Poi Ching

[Gabby]

Any idea where most of the students of poi ching go after psle? It’s scary, considering P6 is just next year.

[Dreamgear]

Gabby:

Any idea where most of the students of poi ching go after psle? It's scary, considering P6 is just next year.

Depending on scores, dhs, vs, anglican, chung cheng, dunman sec, ngee ann sec, st hilda.

Mine ds went to chs with 2 other boys....

[Gabby]

I hope ds goes to a coed school. It’s good if he does not need to travel too far. But so far, I am still clueless. Maybe he can consider temasek n Ngee ann.

[Dreamgear]

Minecrafter:

Parents meeting week. Just very curious to know if there will be any parents heading to see the H.O.D. Chinese regarding the CL teacher for 5D?


PM me if you do? Perhaps more people make the voice louder..

Did you manage to speak to the HOD? Just got an email from her with all the parents email addresses in it. Really driving me up the wall....what can we do about it???

[chelle1407]

Hi parents, I’m an alumni and deciding whether to enrol my boy in PCS or to a within-1km neighborhood school. I’m not after a very reputable or elite school. So long the school’s culture, environment and pace are apt for 7-12yos, I’m good. So my main concern is whether the "stress" level and workload for HCL in PCS will be too much for a child. Actually, I got concerned about the "stress" after reading this forum thread… And even the VP told me bluntly that "I can tell you our Chinese standard/workload here is very high. Don’t complain by then because you chose to enrol your child here." (Paraphrased). I’m in all agreement that my boy should be well versed in Chinese language which is why he’s already in Berries. I’m just unsure if I need him to be able to recognize "2000 words in 2 years which normally takes 6 years".


So I hope to seek advise from parents with children already in PCS here: are your children coping fine from P1? Is stress level really high for the kids? Appreciate if there are any other advise that could help me in making a decision. Thank you.

[Gabby]

chelle1407:

Hi parents, I'm an alumni and deciding whether to enrol my boy in PCS or to a within-1km neighborhood school. I'm not after a very reputable or elite school. So long the school's culture, environment and pace are apt for 7-12yos, I'm good. So my main concern is whether the \"stress\" level and workload for HCL in PCS will be too much for a child. Actually, I got concerned about the \"stress\" after reading this forum thread... And even the VP told me bluntly that \"I can tell you our Chinese standard/workload here is very high. Don't complain by then because you chose to enrol your child here.\" (Paraphrased). I'm in all agreement that my boy should be well versed in Chinese language which is why he's already in Berries. I'm just unsure if I need him to be able to recognize \"2000 words in 2 years which normally takes 6 years\".


So I hope to seek advise from parents with children already in PCS here: are your children coping fine from P1? Is stress level really high for the kids? Appreciate if there are any other advise that could help me in making a decision. Thank you.

hi, how far are you from pcs? My own experience is within 1 km, no balloting. 1 to 2 km, expect balloting.

I have 2 boys in pcs. Though there are occasional frustrations, I am overall happy with the school. I feel my boys have an overall good school experience. If you are worried about the level of chinese in pcs, I will say that the parents have to be involved in the learning for the first two years. If you can't support your child, it's good to source for some help. By P3 when the kids use the moe textbook, learning becomes easier. I am speaking based on my own experience.

I will think a lot depends on the teachers your child will have. My sons have had teachers who are fantastic, encouraging and firm at the same time. One or two, they don't speak of as fondly.

I will still put my no. 3 in PCS next year.

[chelle1407]

Thanks, Gabby. I’m an old-girl… So shouldn’t have a prob enrolling in phase 2A.

So did your boys get daily Chinese homework and twice weekly character recognition tests too? Is that too rough to get through for 7-8 year olds?

Another thing is also PCS’s teaching methods and facilities are quite diff fm the neighborhood school (north vista Pri) in my other option. NVPS is more IT-forward. Facilities are surely newer since they’re not too old and even classroom arrangement is more collaborative style compared to the traditional way in PCS. I’m hesitant over over IT-use too so just weighing the pros and cons now…

[Gabby]

The Chinese is pretty intensive in the first two years. I will say parental involvement is a must, as the kids are probably too young to manage time for their own timing. Things have improved from my eldest son’s time. I remembered he had word recognition tests every other day and it was like 60 questions per test. The school asked parents for feedback at the end of the academic year. When my son was in P1 two years after the brother, the tests had around 10-20 questions each. The curriculum and mini tests in P1 focus more on word recognition.


I will say that facilities and lesson delivery is good. What I like about the school is the teachers never shortchange the pupils in any sense. Even noncore subjects like SS , CCE, art, PE, HE, music are taught and delivered properly by teacher. My sons sometimes, had assignments that required them to complete by using ICT. The teachers also made use of the learning management system like mconline to support their teaching. Overall, I feel that the teaching is structured.

What you may want to consider is the logistic arrangement if you do not stay around the area. I originally enrolled my son in maha bohdi because we have priority under 2A. But decided to withdraw and put in PCS as it will be easier on our transport arrangement. School is like 3 mins away.

[chelle1407]

Thank you very much, Gabby.

[Minecrafter]

Teachers are very important in my opinion. They either make or break the kids.


Like this year, my boy is having stressed up big time and as parents we are also getting stressed up by the CL teacher i.e. every now and then we got watsapp, if not emails telling you to do this and that.

In one case recently, I cannot believe that we as a parents now are given home assignment to mentor the kids on oral examination i.e. on a per week basis we now as parents need to be going thru the pictorial oral description and worst still we are made to sign on the paper..!! Drive me NUTS. It seems like we are doing her job for her.

I am not sure if this is correct since we as parents had already gone out of touch of today's academic needs and standard. In addition, it's quite hard for us parents to be doing this since we do not know what the school is looking for in terms of standard.

This 5D CL teacher really drives me up the wall. her time-table in CL spelling changes like changing weather. Asked the parents to get \"model compo books\" but I am not seeing that they are being put to good use. Seeing what things had been turning out, all she wants is probably \"wayang\" for the parents to see she did her dues. I wonder if other classes have this kind of arrangement.

So much about holistic learning..!! :imconstipated: