All About GEP

[EQmum]

mulan:

I actually dun see that he is naturally gifted, that is why the doubt is there.

mulan,

I can understand your worry. I am in the same situation as you last year. But after undergo a year of GEP with my ds, I can ensure you that your son will fit himself in very well. All you need to do is to give your full support and encourage him all th way.

[clayman]

mulan:

Hi Chief Kiasu,


I actually dun see that he is naturally gifted, that is why the doubt is there.

Have spoken to him , told him the and cons, he actually wanted to try.

He is not trained to be in GEP, as we let to him to go play play, but didn't know he is selected.

The decision is that we will let him try cos he wanted it.

Being a working mother of 4 is truly no joke, esp my eldest is going for PSLE nex yr

We will monitor and see, if worst case I may quit to focus on them.

thks for the advice.

Hi Mulan,

My son is also the play play sort and we did not hype up any expectations at all. We took a \" if he gets in...get in lor...if not also never mind\" approach.

It was a pleasant surprise that he got in and his teachers in school also encouraged him to take it up. I had a talk with him and also told him what the expectations are. I also brought him along for the briefing so that he has a better idea of what the programme entails. In the end he decided to go for it. The good thing is that he doesn't have to uproot to another school...so that helps.

Which school do you plan to put your son in? My son is in ACS.

Cheers

[mulan]

Thks Chief Kiasu,

Wish me luck, I'm feeling the stress now.

[ctct61t]

Sometimes, Parents got more stress than children themselves for the GEP program.

[cluelessmom]

My ger has just been selected for the GEP program :shock: . I have never sent her for any tution or enrichment classess but after reading another thread about the expectations of the chinese scores fr another GEP school, it got me worried. Her chinese grades are just passable but if the expectations are to score above 90, I'll probably faint...... she is very headstrong and very against the idea of having any tuition or enrichment classess....in the neighbourhood school maybe she can breeze past her exams without tuition or efforts but I am really worried now if she can handle the program without xtra efforts or tuition.. any parents of geppers care to comfort me on this......

[EQmum]

cluelessmom [quote]the expectations are to score above 90, I'll probably faint...... [/quote]
Dear cluelessmom,

Not to worry too much. When my son enter the GEP early year, he had to pick up higher chinese instead of the chinese that he had in P3. Cos he goes to a SAP school. He actually failed his first chinese test and that was his first time he ever failed in any test or exam. Sad to said that I sent him for enrichment class out of no choice. If your ger is against it, then you can encourage her to read more. Take the top PSLE girl as an example. In my son school, the highest grade in higher MT for this year is 91.9, average 73.5 and the lowest is 53.5. So you can see they still can manage well and all of them are taking higher MT for next year again. Just relax. What your ger needs is your support and encouragement to sail through with her.

[cluelessmom]

Many thks to EQmum,


Feeling slightly better after ur encouraging words.....jus wondering how did u help him adjust to his own expectations of his marks and the program. My ger gets lots of attention at her current school and tops the level.... but I knw she is smart but nt outstanding brilliant and kinda lazy.... so I am expecting her grades to slide at the new school... not sure if she can get used to not scoring well.... Am I making a big mistake by turning a happy child to an unhappy one by enrolling her into a program that might potentially break her spirits???? Hahaha I think i am sounding paranoid again,,,

[EQmum]

This year was the most stressful year for me as compared to him. Cos I think my IQ is not up to my ds mark. I never help him to adjust his own expectation. He adjusted himself automatically. He is aware that some of his peer perform better than him and he said that he would work hard to catch up with them. Sad to said that I have yet to see him work hard. He told me that he would try again next year. :lol: That's wait and see.

However, my experience tells me that we are the one that really need to adjust our expectation. You will never see the scored of 90+ marks for all subjects any more. You must get used to it and lower down ur expectation.
No doubt there are still some kids scoring 90+ marks for some subjects. But the average lots scored an overall between 72% to 77%. Anyway, their baseline are mark at 70%. Other then the basis 4 subjects, they must also pass their social studies which will be grade in marks. So their total aggregate is 500 marks. I think you might see a slide in term 1 but they will adjust them quickly and fit into the programe. Thus you are able to see improvement in the following terms.
Let her know that the new friends she is going to meet are having the same or better grades than her. So she is not going to be in the spotlight anymore.
Hope this will help to prepare you mentally.

[cluelessmom]

So grateful for kind souls like u, EQmum here, :lol: am glad to hear that ur son is so well adjusted and comforting to knw that there's no need for me to get paranoid and start trying to load my ger wif additional enrichment classess so as to keep her grades up.... as I have always never interfered wif her studies, it will really be stressful for both of us if I were to start now.... :?

[ChiefKiasu]

cluelessmom:

So grateful for kind souls like u, EQmum here, :lol: am glad to hear that ur son is so well adjusted and comforting to knw that there's no need for me to get paranoid and start trying to load my ger wif additional enrichment classess so as to keep her grades up.... as I have always never interfered wif her studies, it will really be stressful for both of us if I were to start now.... :?

On the other hand, I would advise that you should consider sending your child to Chinese enrichment courses. Chinese is a subject that really requires constant interaction in order for us to get better. It is difficult for your child to improve by herself simply through reading. Molin or Jiang Education are very good in this area.