My eight-year-old son has been attending a Cantonese school but has just got a place at an international school. His English skills are not that good, and I’m worried that he won’t keep up with his classmates. He is upset about leaving his friends and doesn’t want to go.
First of all, the international school must have considered your son’s English skills to be good enough to access the curriculum or it would not have given him a place.
Moving to a new school can be daunting for any child, especially if it means being separated from long-time friends, and the added issue of being educated in a different language may be challenging initially. However, children tend to be more adaptable than we give them credit for. Your son is still young, and when he is immersed in an English-speaking environment every day, he will soon improve and become more confident. Research shows that social language develops relatively quickly, so this should help him to fit in and make friends. Academic language develops more slowly, over a number of years, so he will need support and positive encouragement from both you and his teachers.
These days more parents in Hong Kong are choosing to give their children a bilingual, international-style education by enr………….