Any sharing on boarding school life in UK state school? - 海外留學

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發表於 12-9-29 04:35 |只看該作者 |倒序瀏覽 |打印

本帖最後由 CPU1995 於 12-9-29 04:42 編輯

My son is currently studying in a state school for Grade 12.

After a month’s studies in this school, I have the following observation on my son’s school.

1. Students have to buy textbook by themselves before the start of school term.

2. Each lesson lasts for 70 minutes. Is it too long? And there is only one PE lesson in a week.

3. There is virtually no activity after school and students would normally go to boarding house after 3:30 p.m..

4. Students are not allowed to browse facebook and youtube.

5. There is virtually no homework and supplmentary class/extra tuition after school. I really have some concern on this arrangement.

6. The school does not have the parent portal for parents to browse the progress of the student.

7. How long would the school communicate with you and report the process of your child and in what way?

8. What is the arrangement of your state school to support your child to adopt the boarding life, English barrieror learning difficulties, if any?

9. How many boarders? There are only 70 boarders in my son's school out of about 1,000 students and each form has 10 boarders. My son occupies an over 100 sq feet single suite.

Any parents would like to share your views on the above in your kid's state school. Thx.

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發表於 12-9-29 13:54 |只看該作者

回復 CPU1995 的帖子

CPU, thank you for sharing, and indeed you are observant.

Let me also share with you my daughters boardings school with you. My daughters boarding school is not ranked as high as your son's but I am very happy with it in every way.

1. they do not have to buy any text books, but since my elder girl is in 6th form, there are few she still has to order/buy, my other daughter who is in year 9 does not need to buy any.

2. the lesson lasts about 60 minutes, but they allow them 5 minutes to get their way after each lesson because the school is so big.

3. they have a lot of activities after school every day, like netball, hockey and they even get my y9 daughter a vollyball and net when they found out that she played that in HK for which I was really touched.

4. my elder daughter has pre for 3 hours every day while my y9 daughter has one hour. they are not allowed fb or anything but they can bring own phone so they still do that. elder daughter is alowed to bring laptop but not year 9 daughter.

5. elder daughter has a her own onsuite room but year 9 daughter sharing one with 4 others. I like the elder daughter room better

6. school has very good communication with us and inform us everything which is going on in school. they also has parent night from time to time and other parents involved activities. They even sent us a happy mid autumn email to wish us happy mid autumn which i found so touching and warming.

7. my elder daughter is very good at singing so they hired apparently a very famous vocal teacher from local community to teach her sing free of charge because she is taking music in a level. my year 9 daughter is learning violin but i only need to pay 150 pounds per term and only need to pay two terms, then it is all free of charge.

8. they recognise individual ability. my elder girl is now invited to teach lower form maths since hk students are good at maths. and my year 9 daughter is asked to change to a more difficult/challenging study route because they think she is more than capable of doing it.

9. the school has more than 500 boarders and is the largest boarding school so far, so they have better facilities and experiences in this i suppose. The school is about 84 acres in size.

10.They are sending representative to hk next month, so we get to see him and talk to him about our children.

11. The school provides constant supply of hot chocolate and snack to which my daughters are really delighted.

12. To conclude, they are really happy there and I would consider sending my son there too. in fact Tommy's son is in the same school as my daughters , i think he can confirm or share with us if my observations are true.

Finally, Norwich is a very beautiful city and i love it so much, we are thinking about buying a flat there.

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Tommy HKdevil, you have said all I know. I have nothing to add but several nice pictures. 發表於 12-9-29 15:43

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發表於 12-9-29 14:00 |只看該作者

one more thing, the school provides free shuttle bus for 6th form students to city from time to time while matron would take my year 9 girl in her own car to supermarket to buy supplies....they are really really nice and caring community.

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發表於 12-9-29 14:16 |只看該作者

Oh yes, the school is in the middle of no where, so imagine a pit of big grass in the middle of a desert, so the student cant go anywhere without being noticed. in that kind of environment, they can only study, study and study.

my husband's cousin is a teacher and he told us that the school is the best school in the area and that the school is the school he wants to send his daughter to.

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lamb2003 Hi, I have great interest in the boarding school mentioned by you. Would u please tell me the name and give me some further information? Thanks in advance. 發表於 12-9-29 14:30

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發表於 12-9-29 15:19 |只看該作者

回覆：HKdevil 的帖子

Here's outside the school's main entrance. It's really "in the middle of nowhere.

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發表於 12-9-29 15:26 |只看該作者

回覆：Tommy 的帖子

That's what HKdevil mentioned "big grass in the middle of a desert".

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發表於 12-9-29 15:28 |只看該作者

回覆：Tommy 的帖子

This is the boarding house exclusive for 6th form students.

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發表於 12-9-29 15:57 |只看該作者

回覆：Tommy 的帖子

Tommy share with us about your views of the school


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發表於 12-9-29 21:59 |只看該作者

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發表於 12-9-30 00:23 |只看該作者

HKdevil 發表於 12-9-29 15:57
Tommy share with us about your views of the school

Wow!  Your description to the school is very detailed and comprehensive.  You know it better than I do.
In fact, my son seldom actively reports to me his school life.  I only know he is doing well and the tutor also gave good comments to him.

Anyway, I'll chat with my son tomorrow to see what's going on in his side.  I'll target to ask him questions commented by CPU1995 and you.  After that, I hope I will have something more sharing with you.

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發表於 12-9-30 01:10 |只看該作者

回覆：ash1234 的帖子

Wymondham college

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Tommy The usual pronunciation is "Windam". 發表於 12-9-30 01:24

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發表於 12-9-30 01:17 |只看該作者

回覆：Tommy 的帖子

Well mum tends to be long winded and bossier, so I know more


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發表於 12-9-30 18:08 |只看該作者

回覆：ash1234 的帖子

Yes

CPU1995

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發表於 12-10-1 08:27 |只看該作者

You indeed are very comfortable for your choice to find such beautiful and excellent pastoral care school for your two brilliant girls.

Ranking after all is not as important as how the parents as well as the kids perceive their 2nd home in UK. Also, I concur that weekly boarding is not suitable for my younger son to study together with his brother in the same school since my elder son has to take a 90-minute train to the host family every weekend. It is quite troublesome and UK trains are always not on-scheduled. Yesterday, he took the wrong train and casued much delay in arriving at host family.

I haven’t visited my son’s school and my son doesn’t have the smart phone to take the photo. I think the small size of two boarding houses might account for its lack of activities when compared with yours.

According to my son, the school is not large but the students here are quite ambitious for their academic performance notwithstanding the school has nearly no homework and activities after school. They normally go to study by themselves after school and seldom participate in other activities.

For the boarding room, I don’t prefer an own onsuite room and it is much better to share with others and change the boarding room by rotation for every term so as to have more chance to meet others and speak English. In his boarding house, there are only three Chinese including one Sinpaorean.

Btw, why do you also send your younger girl to UK despite she was studying in such excellent school in HK?