Hwa Chong Institution (High School)

[Song22]

ellehcim:

My ds' WL has been converted to CO. Glad to be joining HCI family soon. Would like to seek parents'advice whose kids are taking the 3rd language. Will it be taking up alot of their time, in view that the number of subjects taking has doubled of that in primary school, not counting any CCA activities yet.


need to submit the 3rd language option soon, still unable to decide to take up or not and which language to choose if taking up.

Congrats ellehcim and welcome to the HCI family! :rahrah:

[HCI_Boy]

Hi, is Badminton and NPCC in HCI very tough? Is it very difficult get into these two CCAs?

[ellehcim]

lexis:

Welcome to the HCI family!


For 2014, third language days were Monday (for Bahasa, held in school) and Thursday (for those at MOELC). HCI arranges a bus to MOELC on Thursdays. I think MOELC lessons end at 645 pm.

Each third lang session is about 3 hrs, after school. The boys don't do 8-9 subjects in Year 1 - they do 6 - Eng/Lit (1 subject), HCL, Math, lower sec science, Infocomm and Humanities (Geog or history in Sem 1, the other in Sem 2), so in terms of school work/homework, i think my son found it manageable.

Other time consuming 'subjects' are project work, debate, chinese drama, etc. which the boys spend quite a bit of time doing outside of curriculum time. CCAs are usually 2x a week (non-competitive).

Having seen my son complete sec 1 this year, i think whether or not 3rd lang is manageable really depends on whether the child has an interest. The schoolwork/project work/CCA loads are not prohibitive.

Boys who genuinely want to pursue it for love of the language or culture have no problem coping with it (and still get excellent MSGs, active CCA, council etc), but those who don't, tend not to do so well, and end up dropping it along the way.

Dear lexis, thank you very much for your useful information. By the way, how much we need to pay for that bus transport and which MOLEC did they send the kids to? Understand there are 2 centres in Singapore.

[lexis]

i think it is less than $100 for a whole year, and i believe the designated MOELC for HCI is newton. You can opt to go Bishan, but not sure if the school provides transport to the Bishan centre.


Not able to give exact figures cos my son took Malay special prog which is conducted in school on Monday. This is the info he gave me based on what he knows from his friends. I think more info will be given when you report to school on reporting day. Also note that HCI offers a Chinese Elective Prog for sec 1 boys who get a certain PSLE score and A* for Chinese in PSLE (for 2013 PSLE batch i think the Tscore was 258 or 259). It is optional though. If your son qualifies for this, you’ll be notified on reporting day.

[tsh0202]

Abt $50 per year to Bishan MOELC last year.

[Atan]

Dear All, DS will be joining HCI next year :boogie: .

Wonder if we can buy sch uniform and textbooks ahead of the crowd aft S1 posting? And would appreciate if current Y1 parents can share Y1 booklist for ref.
Thanks very much in advance !!

[tsh0202]

Atan:

Dear All, DS will be joining HCI next year :boogie: .

Wonder if we can buy sch uniform and textbooks ahead of the crowd aft S1 posting? And would appreciate if current Y1 parents can share Y1 booklist for ref.
Thanks very much in advance !!

This was what I did last time.( to avoid the crowd)

The bookshop has the booklists. However, it's best to call up to check whether their stocks have arrived before you go there.
Btw, you can also get the textbooks from the Popular bookshops outside. If you've the membership card, it gives a 5% discount. Seems to be the same/a few cents cheaper than the sch bookshop. (According to the salesperson).

[ellehcim]

Thanks lexis and tsh0202 abt the language info. Really helps alot. Lexis mentioned abt the Chinese elective thing probably ds will be qualified. Will it also requires staying back for this programme? Wow so many staying back liao ah… Hence have to ask ds thing carefullcarefully whether 3rd lang or this chinese elective prog liao lo. Dont want him so stressed out and overwhelmed with so many stuff. For me uniform and books it will be good if can grab them earlier. I dislike queues and crowd leh. Hehehhe…

[Song22]

ellehcim:

Thanks lexis and tsh0202 abt the language info. Really helps alot. Lexis mentioned abt the Chinese elective thing probably ds will be qualified. Will it also requires staying back for this programme? Wow so many staying back liao ah.... Hence have to ask ds thing carefullcarefully whether 3rd lang or this chinese elective prog liao lo. Dont want him so stressed out and overwhelmed with so many stuff. For me uniform and books it will be good if can grab them earlier. I dislike queues and crowd leh. Hehehhe.....

Hi Ellehcim

my ds took chinese elective and based on last year, they could choose the lesson on either Monday or Thursday. My ds needs to stay back 4 times a week. For Chinese Elective (LEP), grade is only taken into account if the score is A1. My ds seems to enjoy the program and would like to continue next year, though I tried to \"discourage\" him so that he could come home a day earlier.

[Song22]

Atan:

Dear All, DS will be joining HCI next year :boogie: .

Wonder if we can buy sch uniform and textbooks ahead of the crowd aft S1 posting? And would appreciate if current Y1 parents can share Y1 booklist for ref.
Thanks very much in advance !!

Hey Atan! So happy that you are with us!
:grphug: