As a parent, you may request an evaluation of your child to determine his or her needs for special education. The evaluation may include psychological and educational testing, a speech and language evaluation, occupational therapy assessment and a behavioral analysis. Remember to take the following steps: 1. Meet with your child’s class teacher to share your concerns and request an evaluation by the school. If you feel your child needs special education, you can also seek an independent professional evaluation.

2. Keep careful records, including observations reported by your child’s teachers and any communications (notes, reports, letters, etc.) between home and school.

Parents should always advocate for their child and must be proactive and take all necessary steps to make sure their child receives appropriate services for their learning disability.

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March, 2009

Top international schools in Hong Kong have seen a sharp increase in the number of applications for admissions in September 2009 and long waiting lists still remain. However, there has been a drop in applications at Hong Kong International School; the intake has decreased from 850 last year to 835 this year.

The Canadian International School in Aberdeen has had a 30 per cent rise in applications across the board, with the number of students applying for pre-reception to Primary Two classes up by 35 per cent to 40 per cent.

At German Swiss School, on the Peak, there has been a 15 per cent increase in applications for the coming year with 929 received so far this year compared with 806 last year.

The Discovery Bay International School is currently experiencing the highest waitlists, with a 13 per cent increase from nursery to Primary Four since last year.  And the English School Foundation is experiencing a 10 per cent increase in applications from entry to Year One.

Despite the economic climate at the moment, most top International Schools are remaining stable in regards to their student numbers and there seems to be no change in waiting lists.  However, it is hard to say, if all these applications are relocating families, so thus it is still too early to say whether these numbers will remain and if families offer the spaces given to them.

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Geography literally means “earth description” but in the modern sense it is so much more and we can more properly think of it as “earth study”. Thus everything in our world comes under its remit. Humanity lives geographically. Our diverse Earth is an awe-inspiring and ever-changing home. Studying geography allows and encourages us to participate more fully in the excitement and challenges presented by this dynamic world. By drawing on personal experience and linking it to the collective experience of humanity down the ages, Geography brings about a better and more thorough understanding of the places we live in and why they matter. By considering these places in the context of the wider world we can hold out great hope that not only can we lead better lives as individuals and communities of the present, but that we can set the foundations for the betterment of generations to come. 

Geography synthesizes factual information and established theory from across the natural, social, cultural, economic and political spheres to identify and attempt to illuminate key issues for the present and the future. It does so at a variety of spatial and temporal scales - local to global, present to prehistoric – requiring us to acknowledge and appreciate the diversity of landscapes and peoples. It is therefore a vital subject of study for 21^st century students and indeed all citizens alike as it enables us to deal with questions of what it means to live sustainable lives in an interdependent world and within the context of an understanding of stewardship.  

Geography facilitates the investigation of the complexities of places and spaces and demands that we think critically and creatively about these intricacies and the different views and feelings that their indigenous peoples hold relating to them. Geography is studied through enquiry, which requires the formulation of effective questions, and through the practical collection of data in fieldwork studies which give legitimacy to the ideas that it postulates. In doing so, students develop significant elements of the skills framework. While there is a strong emphasis on the use of maps and visual images as well as new technologies including Geographical Information Systems, geographers are exposed to a variety of other subjects and the skills therein. Geography is the true umbrella discipline, drawing together humanity’s knowledge to a framework which allows its most valuable use. Geographers are amongst the most broadly trained thinkers our society has to offer and can contribute to an incredibly diverse number of tasks. 

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Thirdly, Latin is a specially designed language based on rules which have to be reflected upon with every sentence you translate, since each sentence is a puzzle of words held together through grammatical rules.  It is this requirement of precision and logic which trains students’ minds to be precise and to pay attention to detail.  Latin can be considered to be the “mother” of all Roman languages due to its relation with many foreign words.  The Latin vocabulary and grammatical framework has similarities to that of other European languages, especially French, German and Spanish.  But it also helps the learning of other languages; both related to and not related to Latin, for example, Greek and Russian, which are both, like Latin, highly inflected languages.

Finally, having Latin on your resume is a fairly impressive credential.  Latin is a challenge and it takes a lot more than intelligence to master.  The fundamental requirements of perseverance, passion and endurance are also the qualities of an employable individual in today’s society.   

By Teresa Ng

The following is the text of a recent talk I gave in Hong Kong for the Women Business Owners Club on raising funds and starting a business in Hong Kong.  It should be help to any person thinking of starting a new business.

Body language … how body language can improve your communication

Have you ever thought about how your education relates directly to the amount of money in your pay packet every month? Well there has been some research conducted in the UK which directly quantifies the earning capacity of those with certain qualifications.

Specifically, the research suggests that those people who pass 5 GCSEs will earn over £1 million during the course of a lifetime, while those who have not passed 5 GSCEs will not earn that much.

How does this translate into a Hong Kong context?  In the local education system, GSCEs are considered an equivalent to the HKCEE.  Would it be true to say that those with 5 passes at HKCEE are likely to earn over $HKD 15 million, in a life time?  I guess it is likely that this is true.  However I think the reasons have less to do with qualification of the HKCEE (or the GCSE) itself and more to do with the potential that the qualification holds.

Those people with 5 passes in HKCEE (or with 5 GCSEs) usually don’t leave their education at that point.  5 subjects passed at HKCEE means that students will generally be able to go on to form 6.  A large percentage of students who go into form 6, subsequently go on to do some type of post- secondary education.  Those who have not passed the five subjects generally have little chance of studying beyond form five.  Instead, these students usually leave their education and look for work.  The sorts of jobs available to those without a good pass at HKCEE level tend to be low skilled, low paid jobs – the types of jobs in which earning a large amount of money (such as £ 1 million or $HKD 15 million) is unlikely.

There is a reason why people in Hong Kong shouldn’t despair if they haven’t got 5 passes at the Certificate level. In Hong Kong, the tradition of lifelong learning is well established and a lot of people who begin their working life after form five because they are unable to continue with secondary school, usually find themselves in some form of study later in life.  Of course, the reason why lifelong learning has become such a strong part of the working culture here is that it does have a noticeable effect on your pay packet.  Many employers reward those who persevere with study, whether it is through promotion or some other means.

So, is it worth pursuing those GCSEs (or local equivalents)? Of course it is.  Without them, you are certainly more likely to begin your working life on a lower salary than those people who have passed their HKCEE or GCSEs.  And if you do pass form 5, the chances of you being able to continue your studies are very good.  But there is always adult education and lifelong learning is a common and accepted part of the local workforce.

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Hong Kong-A recent telephone call to a major stock brokerage, asking when the manager would be available, produced a confusing reply: ”He will call you after the phone.”

English language schools in Hong Kong have become aware that the person who answered the phone is among the 38 percent of the population that the

While the government agrees that something needs to be done, the government’s solution is alarming thousands of

A survey carried out late last year by the Hong Kong Transition Project, an ongoing study of the attitudes of

Officials and academics agree that students’ English proficiency has been declining for years, even though all high school students study English for several hours a day and one quarter go on to attend university courses using English textbooks. Just over half the students taking the English exam at the age of 16 or 17 received a passing grade last year.

Another reason for the decline is that many of the best English speakers in Hong Kong left for Canada, the United States and Australia after Britain agreed to hand over its colony to China. These were countries that favored richer, better educated candidates for immigration.

Whatever the reason for the sliding standard of English, businesses have noticed. Many language trainers and academics feel that the biggest problem in teaching English in

The question of class sizes has once again been raised in the media.  One of the reasons for the most recent interest in this issue is because of news out of Beijing.  Beijing has announced that the Chinese government is making a commitment to reduce class sizes to 40 students in the next 3 years.  While 40 students still seems to be too many, it should be remembered that classes of up to 60 students were not uncommon in the past.  To get the number down to 40 now does seem to be a positive step.

But how does Hong Kong stand with this?  There has been a lot of publicity about schools having to close due to falling enrolment numbers, when the government could take this opportunity to reduce the size of the classes Hong Kong children have to endure.  Of course, primary school classes in Hong Kong are already under the 40 which Beijing is proposing, although it might surprise some people to know that 40 is not an uncommon number of students in Hong Kong secondary classrooms.

Is it important to look at class sizes?  Ask the majority of teachers, and the answer will be an unqualified ‘YES’.  One of the problems with large class sizes is that it is very difficult to change the teaching and learning style with so many students in the classroom.  Teachers might be going to seminars and in-service workshops about small group projects, student- centred activities and active learning but these learning styles are almost impossible to effectively carry out in a room crammed with kids, where there is not even enough room for a teacher to manoeuvre between desks and where the noise level is rising due to student numbers.  It’s much easier to adopt the chalk and talk method, relying on the text books and not trying anything unusual or unfamiliar.

Smaller class sizes would make a lot of the education reforms which the Education Department are committed to, much more successful because teachers would have more confidence of the success of these new approaches if they were not trying to practice crowd control as a form of education.

Sue

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Actually it is not correct to call the IB - the International Baccalaureate - a new system as it has been around for decades.  It has even been possible to take the IB diploma in Hong Kong for quite some time.  But it does suddenly seem like the IB is a new system.  This is because the ESF (English Schools Foundation) is phasing it in, with this year’s cohort of Year 12 students being offered it, and not the UK A-Level, for the first time.

There has been some uncertainty among parents and students about this change.  Subject choices need to be made, new IB-related terms need to be understood and questions about whether particular universities will accept the IB as easily as other senior secondary qualifications need to be asked.  But the IB seems to be a world-wide trend in education.  The diploma certainly must have seemed before its time when it was developed in the 1960s.

Today, schools and universities value the links students make into the community.  The community action and service component of the diploma is therefore an excellent way for students to be able to do this. Also, an extended research component offers students the chance to develop skills which will be important during their tertiary studies, and so the extended essay is another useful element to the diploma.  Theory of Knowledge (ToK) is the third core component of the IB and it introduces many students to different ways of thinking and knowing, often for the first time.

As well as these core units, students need to choose one subject from six different areas, including a first language and a second language, a mathematics, a science, a humanities and a free choice or arts subject.  This does offer students a broad range of subjects from which to choose from and it prevents students from specialising in a narrow area, which did often happen with the A-level.

In Hong Kong, a second language usually proves to be no barrier to students who find themselves facing the IB - Hong Kong’s multicultural society means that most students already speak or learn at least one other language.  I wonder whether this is also the case in countries where English is the first language of many students.  Students can take their second language at a beginner level, so it should be no barrier or disadvantage.  Of course, it is usually elite or independent schools which offer the IB diploma, and these schools are more likely to have a foreign languages program than regular or government- funded schools.

In Hong Kong, some of the elite local schools are also hoping to move towards the IB, but it is generally incompatible to have students sit both the local system and the IB diploma to hedge their bets.  If local schools adopt the IB, it needs to be in a separate stream from the local curriculum.

For those starting the diploma this year, there seems to be a lot of changes and adjustments to be made.  But soon, all of this will seem normal and the community will be better informed about the details, and the advantages of the IB.

The following is a list and link to Hong Kong schools that currently offer the IB Diploma Programme.

Australian International School Hong Kong, Canadian International School of Hong Kong, Chinese International School, French International School, Island School, Kiangsu-Chekiang College International Section, King George V School, Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong, Renaissance College, Hong Kong, Sha Tin College, South Island School, Victoria Shanghai Academy, West Island School, Yew Chung International School - Hong Kong

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