National Junior College (Junior High)

[PowerPuff Mum]

Is this a minibus? We live in Seletar Hills, would the bus be able to swing by here? What are the timing in the morning?

[zeemimi]

Would like to find out more about NJC. The closest i’ve got to the school was just to send my DS there for DSA activities.

Are your kids generally happy in NJC? How’s the camaraderie like in NJC? NJC is strong in its math and science, how about the humanities programme? Thanks!

[phankao]

zeemimi:

Would like to find out more about NJC. The closest i've got to the school was just to send my DS there for DSA activities.

Are your kids generally happy in NJC? How's the camaraderie like in NJC? NJC is strong in its math and science, how about the humanities programme? Thanks!

My boy loves it. Now in Sec 4. Is part of 2 CCAs.

[zeemimi]

phankao:

My boy loves it. Now in Sec 4. Is part of 2 CCAs.

Thanks phankao. Wanted to hear from those who have ds there. I heard there are more girls than boys at njc. How does he feel about that? Happy? :evil: comfortable with the skewed ratio of boys to girls?

[tytktr]

zeemimi:

phankao:

My boy loves it. Now in Sec 4. Is part of 2 CCAs.

Thanks phankao. Wanted to hear from those who have ds there. I heard there are more girls than boys at njc. How does he feel about that? Happy? :evil: comfortable with the skewed ratio of boys to girls?

My boy in Sec 1 now. This year the ratio is not that big. There are 7 to 8 boys in a class of 25. I think NJC purposely gives out more COs to boys in DSA to balance the ratio. My boy feels quite comfortable with that.

[phankao]

zeemimi:

phankao:

My boy loves it. Now in Sec 4. Is part of 2 CCAs.

Thanks phankao. Wanted to hear from those who have ds there. I heard there are more girls than boys at njc. How does he feel about that? Happy? :evil: comfortable with the skewed ratio of boys to girls?

Haha . My boy was even from an All-Boys primary school. I just counted his Sec 4 class. 8 boys in a class of 27 (Class sizes in Upper Secondary are just a little larger than in Lower secondary).

He's been ok with it all along. Has no problem integrating. A great advantage about being in a school with small cohort is that they know many of their fellow students. And in their CCAs, they tend to get to work with fellow students all the way from Sec 1 until JC2. This helps mature their thinking as they learn from their seniors.

[resgmom]

Would like to ask about the AEP program from experienced parents. DS has a CO from NJC and SOTA’s visual arts - he is interested in science but good in doodling and has good observation skills, I guess SOTA saw the potential in him since he’s never attended professional art lessons except taking Chinese painting at the CC with the aunties. I encouraged him to try SOTA for the possibility to have his potential developed further. Now we’re trying to weight the schools.


During SOTA open house, we asked the teachers what’s the difference between AEP and SOTA’s approach and they said that AEP focuses too much on competition and not letting the students explore enough. On the flip side, an art teacher told me teachers from SOTA are mostly the artsy type and didn’t have much training in pedology. Parents with AEP kids, would be very interested to hear of your opinion or anyone you know that had to make the choice between a school with AEP and SOTA…

[PowerPuff Mum]

resgmom:

Would like to ask about the AEP program from experienced parents. DS has a CO from NJC and SOTA's visual arts - he is interested in science but good in doodling and has good observation skills, I guess SOTA saw the potential in him since he's never attended professional art lessons except taking Chinese painting at the CC with the aunties. I encouraged him to try SOTA for the possibility to have his potential developed further. Now we're trying to weight the schools.


During SOTA open house, we asked the teachers what's the difference between AEP and SOTA's approach and they said that AEP focuses too much on competition and not letting the students explore enough. On the flip side, an art teacher told me teachers from SOTA are mostly the artsy type and didn't have much training in pedology. Parents with AEP kids, would be very interested to hear of your opinion or anyone you know that had to make the choice between a school with AEP and SOTA..

My DS is in year 3 in NJC. He loves it there as he is very strong in Maths and Science. I have to commend NJC teachers for their commitment and level of professionalism. The school environment is excellent in terms of personal and character development. My son is in canoeing CCA and they are run it so well that the students are so commitment to the gruelling training and discipline and the camaderie between the canoeists are very strong/cohesive. His close friends who are canoeists and non canoeists alike are very supportive as they help one another at schoolwork and all the teenage angst that they go through together. As I see it, NJC boarding program stands out as it is very well run and managed. I am a great fan of NJC and would highly recommend the school to anyone who consider going there.

My DD who is very artistic and quite strong academically told us she wanted to go to SOTA. As much as we would like her to follow her brother's footsteps and go to NJC, I feel that she would fit in better in SOTA as that his her inclination. We also see that she has the outstanding talent in art. We went for the open house and symposium, spoke to the teachers and other students. We find that the artistic focus as well as the academic rigour would fit our DD better.Hence, we made the decision that SOTA is a better fit. She has been offered a CO by SOTA so the decision is made.

At the end of the day, it depends on the school's focus and where lies your son's interest and passion. Obviously SOTA is a good school where the focus is the arts whereas NJC has a more generalist approach with specialisation in Maths and Science. Only you can tell what is your child's interest and ability, if they enjoy what they do, they will excel. Both are very good schools and I am confident both will provide an excellent environment for your child.

Hope this will helps.

[resgmom]

Thank you PowerPuff Mum for penning your thoughts! Great to hear that your son enjoys NJC and canoeing - understand that it’s NJC’s core CCA strength, he must be very dedicated to it.


It looks like it’s better to let DS decide himself - "talent" itself (which is what the SOTA selection committee saw in DS, I guess) is probably not enough, he still must have the passion. He likes doodling and it basically stops there. It would be nice to have the talent to be developed further but he himself must decide whether he wants to develop that side of him more fully in the art school. For the few cases I’ve heard, it looks like girls have a stronger opinion about whether they would really like to go into SOTA, vs. boys.

[lebookworm]

resgmom:

Would like to ask about the AEP program from experienced parents. DS has a CO from NJC and SOTA's visual arts - he is interested in science but good in doodling and has good observation skills, I guess SOTA saw the potential in him since he's never attended professional art lessons except taking Chinese painting at the CC with the aunties. I encouraged him to try SOTA for the possibility to have his potential developed further. Now we're trying to weight the schools.


During SOTA open house, we asked the teachers what's the difference between AEP and SOTA's approach and they said that AEP focuses too much on competition and not letting the students explore enough. On the flip side, an art teacher told me teachers from SOTA are mostly the artsy type and didn't have much training in pedology. Parents with AEP kids, would be very interested to hear of your opinion or anyone you know that had to make the choice between a school with AEP and SOTA..

Hello! I'm a student from Year 3 in AEP!
The AEP curriculum in NJC explores a lot of mostly traditional mediums. There is a certain set of skills that would be taught or practiced within a certain period of time, ranging from a few lessons to a full semester. Yes, it's true, AEP has a rather fixed focus on more of exploration of the natural world, and has a lesser slant towards individual styles and traits and is quite observational based. So in AEP it would not be drawing random doodles on the sketchbook, but really learning how to explore and draw the natural world around us and this realism is a relatively strong focus. Your child will not be able to explore his style as much but would be able to learn a lot of skills that may come in handy as an artist.

However I think what's really most important is what your child prioritises. Would he prefer a more mainstream and fast paced academic learning, or would he prefer a more arts based learning? After all, most of his time in NJ would be spent learning Maths and Sciences and the focus on arts would be less(but nevertheless still as or even more important). So if he would prefer his future in a more science and academic oriented school, NJ is the place to go!