[Bukit Merah] Primary Schools

[Love.045082Depot]

Skinnybeanie, why not you screen capture the map as a "prove" ? just in case … Bec OneMap should be accurate since MOE, SLA etc r using it.

[qms]

skinnybeanie:

A silly noob question: The Onemap service is reliable right? There won't be sudden ugly surprises like I'm suddenly not under 1km from the school when Onemap says I am right?

If you are wary, call up the school to confirm.

[Double E]

Hi

Anyone here went to the ALPS Dialogue with Student leaders this morning? What is your view of the school after the session.

I thot the Principal has clear direction of how she wants the school to grow and the VP seems like a nice lady too. The only thing is the choice of CCA seems limited. Maybe because the school is still very new.

[hubble]

Impressions/takeaways from this morning’s briefing/tour at ALPS:


1) The school seems to place a strong emphasis on inculcating good values. My missus was greeted by a P1 student in the library and she was rather impressed by the child’s confidence and courteous behaviour. The child even shared that he was excited about going to P2 next year so that he can share with & lead the P1s. I came away with the sense that the children in this school will have a strong sense of camaraderie & identity.
2) An initial concern about it being a new school is that of whether the school will get teachers who are sufficiently experienced. It was heartening to hear that the school was in a position to cherry pick the teachers it felt were a right fit for its ethos.
3) The proposed banding (as opposed to streaming) at the end of P2 is a bit of a concern though - not sure how they are going to do it in a way which gives sufficient scope for the the students to be suitably challenged/motivated.
4) The lack of choice of food in the canteen seems to be a cause for concern for many parents.
5) There is a lack of natural greenery; no natural open field where the children can ‘roam freely’ & there’s a concrete jungle feel.
6) Being new, it is unlikely that there will be many choices for CCAs. I was given to understand that it is likely that there will be a uniformed group (possibly scouts) - which would be a good start.

On the whole, I thought it was helpful for parents to understand the school a bit better.

[Double E]

hubble:

Impressions/takeaways from this morning's briefing/tour at ALPS:


1) The school seems to place a strong emphasis on inculcating good values. My missus was greeted by a P1 student in the library and she was rather impressed by the child's confidence and courteous behaviour. The child even shared that he was excited about going to P2 next year so that he can share with & lead the P1s. I came away with the sense that the children in this school will have a strong sense of camaraderie & identity.
2) An initial concern about it being a new school is that of whether the school will get teachers who are sufficiently experienced. It was heartening to hear that the school was in a position to cherry pick the teachers it felt were a right fit for its ethos.
3) The proposed banding (as opposed to streaming) at the end of P2 is a bit of a concern though - not sure how they are going to do it in a way which gives sufficient scope for the the students to be suitably challenged/motivated.
4) The lack of choice of food in the canteen seems to be a cause for concern for many parents.
5) There is a lack of natural greenery; no natural open field where the children can 'roam freely' & there's a concrete jungle feel.
6) Being new, it is unlikely that there will be many choices for CCAs. I was given to understand that it is likely that there will be a uniformed group (possibly scouts) - which would be a good start.

On the whole, I thought it was helpful for parents to understand the school a bit better.

Hi Hubble
Agree with you on the lack of natural greenery as compared to other Pri schools in Bukit Merah. I didn't complete the tour and I thought the field is somewhere behind the main building. So there isn't any field?

[lonerunner]

Hello Double E,


The \"Field\" is on 7th floor(top floor) - with fake grass. It should be directly above the location for indoor sports hall. Didnt get to see it today during the tour. The school campus is very small.

Size of the school compound can be seen from here:
http://www.alexandrapri.moe.edu.sg/cont ... dress.html

Some photos of school's facilities:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 172&type=3

[Disneyland]

hi,

did anyone go to the open house for zhangde pri sch, or has anything to share about zhangde?

[msrajey]

I went to both zhangde Pri open house and the ALPS briefing…


Generally both schools were good. But my assessment below could also be affected my original expectation levels of both schools before I visited them…

ZhangDe:
Students were guiding us through at Zhangde and these students were from primary 3… I liked their sports camps most and from what the student said its open to all as long as parents consented. But not sure if that’s absolutely correct.

Alps:
The principal was clear in her direction etc but noticed she’s not the first to do certain things. In terms of cherry picking new teachers seems like all new schools are able to do that now… Anyway my concerns were:
1. Canteen food had very limited choices with only 2 open stall - 1 Malay stall and another drink stall
2. They said no homework day on Wednesday but I am not sure if they can sustain this once the children enter upper primary. also currently the population is small so the teachers can focus better. But as the VP mentioned their recruitment pool allowed by MOE is similar to other schools as well so the level of focus will drain soon just like other established schools and it also depends on the school’s ability to recruit in time. Otherwise it will drain even faster.
3. the orientation around the school was abit confusing, not sure if it was becos it was my first trip there… But with the canteen and play area and classrooms at higher levels with lower levels being empty or nearly half the sch being empty it felt like the kids can go missing during recess time. I mean can’t be that bad as the sch is running with 2 levels already now but it also felt like not sth impossible.
4. Principal’s briefing was impressive no doubt but can’t really tell the impact as we weren’t able to interact much with the kids.

Other more established schools had more facilities and equipment in terms of sports and play… I may not be sure of ALPS on this point but Zhangde had more sports related activities and leadership training programs which ALPS might not have explored yet. Principal of ALPS is indeed impressive and even the teacher who gave us the tour was able to answer just any question. At Zhangde the interaction with the principal wasn’t there as I arrived much later too…but we saw the works of P1 and P2 and they used various tools to teach math and eng and they even gave us a list of websites to visit to teach eng at home for the kids…

Basically I was impressed with Zhangde as maybe I didn’t know much about them in the first place but had heard more about ALPS…

Hope the above is informative… Just my two cents worth.

[Raysan]

Thanks for the sharing. For me teachers are the main factors & concern. Heard that ALPS principle was transferred from a good school. However, new school needs time to slowly establish every area especially CCA. So really difficult to do fair contrast at both schools. My child will be at 2C phrase where ALPS, RMPS & Zhang De is within 1km. I’m still in dilemma…

[Double E]

Hi Raysan

My child will be in phase 2c and I am within 1km to ALPS, Zhangde and GES. Initially, I thot I will go for ALPS, but after visiting both schools, I am now torn between GES and ALPS. Frankly, if not that ALPS has a P and a VP from branded schools, I may just go to GES because of it’s more established programmes. GES’s new principal is also from a branded school.