Bilingual programme: Chinese-English
Annual tuition fees: HKD 165,900 - 182,100
Age: Kindergarten to Grade 7
Highlights: Learning uses simplified Chinese characters, dual-immersion model, US curriculum
Students at Stamford American School Hong Kong can opt into a bilingual programme. This 50-50 Mandarin-English dual immersion model means that students spend approximately 50% of their time with the homeroom teacher fully immersed in Mandarin, and approximately 50% of their time fully immersed in English. Students also attend a daily Mandarin class with a language teacher.
All bilingual classes are taught by teachers who are “bilingual, bi-literate, and bi- cultural”, and Mandarin teaching uses simplified Chinese characters. The curriculum is the same as the monolingual classes of the same grade, which is US-based, and learning still follows school-wide programmes such as Second Step and STEMinn. Stamford, which opened in 2017 for kindergarten to Grade 7, plans to roll out more grades in future years.
The school says: “Our bilingual programme – commencing from five years old – aims to develop excellent communication skills in both English and Chinese. Equal daily exposure to both languages across the curriculum results in the greatest possible proficiency and confidence in both languages.”
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