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Getting into the right pre-school can be child’s play – with the right training, writes Ethan Wong

Life can be brutal, even for the newly toilet trained. First come the applications, then the interviews – if you even get one. And after an anguished period of waiting, the letter will come: whether or not you’ve been accepted to kindergarten.

The top kindergartens in Hong Kong sit up on educational pedestals as gatekeepers to bright and prosperous futures. Prestige, exclusivity, and not to mention price make schools like Braemar Hill and Victoria the Harvard and Yale of pre-primary education. And parents are scrambling to get their toddlers in. Like the ruthless job market, getting a spot in Hong Kong’s best kindergartens is becoming tougher and tougher. With no public pre-primary education, kindergartens are an exclusively private ordeal, allowing them to set their own strict admissions standards.

Understandably, parents are looking for a way to get their foot in the door with various interview preparation workshops, such as those offered by Kids’ Gallery, a private company dedicated to increasing children’s appreciation of the creative arts and enhancing their overall communication skills.

Joanna Hotung, managing director of Kids’ Gallery, says the workshops got underway because of increasing parental demand to help their children in preparing for school admissions. “The application process is becoming more competitive each year.”

The Kids’ Gallery classes target children aged two to six. In these workshops, the teachers prepare kids by simulating their upcoming interviews. Hotung says kids will become comfortable with the process over four classes in which they review interview questions and vital shapes and colours – all expected kindergarten knowledge.
“We identify strengths and weaknesses in each individual child and review and practise the necessary skills they will be expected to show in the interview,” explains Hotung. “An interview can be a daunting experience for a child, so we show them that interviews can be fun and that they are an opportunity to talk about oneself and show who someone is.”

Many parents hope that these workshops will mould their three-year-olds into well-mannered and gregarious Einsteins who will charm and woo the interviewers. But parents should manage their expectations because much depends on the ability of the child. Hotung says that the program can only take a child so far. “Half of the interview process is based on the ability of the child. The other half is about understanding the system. The aim is not only to coach them in the material required but also to help them understand the process, practise mock scenarios, and show the most effective techniques.”

Educators also agree with this point of view on the effectiveness of the preparation. Principal Callie Wang of the Creative Kindergarten, another top private school for toddlers, believes that they are more helpful for the parents than the child. “Maybe [the workshops] are useful for the parents. They will have an idea of how to better their children’s appearance and what questions to expect during the interview.”

See www.kidsgallery.com for details and schedule. Workshops $1,920 per term, each class is one hour long.