So we’re a couple of weeks into the new school year here in Luxembourg and I thought I’d give something of a status on the schooling situation and the boys’ progress thus far…
Warning, if the first part of this reads like a slightly emotionally charged rant, well that’s probably because it is, and I make no excuses for that. That’s why I have a blog, because I wanted to detail the ups and downs of expat life, and the somewhat ‘profit over provision’ approach of the Hong Kong international schooling situation was sadly, for us, one of the downers. Happily, the story has a very happy ending on the other side of the world, but the players deserve to be called out to a degree because this is ‘big deal stuff’ if you have school age children and are embroiled in the pressure cooker of a system over there, or contemplating a move there. (I’d also like to preface this slightly by saying this is not an indictment on the many great individual teachers there, merely a rant at the system and those at the top of the educational food chain who make the decisions, and the head teachers and school boards that support and justify the situation).
To recap:
One of the compelling reasons for leaving Hong Kong was because the school situation there was not looking good for Henry past the end of 2013 when he would need to graduate from his Kindergarten. As of June 2012, after having barely moved in over two years, he was still languishing at number 104 on a wait list for one of only two international primary schools in our immediate vicinity. Now logic would dictate that, given the glacial rate of progression in two years, and even given the potential of a flip to a highly turbulent few years ahead for the school, it’s unlikely that more than a handful of children will leave each academic year and certainly not anything like the 100 or so required to bump him up to first place. At least not for a few years when things start ‘thinning out’ naturally. The bulk of the demographic in many expat regions tends towards the 30′s and early 40′s age group and explains why the schools are usually oversubscribed in the 3-12 age range and demand then tapers off somewhat as families repatriate back to the Motherland having done their ‘stint’ overseas. We could ‘wing it’ and hope something would turn up, but that would have been too much for my nerves to take. I am not a gambling kinda gal and certainly not where my kids’ education is concerned.
We also failed to secure an interview at the only other school in the area; an ‘ESF’ branded school, despite having the application submitted within minutes of the admissions for his year going ‘live’ online. They run a kind of admissions lottery system but priority is first given to children attending an ESF Kindergarten. Just to be clear, there were no ESF Kindergartens in the vicinity. Which wouldn’t be so bad under normal circumstances..
You see, to recap further, we lived in a ‘unique’ place that was conceived as a ‘carless community’ and cut off from incoming traffic via a permit-only tunnel which allowed buses and delivery vehicles only; a somewhat Utopian vision on paper that always promised to have the best interests of the immediate residents at heart. But which now has an ESF school that essentially prioritises kids who must be pre-schooled outside of that community, while the other school runs a marginally fairer wait list over which the head teacher can exercise his discretion, but claims to have ‘never’ done this. The community is small enough to know that’s not how things work in the real world – word gets around fast when your friend’s kid gets in and he’s higher up the wait list and you know for a fact they didn’t pay the Mafioso-style extortion fee, namely the HK$450,000 non-refundable ‘fast track’ ‘debenture’ fee (yes that’s over 40,000 euros folks!). So if you are new to the Discovery Bay area and wealthy enough and willing to pay this, or your company will do it for you, congratulations, you’ve saved yourself a lot of stress. Newcomers without that cushion – be warned. The moral of the story is: newcomers and those with new babies planning on staying for a few years-get your kids signed up asap!
So why bring this all up now you might ask? Well, because barely a year has passed since Henry was confirmed as being number 104 on the aforementioned list. So I was surprised to receive an email recently with an offer of a place for Henry to the same ‘Mafia racket’ school over in Hong Kong (they sure like to time their communications well). I suppose it brings up all the old ire again, not least because to to make an offer to any family a week into a new school year, regardless of age or location, is pretty ‘piss poor’ in my book and smacks of poor administration. Thankfully that is a choice we no longer have to make.
But the biggest mystery, to my mind, is how, in just over a year, 103 pupils can mysteriously drop away ? The mind boggles how such a surefire system can be that flaky? Bar something truly deadly or cataclysmic, it’s physically impossible for an entire intake to have left the school in order to free up a place, so maybe a spot of overdue housekeeping on the school’s part is the reason? Hmmm, surely this only serves to highlight the severe inadequacies with the system if they can ‘clean’ 103 other children from the list in just over a year and to employ such odd timing in which to do this. Something isn’t jiving folks and, of course, it doesn’t matter now anyway because things have worked out rather peachily for us all round, but that’s because we made some life changing decisions and were able to facilitate those with an intra company move – not everyone has the stomach, or the option, to pursue those avenues, and it’s always a gamble when you do. The point is, I have a voice and even if it’s on the other side of the world now, I feel these criticisms deserve a public airing and, for any parents going through anything similar in Hong Kong and particularly in Discovery Bay, well this update may be of interest to you. For the rest of you who are backing away with a rictus-like grin, I apologise for the slightly off-kilter detour back to Hongkers. It’s a great place, and you really should visit once in your lifetime, but the educational authorities need to be slapped upside their collective heads.
On to far more positive things. As regular readers may remember, we moved Henry just prior to the end of the last school year into the local state run school system from St George’s private school (which I have no beef with, it is in fact a lovely school). He entered into ‘Spillschoul’ (play school) in preparation for this year’s move up to ‘Primaire’ (primary) and we were thrilled at how he handled the move. We were more anxious for his move into Primaire because this is the year they start to learn German, along with having to continue to grasp Luxembourgish at the same time. It’s a big ask, and he was obviously nervous. Oscar also began in ‘Precoce’ (kind of Kindergarten level I guess). We were less worried about him, although as he is still only barely beginning to speak English (he turned three back in June so is pretty late by all accounts) there was perhaps a mild concern on our part that his already limited English speech may suffer from making further progress.
I’m beyond happy to report that Henry loves his ‘new’ school and continues to bounce out at the end of each day full of positives and superlatives. I am eternally grateful we took the school liaison’s advice and whipped him out of the old school just one term before the end of school year. Those few weeks were invaluable because he was able to start Primaire knowing many of his classmates and seeing him ‘high five’ a boy in recognition as he walked in made me feel assured we’d done the right thing. The school is incredibly supportive and there is a dedicated ‘Appui’ (support) teacher who is fantastic and helps the kids with language. Henry has German tuition with her after school once a week and I’m told he is doing wonderfully. One of my concerns was the extent to which I can help with homework. Happily, the school text books are highly, highly visual, so the learning process for him is made much easier and helps me to be able to grasp what needs to be done, though the teacher writes notes, if necessary, in English. We recently attended an information evening given by the teachers which was given in various languages and outlined the curriculum and what the kids will be learning. The local Mums continue to be incredibly welcoming and inclusive. The vibe of the school is friendly and everything you could want for a child transitioning into a totally ‘foreign’ environment. Oscar barely looked back from the day one. He loves going to “my school” as he calls it, hasn’t cried once and rather than his speech going retrograde, he’s talking to us more than ever and tells us what he’s been up to each day (it mostly involves a lot of detail concerning the train set). That’s actually more details than I get from Henry, who can never remember exactly what he’s done!
The most heartwarming thing for me was another Mum saying she’d overheard Henry responding in Luxembougish to one of the parents and separately to one of his friends. I had no idea he had grasped more than some numbers. I was beyond proud of him and I shed a little tear because though I knew a move to the local system seemed like the ‘right’ thing to do on paper – i.e. to integrate them into local life because we plan to be here for the long term – but it wasn’t without a huge sense of guilt and worry that it wouldn’t pan out the way we’d hoped.
So, to summarise, so far, so good. There will be downs I am certain, but I am so relieved at how well the boys have settled and so impressed with our initial experience of the local schooling system, and the support we have received, that I think it’s almost a case of disbelief that it has been so easy thus far. There are collective sighs of relief all round.
My own Luxembourgish lessons begin next week, so we’ll see what kind of a pupil I am, but given that my kids have been something of an inspiration, I’d better not let the side down huh?
Strangely I have no ‘school related’ images to show you so I thought I’d share a couple of random and slightly dodgy pics of the fantastically named ‘Ryanhair‘ salon in Bonnevoie (right on the roundabout). It’s brilliant for kids’ haircuts because you only pay the equivalent of your child’s age, so that’s 3 euros for Oscar and 6 for Henry, and they do a really great job too. Bonjour!
UPDATE: THE SCHOOL RESPONDED TO MY SOMEWHAT ‘PERKY’ EMAIL TO THEM WITH THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE RESPONSE!!! THEY NOW CLAIM HENRY WAS, IN FACT, ACTUALLY 80 ON THE LIST AND 79 CHILDREN HAVE DROPPED AWAY SINCE JUNE 2012 (NOTE: THIS WAS AFTER THE 2012/13 INTAKE HAD BEEN CONFIRMED)….IT BEGGER’S BELIEF..AND SHOWS WHAT YOU ARE UP AGAINST! WE WERE GIVEN THE NUMBER 80 PLACEMENT BACK IN MARCH OR SO 2012 AND FELT IT WAS ‘OK’ AS IT INDICATED MOVEMENT, THIS WAS THEN RETRACTED IN JUNE AS A ‘MISTAKE’ (WHICH I DULY ASKED THEM TO DOUBLE CHECK AND MAKE NOTE ON OUR FILE AS I WAS NOT BEST PLEASED). YOU CAN MAKE FAR REACHING DECISIONS BASED ON THESE KINDS OF CONVERSATIONS FOLKS AND YOU ARE UTTERLY AT THESE ADMIN MORONS’ MERCY. SO LET THIS BE A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR ANY PARENTS EMBROILED IN A SIMILAR DEBACLE : )
