Tag: primary school

Early P1 Ballot Likely At 5 Popular Schools; Not For Malay Students

Parents hoping to place their six-year-olds in five of the most popular primary schools this year may face a ballot next week.

The schools are CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, Nanyang Primary, Nan Hua Primary, Red Swastika School and Catholic High School.

A total of 29 schools were left with fewer than half of their vacancies after Phase 2A1, the second of seven Primary 1 registration stages, closed on Wednesday. Last year, only 19 schools were in this situation.

The phase, which follows Phase 1 for children with siblings currently studying in the school, is for children whose parents had joined the school alumni association at least one year ago, or are on the school advisory committee.

The next phase, 2A2, is for children whose parents or siblings are former pupils, or whose parent is a staff member at the school. Registration starts next Tuesday and ends the next day.

A rule introduced in 2014, which requires all primary schools to set aside 40 places for children in the later stages, may also put a squeeze on places available for the next phase. The 40 places will be split equally between children registering in Phases 2B and 2C.

In the past three years, balloting has been taking place at an earlier stage of the registration exercise, partly as a result of this new rule.

Phase 2B is for children whose parents are school volunteers, active community leaders or have ties with church or clan associations directly connected with the schools. Phase 2C is for children with no ties to the school.

After reserving the 40 places, CHIJ St Nicholas has only seven spots left for Phase 2A2, after 95 children registered this week.

Nanyang Primary and Nan Hua Primary have 10 and 19 places respectively left for Phase 2A2, while Red Swastika and Catholic High have 23 and 31 spots respectively left for Phase 2A2.

Communications professional Ow Yong Weng Leong successfully registered his daughter for a place at Red Swastika School this week.

“The school offers Higher Chinese from Primary 1, so I hope it will help my daughter in becoming bilingual as she currently speaks English more,” said the 37-year-old.

Editors Note:

Based on sources, students who take Malay as a second language cannot enrol in any of the five popular primary schools namely CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, Nanyang Primary, Nan Hua Primary, Red Swastika School and Catholic High School (https://www.moe.gov.sg/a…/primary-one-registration/vacancies). Perhaps if they make millions, one day one of them they can become President of Singapore. What a shame.

Is the kind of elite tokenistic multiracialism the DAG believes in?

Source: StraitsTimes

July 10, 2017
Losing Dad And Best Friend No Obstacle For Girl To Make It To Secondary School

Nine days before her first Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) paper, Putri Lydia Hemamalini lost her “best friend” to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

That friend was her 64-year-old father, who had suffered from the condition for about three years.

“I would share my problems with him and he would give me advice,” the Lianhua Primary School pupil said.

“I wanted to do my best at the PSLE and make him proud.”

Yesterday, the 12-year-old was recognised by her principal for her perseverance. She was asked to stand while schoolmates applauded her.

She received an A grade for Malay, C for English, and Ds for science and mathematics at the national exam, and can move on to a secondary school.

During the difficult period, Putri had to juggle preparing for her PSLE and offering emotional support to her 47-year-old mother, who works as a crew member at McDonald’s, and her three siblings aged between eight and 17.

Besides revising daily when she got home after school, she also had to help out with household chores.

“I had to stay positive for my family,” she said.

Teachers and schoolmates rallied around Putri in her grief, helping with questions about schoolwork and offering words of encouragement.

“The school is like a second home to me,” Putri said.

“My teachers and friends have been very supportive. I am thankful for them and will miss them when I leave this school.”

Madam Po Mun Ying, her form teacher, said Putri is a cheerful and upbeat child who demonstrated resilience to work hard in her studies.

“She also knew she had to do her best to make her dad and family proud,” Madam Po added.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

November 25, 2016
Don’t Despair, PSLE Results Don’t Determine Your Life

I want friends and parents to do this: share with us your PSLE score and then tell us what you are doing now. It will give hope and motivation to the young ones that PSLE scores don’t necessarily determine your future.

So let’s start the ball rolling:

My PSLE score is 221. I am now an Associate Professor in a University.

Source: Khairudin Aljunied

November 25, 2016
New PSLE Scoring System Will Dilute Elitism, Now Time To Stop Entry By Affiliation And Direct School Admissions

Your average 4-pointer will be faced with a tough decision. which school to pick as his first choice? what if RI only has a Sec 1 enrolment class of 400 and your 4-pointer knows that there are 4000 4-pointers in Singapore? He is not guaranteed entry into RI any more. The school of his second and third choice becomes very important also – if he picks HCI, for example, and their cut off is also 4-points, he basically has no chance of getting in if there are400 x 4-pointers who put HCI as first choice. so he will be forced to diversify his choice of schools.

In the past, your PSLE 260++ students would all just go straight for the RIs and the HCIs and the RGSes, and go on to hang out together, go to tuition together, apply for scholarships together, marry each other, work in the same high paying jobs together, continue to decide policy together, and send their kids back to same schools together in an entire career and life track cut off from the rest of Singapore.

With this scheme, there is a strong chance that they will end up in any number of 20-30 other schools instead of 2-3… spreading the talent pool. Doubling down on “every school is a good school”. Breaking the concentration of elitism. And this happens all the way down. It’s a good move.

The next step is to end affiliation and to clamp down on DSA.

Source: Joshua Ip

July 14, 2016
Mother Slaps Boy Who Knocked Into Her Son At School

A pupil accidently knocked into his classmate on Tuesday (July 21).

It should have been a small incident quickly sorted out between kids turned into something big when a parent decided to take matters into her own hands.

The incident is believed to have happened at a primary school in the Bishan area.

The friend of the pupil’s mother, Madam Huang, described to Lianhe Wanbao the series of events she says took place after the initial knock..

According to her, the mother of the classmate found out about the incident while dropping her son off at school the next day.

The angry parent then slapped a boy – whom she thought was responsible – in front of his classmates, said Madam Huang.

When she found out she had hit the wrong boy, she continued to look for the real “perpetrator”, and slapped that boy as well.

Madam Huang claimed the woman told the boy: “This is how it feels like to be slapped.”

Shocked, upset

The two boys who were slapped were shocked and upset, said Madam Huang.

Lianhe Wanbao understands that the school arranged for the parents of all three boys to meet on Friday (July 24) and that the woman apologised for her actions.

But the parents of the two boys who were slapped made a police report later that day as they felt the apology was insincere and that the woman’s story did not match-up with other details of the incident.

Police confirmed that a police report had been made.

Source: www.tnp.sg

July 26, 2015