DSA 2017
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fable:
The only school that truly appreciate sporting talent so far that I see is SSP.....Well said! It is the responsible schools that try to ensure that the child chosen for DSA is able to cope with the academic rigours of the school. While the official cut off is 200 I think it would be doing a disservice to the student to simply look at the lowest possible qualifying mark.
When one of the school reps approached us to speak to us with an DSA invitation for the school, his first question was how my son is doing academically. And we appreciated that because to us it showed that they were looking beyond what they could get out of the child in terms of (potential) sporting accolades.floppy:
Why 75%? Why not 60%?
If schools are really looking for sports talent, 50% is also a passing grade.
While NJC have stated their minimum requirement upfront, others may make you go through 3 rounds of auditions but eliminate you in the final round if they feel that the candidate is unlikely to keep up with the academic requirements. Would that change your perception whether these schools are really looking for sports talent or not?
Ultimately, all schools have a responsibility to ensure that their students keep up with the required academic expectations. Bearing in mind that NJC only offer IP, which is a 6 year programme, they have to be more stringent and careful about their students compared to schools that can offer DSA into O level track, or has both IP and O level tracks in their school. If the NJC student cannot-make-it at the end of the journey, it is worthwhile to remember that the student only has a PSLE certificate to rely on.
The above is not the same as saying that the academic is the ultimate / only consideration while sports / music / art merits are thrown aside.
For the rest of the schools esp the IPs, academic results play a rather significant part in the selection criteria. -
if you want to nurture your child in the sporting arena and compete internationally, I think SSP provides a better platform however SSP is also limited by the number of sports they offer…they are only gaming on "popular sports" by so far…
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Imp75:
The only school that truly appreciate sporting talent so far that I see is SSP.....fable:
Well said! It is the responsible schools that try to ensure that the child chosen for DSA is able to cope with the academic rigours of the school. While the official cut off is 200 I think it would be doing a disservice to the student to simply look at the lowest possible qualifying mark.
When one of the school reps approached us to speak to us with an DSA invitation for the school, his first question was how my son is doing academically. And we appreciated that because to us it showed that they were looking beyond what they could get out of the child in terms of (potential) sporting accolades.[quote=\"floppy\"]
Why 75%? Why not 60%?
If schools are really looking for sports talent, 50% is also a passing grade.
While NJC have stated their minimum requirement upfront, others may make you go through 3 rounds of auditions but eliminate you in the final round if they feel that the candidate is unlikely to keep up with the academic requirements. Would that change your perception whether these schools are really looking for sports talent or not?
Ultimately, all schools have a responsibility to ensure that their students keep up with the required academic expectations. Bearing in mind that NJC only offer IP, which is a 6 year programme, they have to be more stringent and careful about their students compared to schools that can offer DSA into O level track, or has both IP and O level tracks in their school. If the NJC student cannot-make-it at the end of the journey, it is worthwhile to remember that the student only has a PSLE certificate to rely on.
The above is not the same as saying that the academic is the ultimate / only consideration while sports / music / art merits are thrown aside.
For the rest of the schools esp the IPs, academic results play a rather significant part in the selection criteria.[/quote]Urm.... I wouldn't really agree with the statement that the \"rest of the schools esp the IPs, academic results play a rather significant part in the selection criteria\" I don't think it's plainly just that.
What I observed is that the schools, when considering DSA candidates, need to ensure that the candidates can REALLY cope in school with the schoolwork. Given that the majority of applications for DSA tend to go to the \"top schools\", the academic standards in these schools are also not to be laughed at. In fact, do remember that in Sec 1 all the students will have this crazy tremendous increase in no. of subjects (from 4 sbj to around 7-8 sbj) that they need to take, plus projects all to be done and completed at the same time, plus an automatic adjustment (?!) to the utterly different style/standard of expectation (esp for level of independence) when it comes to their schoolwork. ALL THESE are the basic requirements of all secondary school students.
The DSA students need to fulfill ALL OF THE ABOVE and then +++ all the DSA requirements and expectations, the least of which would be the crazy 2-3 days of CCA practices per week (normal days) and close to 5-6 days of intense practices per week during performance/competition seasons.
If the academic side of school is not well taken care of, the DSA kids will need to have additional supplementary sessions and higher level of supervision from their teachers. All these add up to higher pressure on the kids and it's questionable if all of them can cope with such a large extent of change all at once.
There's more..... The peer pressure from the friends in the CCA group to achieve performance is invisible but very very real. DSA kids tend to be under higher expectations from their friends to put in more since they DSAed into the school using their ability in the CCA. And DSA kids have almost no defence against that....
So all in all, this is really not a straight forward issue of \"why they place their main criteria on academics when it's for DSA?\" or \"they should just look at the CCA performance to judge if can DSA\" Often, parents get caught in the exercise of DSA just plainly focusing on the act of getting it through. For the kids, they have to live that decision for the next 4-6 years. And the conditions attached to DSA is pretty much iron-clad. If you want to leave the CCA, you really may have to leave the school. And leaving the school will NOT be a straight forward matter with MOE. That much I can confirm..... -
Ladylady:
May I know which 3 main subjects? English, Maths and Science?Is dsa head of njc I spoke with
Oh he didn't specifically to me on all subjects average or each subjects but I guess shld be the 3 mains subjects must be within 80-90s. He mentioned that if the child is 60-70s range then if the child is in dsa he may have a hard time catching up.
So ultimately be it dsa via music, sports or leadership it is still the academics that they will look into
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Yes, but that’s only my guess I cannot confirm that. My guess is so because NJC is not a SAP school. Unlike HCI the kid Chinese must be of certain standard n certain marks they looking at.
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Yes, but that’s only my guess I cannot confirm that. My guess is so because NJC is not a SAP school. Unlike HCI the kid Chinese must be of certain standard n certain marks they looking at.
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Actually, I was thinking if a child is able to score well then why is there a need to go into the school thru DSA? if the school is accepting students only based on their SA! results, then it also may not be fair, as all school’s exam standard is not the same. For example, a child may just score 70+ for a particular subject, but the highest in the whole school is like 80+ and the child is already the top 20 in that subject, is it fair to penalize them base on that?
Yes, I agree that it will be tough for a child who is not doing well academically to enter a IP sch, nonetheless, it doesn’t mean that the child will not be able to perform well later. Afterall, all these PSLE, DSA etc is just looking at 1/2 exam results. Therefore, my personal view of DSA is that they should be more open to results, not that they should accept all results, just that perhaps as long as majority of the subjects can hit a target, they should just let the student have a go at the audtion. -
Went through the DSA exercise last year. A lot of waiting and uncertainties. Super relieved when DD got the offer. School strongly advised to apply DSA. Think school need to meet some KPI. Many years later will be DD2 turn. Hope they have scrapped this dsa thingy by then. Go back to good old days when only PSLE results decide.
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which school (RGPS?) strongly advised its students to DSA? I am surprised to hear this!
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Imp75:
which school (RGPS?) strongly advised its students to DSA? I am surprised to hear this!
One of the gep Centres...I was also surprised to hear that from DD. My concern then was that she will be upset if she is not successful. The school she DSA only announced the outcome on the last day. Poor thing... everyday she asked me if got receive email from school. She was then in the midst of some tests or exams ( if I recall correctly).
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