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Liz Gooch

Discovery Bay parents are angry their children have not been granted interviews for Year One places at Discovery College, the private English Schools Foundation through-school.
They argue that long-term residents should be given priority and have expressed frustration with the school's selection process.
Discovery College opened on a temporary site in Lai King in August and will move to its new site in Discovery Bay next August.
Ava Goei-Vujovich, who has lived in Discovery Bay for almost 20 years, said she was upset when she learnt her four-year-old daughter had not been given an interview.
'No one I know with a four-year-old has been offered an interview, other than those with siblings,' she said.
Ms Goei-Vujovich is considering keeping her daughter in kindergarten for another year in the hope of securing a place the year after.
'I just feel that as a resident here they should be offered an interview,' she said.
Scott McArthur and his wife, who have lived in Discovery Bay for five years, are considering selling their apartment and moving to Kowloon or Hong Kong Island.
'We don't particularly want to move, but to be honest we only live there because of the children. If they can't even go to school there then what's the point?'
Another parent, whose son also missed out on an interview at Discovery College, said her friend's child had been granted an interview even though she had been in Hong Kong less than a year.
The mother, who did not want to be named, has lived in Hong Kong for 12 years and her husband eight.
'We've shown a loyalty to Hong Kong. We are paying taxes. We'd like to at least think that we can have some say in where he goes to school,' she said.
The ESF's head of parent and student services, Chris Forse, said the foundation appreciated parents' disappointment but that as a private independent school Discovery College had no school zones, unlike most ESF schools.
He said children with siblings already in the school had priority for interview for Year One places, as did those attending ESF kindergartens. The remaining offers of interview were made according to a random draw.
'There is no priority for DB residents as this would go against the service agreement we have with the government. Most of the students enrolled are, however, Discovery Bay residents,' he said, adding that while 70 per cent of the college's students were meant to be permanent residents once it was operating at full capacity, this was not currently a factor in admissions.



DB parents riled by ESF's selection process for new school