Yew Chung International School Silicon Valley

Top Ten Reasons I Send My Kids to YCIS
1.) Qualified Chinese & English speaking teachers who genuinely enjoy teaching.
2.) Excellent Teacher-​Student Ratio. (My Kidergartener has 10 kids with 2 teachers)
3.) Speak, write & read Mandarin. We don’t speak Chinese at home. No Saturday classes!
4.) Solid curriculum. Differentiated Math & Science tracks so kids continue to be challenged.
5.) All kids take violin. I can schedule private lessons at school, no extra appt. to schedule.
6.) Socio-​economically diverse community of like-​minded families.
7.) Kids take care of eachother. I couldn’t pay for this cultural family experience.
8.) Safe place where kids know all the adults and vise-​versa.
9.) Solid School Leadership with an eye towards continual improvement.
10.) My kids love it!

Our family moved to the Bay Area just in time to start school for the 2012 – 2013 school year. When my husband and I traveled earlier in the year for our relocation trip, we were convinced that Cupertino or Palo Alto were our best choices due to the fact that they had the ‘best’ public schools in the South Bay. We decided to call Cupertino home for our family to ensure my sons would continue with the high caliber education for which we were accustomed in our home state.
Our oldest son spent a little more than half of his third grade year in one of the Cupertino’s highest API rated schools while our youngest son was enrolled at the YCIS preschool. Although my husband and I were interested in the opportunity for bilingual education for both boys, we figured it was ‘too late’ for a third grader with no Chinese background to be successful in a dual language Mandarin program. However, after 6 months of agony in Cupertino, we decided to have our son shadow a day at the elementary campus of YCIS.
All it took was one day for us to realize that this was the place for BOTH of our children, and we enrolled our oldest son within days. The Chinese teachers are amazing at teaching to different levels, from kids who are native speakers of Mandarin to those who have never uttered a word. Although my son is a few years behind his grade level class in Chinese, the small group environment (only 6 kids!) for his Chinese class time allows the teachers to tailor each lesson to the strengths and weaknesses of each child. Not only does my son love using his Chinese skills in public, especially in restaurants and shopping, but he was welcomed by the teachers and kids right away.
We are now in our second year at YCIS, with one son in kindergarten and one in fourth grade, and we couldn’t be happier with our choice. My youngest is already writing complete sentences («Mom, I’m an author!») and adding and subtracting two-​digit numbers, and it is only November! He loves science class and the special technology programs that they use in class everyday. It’s amazing to see his progress in violin (required for all kindergarten through third graders), even without outside private lessons. My husband and I love how the teachers really care so much about each child and how the school focuses on hands-​on educational experiences that kids love.
In response to one person’s comment about being a ‘Christian School’, this is not the case at all, and it seems that he is miscommunicating information. Upon interviewing at this school, it was explained very clearly that the Education Foundation, which is based in Hong Kong, that oversees this system of schools has a Christian base, the school is NOT a parochial school. They do not teach the Bible or have religion classes. However, they do have a Christmas program and Easter egg hunt each year for the entire school. In fact, students in both of my children’s classes practice religions other than Christianity, and they are as welcomed and respected as any other family in our amazing school community.
I am so thankful that we were able to find this school, and I’m looking forward to many more amazing years for my kids and my family at YCIS!!!

This is the second year we are at YCIS preschool. My son is in pre-​K this year. We have tried 4 different preschools before settling in YCIS. I didn’t pick YCIS because of its Chinese program. What sold me at first is the loving and friendliness of the teachers and staff. They not only genuinely love kids, but also very open and communicative to parents. There is an English-​speaking and an Chinese-​speaking teacher in each class. Even the extended care staff is top notch.
The program is play-​based, balanced with bilingual learning. They have dedicated music teacher that teaches individual class. My son can sing so many songs in both English and Chinese. Although the class exposes the children to some academic subjects, the focus of the teachers is truly to get the kids intellectually intrigued, emotionally ready and socially competent to move on to Kindergarden and beyond.
The facility is newly renovated, open, spacious and neatly managed. The class size is under 24 for preK. The school is perfect for working couples, where its holiday schedule is much reasonable than some other preschools in the neighborhood.

Nobody understood when I announced that I am putting my youngest child in a Mandarin immersion program. We are not Chinese, and nobody in the family speaks Mandarin. The idea came from two sources — a book on brain plasticity discussing the importance of challenging the developing brains and my older kids complaining that until high school/​college school was too easy and did not teach them to work hard. Learning Chinese seems to fulfill both goals and we started YCIS in summer before kindergarten 1.5 years ago.
YCIS elementary is not a full immersion school. Each class has an English teacher and Chinese teacher (s). All main subject are taught in English which is important to me. There are about two hours of Chinese instruction a day plus a lot of Mandarin during break time and after school.
The staff so far has been fabulous. At least English teachers (I am not hundred percent sure about Chinese) have California teaching credentials. That is also important to me, because I don’t believe that a person with a PhD in math but no training in child development and education is likely make my kid love math.
The new principal Mr. Reimer is very personable, kids adore him, he has a vast American and international teaching/​administration experience.
The parents are very involved and friendly and as a white non-​Chinese speaking parent I never felt left out. Many kids come from mixed-​racial families, I would say that less than 30% of parents speak Mandarin at home,
My daughter seems to understand a lot of overheard Mandarin conversations on the streets, which delights her. She is not speaking much yet, but she is able to recognize quite a lot of characters and write some. This year she is going to after school program two days a week mostly to get help with Chinese homework and be more exposed to conversational Mandarin.
Her English and math are very appropriate for the first grade level. There are kids in her class that are reading at much higher than the grade level, but she feels quite secure and is moving at her own pace, I do not feel that she is «drilled» or «pushed to perform».
So far we are quite happy about our decision.

We have had our son at this school since he was in pre-​k and now he is a first grader (3 years). There was some turnover in staff in 2009 but those changes are in the past and the current administration has been stable for the last 2 years.
At graduation each year, I am really impressed at the fluency and the capabilities of the 5^th graders who graduate from this school. They are a small group of mostly girls who have definitely learned how to speak Mandarin Chinese. I’d like to see more boys enrolled through 5^th grade in the future.
From my son’s standpoint, he loves the school and the teachers. The parents are a caring and friendly group of people who take a strong interest in the lives of their children. I have noticed a definite increase in homework in 1^st grade from kindergarten.
The staff is caring and competent and very approachable.
What could be better? Facilities are a bit dated for elementary campus. The preschool campus is new as of this year and separate from the elementary campus.

my kid has been in this school since pre 3, we like this school a lot.
first, i like the teachers here, very patient, responsive, and also i like the fact Chinese teacher speaks authentic Mandarin and English teacher speaks authentic English.
second, i like the parents here, all parents here cares about kids and the education, very good environment.
third, the current principal Mr Reimer is very visionary and practical, the best principal i’ve ever met, he is really the one who knows how to make a school best for students.
they also offer violin class as part of their regular music class, which saves me a lot of time and money to force my son learning other instruments, as I do want him to get some basic knowledge of music and instruments, but not too much into it.
tuition is relatively expensive, but consider as a bilingual school with good teaching quality, it’s still acceptable.

My kids attended Yew Chung for preschool and we loved it. It’s very rare to find a play-​based, developmentally appropriate bilingual Mandarin program that doesn’t start with the «drill and kill» at age 3. This place understands early childhood education and their Mandarin program is terrific for both preschool and primary school. Tuition is very reasonable for private, bilingual education

Our kids have been here for 3 years and they’ve really learned a lot — both English and Chinese content. The teachers are great and seem to be getting better every year.
The community of parents is really positive and close as well. The leadership as of late (2010) is really great. Principal Reimer who joined in 2010 has a lot of both practical and educational sense and brings a positive environment to the school.

I can only speak from my own experience, but my son has just completed two years of preschool at YCIS, and my daughter is going to attend next year. Our experience has been pretty positive. I was very impressed by the kind and caring preschool teachers. I had previously visited a number of Chinese/​non-​Chinese preschools and was disappointed at how detached some of the teachers seemed to be. I’m not sure about the other classes, but my son had really nice, fun, and loving teachers who seemed to take a genuine interest in him and who were usually available to chat after class if I wanted to catch up on how he was doing.
For example, he was totally uninterested in learning to write his name, or even sitting down to draw or do crafts. In typical boy fashion, he would just run away every time. My husband and I were a bit concerned about this, but his preschool teachers reassured me that they would work on him with it. They told me not to put pressure on him, and found many innovative ways to interest him in writing, such as tracing out letters in sand with his fingers, getting him a special rubber pencil holder to improve his grip, and encouraging him to do activities such as cutting paper (which they said would help to improve the muscles in his hands so that writing wouldn’t feel so awkward).
My husband was somewhat skeptical, but all of a sudden, my son suddenly had a huge break through. He started to write and draw and now spends hours colouring and creating elaborate maps and dioramas. He did this all very naturally, without feeling pressured. I should also mention that before we signed up for the school, I asked them what their preschool philosophy was and it is primarily play-​based. Since that was what I wanted, I was pretty happy with it, although someone expecting a rigorous academic schedule might be disappointed.
Elementary school, however, seems to be a lot more academic. Despite living in an area with excellent public schools, I’m actually going to keep my son at YCIS for kindergarten because I was really impressed by the Chinese learning at kinder level. I sat in on a number of kindergarten classes and I was surprised at how fluent even the non-​Chinese speakers appeared to be. They were not only able to read a great number of characters, but were also able to use them in sentences to demonstrate an understanding of the meaning. (Btw, I am not involved in the parent organization) In any case, I can only speak from my own experience and overall that has been positive.

My son went here for pre-​K. We were excited about having our son learn the Chinese language and were under the impression that he would learn start to learn other subjects as well (reading, writing, math). While my friends’ children at other pre-​schools were coming home with workbook papers showing what they had worked on that day, my son never came home with anything. He spent an entire year learning essentially nothing, not even Chinese. The Chinese teacher favored those students who already knew some Chinese and did not try very hard to engage those who were new to the language. Additionally, the other boys in the class formed exclusive groups often saying «you’re not my friend.» The school tolerates this behavior and does not actively discourage such poor behaviors. It is almost unbelievable that a school could provide such a poor all around education and experience. I was not the only parent who felt this way. Many of my son’s fellow classmates did not return to the school the following year for kindergarten. I have since found my son’s education in public school to be far superior and an all around good experience.

A subsidiary of the Yew Chung International Schools in Hong Kong/​China, the Silicon Valley campus offers its students a curriculum in both English and Mandarin Chinese. With classes starting from preschool to 5^th grade, Yew Chung has small classes which gives each student the extra care he or she needs to absorb the materials taught. Kindergarten to 5^th grade has less than 20 students in each class. Check out their website at