For mothers Ada Cheung and Nicola Stuckey, choosing a kindergarten was fairly straightforward. Cheung enrolled daughter Cara, then 13 months old, at one of the schools nearest to her neighbourhood - Leapfrog Kindergarten and Playgroup inside Sai Kung Country Park.
'With the area where we live, there wasn't a lot of choice,' Cheung says. 'We tried the playgroup and we liked how the kids learned through play. So we decided to keep Cara there.' Now, 31/2-year-old Cara attends the kindergarten section at Leapfrog.
For the next stage of her education, Cara's mother searched further afield. 'We looked at four international schools, but the Japanese International School (JIS) was our first choice, so we submitted an application when Cara was three months old,' Cheung says. By only applying to one primary school, Cara's mother knew she was taking a risk.
'I did question if we were putting all our eggs in one basket, but we liked the way JIS was run - the website, the school activities and the monthly newsletter.' Fortunately, Cara was accepted at JIS and will be starting in August.
Another aspect that greatly impressed Cheung was the school's headmaster. 'Both times we visited the school, we could see how comfortable the kids were with the headmaster and how they could talk to him. He wasn't just doing administration and planning for the school, but having a lot of involvement with kids,' she says.
Stuckey also says her experience of finding a school was 'absolutely not' stressful. Based on reputation and recommendations, she enrolled her son James, then 18 months old, into Woodland Montessori Preschool on Caine Road in Mid-Levels.