design a simulated P1 class where children can learn the routine, rules and classroom mode of a primary school.
Q. How many students from the Kau Yan School kindergarten division will be admitted to the primary school division? Is interview required? What are the admission criteria?
A. We believe that every child is unique and require different teaching models for their own learning characteristics. Each school has its own curriculum features and focuses, so no such school is suitable for all. As the number of applicants for the primary division is large and the number of places is limited, our students are expected to attend a standard interview as applicants from other kindergartens. Only those who meet the requirements will be admitted. Since the kindergarten and primary divisions belong to the same school, our students who apply for the primary division will get extra scores. However, one must obtain a certain total score to be admitted. The number of applicants admitted may vary from year to year according to the circumstances. The reason for interview is that the primary division is a private school and the kindergarten division is government-funded under the Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme. We must follow the guidelines of the Education Bureau on school and curriculum, thus there are differences between the kindergarten division and primary division in terms of curriculum and administration. The primary division reviews and revises the admission procedures and criteria every year, in order to admit students suitable for its teaching model and level. The primary division is solely responsible for the administrative work of the admission procedures and setting up admission criteria. Should you have any enquiries, please contact the responsible person.
Q. Does the kindergarten division have any connections with other primary schools in the district?
A. We have been working on establishing connections with other primary schools in the district to let children and their parents to know more about different schools, such as inviting principals of various primary schools to conduct parent seminar, organising school visit for K2 and K3 parents, and distributing school information. Parents can choose the schools that suit their children’s development. This year, our K3 students have visited four primary schools in the district and attended classes with P1 students through the primary 1 adaptation programme. These friendly primary schools have good impression on our graduates. Many of them have successfully obtained the stand-by places after the Central Allocation. All of these primary schools have attentive teachers but with different curriculum features. Parents will have many opportunities to learn more about them.
Q. Are there English and Putonghua classes？
A. There are two to three English and Putonghua lessons every week. Teachers will raise children’s interest in foreign languages and enhance their basic communication skills with diversified activities and a systematic language curriculum.
