Parent's Review of Qin Lin Wan School in Ningbo, Hong Kong

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

Qin Lin Wan School

In what town or city is this school located?

Ningbo

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

Local

What grade levels are represented at this school?

All the way to graduation.

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

The law in China is children are only supposed to go to their local schools. However if the school has extra places they can take from other areas. So generally they are walked there. This is good as it cuts down on idiots driving to the school, parking everywhere and blocking the roads.

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

There are limited extra curricular facilities available in Chinese schools.. However there are many individuals willing to teach or train kids for a variety of things, such as ping pong, swimming, music etc. It is not expensive so the child is able to experience many different things and then obviously if he or she likes, he can go for that. Presently my wee boy is playing guitar and ping pong. He is 7 and already swims quite well.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

He was born here. Curriculum are vastly overrated. Schools have to concentrate on communication, which includes literacy and of course mathematics. All over the world there is little emphasis on learning about interaction with other people. All a "diploma" or a degree shows is you have "done the time" and passed the tests. Schools need to be a lot more than this. Many kids are not prepared for the real world when they leave school.

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

There are parent teacher orgs here. Teachers are highly venerated unfortunately so they tend to have a lot more power than they actually deserve.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

If they are young enough I would chose a chinese school any day over a western school. The number one consideration is learning the language. There is no easy way to learn the characters so they are rote learnt. The drawback to this is the schools apply this to everything else so people grow up only able to rote learn rather than accumulate knowledge. It is quite obvious when you see them driving here. They are subject also to greater levels of discipline than is seen in the west and local parents are a tad overzealous in making their children the "Best" ..

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