Maris Stella High School

[MintLeaf]

daisyt:

No, its not compulsory, not even for infocomm.

I read from the chinese zao bao, saw SST students all using Macs too.

But am I right to say that RV infocomm club students are competent with Mac? Do they use Mac to learn C Programming and is this the platform they use to participate in Robotic competitions?

I also heard that SST is using Mac. Was quite surprised actually.

daisyt:

Is it compulsory in MSHS ? Why hor ? :?

Yes, it's compulsory for MSHS. Started with DS batch in 2008. It's part of the school program and they teach things like iMovie, Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, GarageBand, MS Office, etc using Mac. It's part of the IT course.

As we found out about the Mac program only during the registration day, imagine my shock. I still remember for primary school, you can get change for buying books with $100. But for DS, Sec 1 books cost $360+, school uniforms cost $90+, and Macbook $2.7K. And I was wondering what was Sec 2 and above going to be like. :roll: But fortunately they only cost $200-$250.

Honestly I am quite happy with the Mac program. It's sometimes good to learn different software while they are young to at least pick up the semantic knowledge. By semantic we mean the concept, so for example a Word Processor, you learn that there is left, right and centre justification, different font and sizes, header, footer, etc, but navigating MS Word to do these things would be different from iWorks/WordPerfect. But if one has the concept, it's easier to move to another software, and pick up the relevant syntax. This type of knowledge is better for them to learn while they are young.

[cyberpie]

Anyone knows if when the students will know whether they get into the CCA of choice?


Check the e-portal and there are no annoucements … no circulars or memos from the school either …

[von72]

cyberpie:

Anyone knows if when the students will know whether they get into the CCA of choice?


Check the e-portal and there are no annoucements ... no circulars or memos from the school either ...

Hi, i think they should be informed by this week if not latest by Tue next week, depending on which CCA your DS choice is. Cos CCA will kick start next week. My DS got his selection results into Archery today and training will start next Wed. Good luck!!

[skyjuice]

von72:

cyberpie:

Anyone knows if when the students will know whether they get into the CCA of choice?


Check the e-portal and there are no annoucements ... no circulars or memos from the school either ...

Hi, i think they should be informed by this week if not latest by Tue next week, depending on which CCA your DS choice is. Cos CCA will kick start next week. My DS got his selection results into Archery today and training will start next Wed. Good luck!!

DS said only MITS and Archery released their list yesterday, posted outside the staff room. DS in MITS started CCA today alr. Do you know how many kids accepted into archery? DS said only 12 out of 30 got into MITS. I'm surprised they take in only so few. I hope the rest are not thrown into uniform groups, which DS said are way short of applicants.

[skyjuice]

[quote]As we found out about the Mac program only during the registration day, imagine my shock. I still remember for primary school, you can get change for buying books with $100. But for DS, Sec 1 books cost $360+, school uniforms cost $90+, and Macbook $2.7K. And I was wondering what was Sec 2 and above going to be like. :roll: But fortunately they only cost $200-$250.[/quote]
It is precisely because of the Mac program that we wanted DS to be in MS. We think that it is an exciting learning tool. And speaking of books, we brought what we thought was ample to buy the full set of books and 3 sets of uniforms. Yet, we became short of $20! So embarrassing! The teenager staff was so kind to suggest leave out the thumb drive to make the amount we had! Would surely help if the bookshop takes NETS or credit cards! Hope they don't change textbooks next yr, in case my second going MS. That would stretch the dollar a fair bit!

[daisyt]

Hi mintleaf, those C, imovie etc u mention are taught in the normal circulums or in the infocomm cca?


In RV, flash & html are part of a subject call computer studies for all year 1 students. C only for infocomm year 2. Stuffs like imovie, videography, website design n ribotics are for infocomm. Not sure what are the syllabus for comp studies in year 2 yet.

The school does not insist e students must use mac. Robotics software ryn on windows and mac.

The school has mac lab n the students attend comp studies there. (i think :-)). I dont know how many of e infocomm students use mac. For dd, we bought her a mac because she prefer mac. In fact me too

[MintLeaf]

skyjuice:

And speaking of books, we brought what we thought was ample to buy the full set of books and 3 sets of uniforms. Yet, we became short of $20! So embarrassing! The teenager staff was so kind to suggest leave out the thumb drive to make the amount we had! Would surely help if the bookshop takes NETS or credit cards! Hope they don't change textbooks next yr, in case my second going MS. That would stretch the dollar a fair bit!

We felt really silly that day. We didn't have cash with us, and had to drive out to look for an ATM. I thought it would be safer for the bookshop to have electronic payment systems, given the amount of cash they are dealing with that day. We learn to be smarter with the second child after that unforgettable day. Sec 2 onwards is easy. Books can be ordered online from Pacific Book Store and delivery charge is $7.80. Finally a convenient and hassle free buying experience.

[MintLeaf]

daisyt:

Hi mintleaf, those C, imovie etc u mention are taught in the normal circulums or in the infocomm cca?

Everything is taught in the normal curriculum. The kids have many team assignments that require podcast or video production, so that helps to hone their software skills.

They are not taught any programming language though. Personally, I feel that C is quite a difficult programming language to start a child with. Mac comes with gcc compiler so it's easy to write and compile C programs. For this reason, DH wanted me to start DS on C. But I have opted to teach him PHP instead. I am a bad teacher though, so he has not learned very much. :oops:

daisyt:

The school has mac lab n the students attend comp studies there. (i think :-)). I dont know how many of e infocomm students use mac. For dd, we bought her a mac because she prefer mac. In fact me too

We are Mac lovers too, so join the club. The good thing with buying the Mac from the school is the 4-year warranty. Apple has a service centre within the school to provide support. I know of a couple of 'accidents' in class that caused Macbooks to drop on the floor thereby damaging the screens. These were unfortunately not covered by the warranty. And the hefty cost to fix the screen (about 1K) was privately negotiated among the affected parties.

[von72]

cyberpie:

DS said only MITS and Archery released their list yesterday, posted outside the staff room. DS in MITS started CCA today alr. Do you know how many kids accepted into archery? DS said only 12 out of 30 got into MITS. I'm surprised they take in only so few. I hope the rest are not thrown into uniform groups, which DS said are way short of applicants.

Oh really....DS told me only 15 out of 26 will be selected....not sure if the figures are correct. yah, i was told that uniform group are very short of applicants too....and i was worried if my DS not selected into archery will be \"forced\" into NCC!!!! Argh..... thank god!!

[skyjuice]

Is it just my DS or are the other S1s on honeymoon too? He said not much homework and lessons are easy enough. Anyone knows why the 2 geography tests marks are not posted or even returned to the students? Or is it only major tests’ marks are posted on Admin Breeze?