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Admissions: Special Educational Needs

The Admissions and Review Panel

The ARP receives, evaluates and makes placement recommendations regarding applications for entry to learning support classes and the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School. The panel is made up of the ESF SEN Adviser, SEN specialists from the learning support centres and the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School.

Waiting lists

ESF can only provide for a limited number of places in our learning support centres and in Jockey Club Sarah Roe School. Given the limited provision for non-Chinese speaking children with special needs in Hong Kong, there is always a very long list of applicants wanting places in one of these provisions. We therefore operate a tight waiting list procedure, with limitations on the number of applicants for each year group. We do not accept applications for any child under the age of 4.

At any given time our special needs provision places are full, and we operate a waiting list to ensure parity of access to vacancies, when they occur. Acceptance onto the waiting list is through a rigorous process of assessment using the ESF Levels of Adjustment.

Prioritising applications

Because of the numbers of applicants requiring places in an ESF special provision, we prioritise applications for processing using the following main criteria:

  • the degree to which the child has a special educational need congruent with our provision within the learning support classes or Jockey Club Sarah Roe School (determined through our application of the ESF matrix assessment process);
  • the degree to which the child requires an education in English;
  • whether the child has a sibling in an ESF school;
  • date of receipt of application and date of ARP agreement to application;
  • a parent who is a teacher in ESF.

These are common criteria used across ESF for prioritizing applications for admission.

Expression of interest

The first step in the application procedure is for you to complete and return the Expression of Interest form (click here to access the form). Your contact details will be recorded and at the point a place on the waiting list becomes available we will contact you and ask you to submit a full application to the ARP. Parents who have submitted an Expression of Interest form will receive regular progress bulletins via email.

Application requirements

When we invite you to submit a full application, in order for it to be properly considered by the ARP, ESF requires the following essential assessment documentation and evidence:

  1. A current Educational Psychologist's report (current within 12 months)
  2. A current speech therapist report, where the child is undergoing speech therapy
  3. A current occupational therapist report, where the child is undergoing occupational therapy
  4. A current physiotherapy report, where the child is undergoing physiotherapy.
  5. Current school reports
  6. A current IEP, where the child's school has set this up

Procedure following application

Upon acceptance of an application our SEN Administrator, Cindy Gazeau, will arrange for the ARP to carry out an observation of your child in his/her current setting, using the ESF Levels of Adjustment Matrix, as described in the ESF SEN Policy. The ARP will then consider the outcomes of the visit and scrutiny of assessment reports, and make recommendations as to whether your application will be placed on the waiting list for a Learning Support Centre place or Jockey Club Sarah Roe School, according to level of priority.

When your successful application has reached the top of the priority waiting list, and a vacancy occurs in the appropriate year group for your child, our SEN Administrator will set up a second observation in the appropriate learning support centre or in Jockey Club Sarah Roe School. Only when this second observation has taken place will the ARP confirm the offer of a place, and inform you of the date for admission.

We need to inform you that there could be a period of between 12 and 36 months of waiting on the list until an appropriate vacancy occurs for your child. All parents who are accepted onto the waiting list from April 2009 onwards will be kept informed on a regular basis of the status of their application.

Please address any SEN admission enquiries to: Cindy Gazeau (gazeauc@esfcentre.edu.hk)

A copy of the complete ESF SEN policy can be downloaded in Word document form here.

For further information about the ESF Special Need provision please click here to go to the ESF SEN Parents Community on the CLC.