[Bukit Merah] Primary Schools

[SPC]

Give APS another 6 years. Its pretty much trial and error now. There would definitely be initial implementation gaps. Feels like P3 and P4 are guinea pigs every new year as they progress. They may be a cool school in future, but right now they are just a test bed with new teaching team. I’d let other brave parents contribute their child to be part of the school maturity progress. Principal and their VPs will just be rotated after a few terms. Ultimately, the big chunk of your child’s success is what you consistently do with them at home and whether the kid’s peers are black or white pearls.

[qms]

ssmumpua:

So radin mas is no longer very academic driven anymore?

It is not as much as it used to be, as far as I am aware.

As for how it is compared to other schools in the region, I have no idea. Nowadays, the principal only talks about character development whenever she speaks.

[janet88]

SPC:

Give APS another 6 years. Its pretty much trial and error now. There would definitely be initial implementation gaps. Feels like P3 and P4 are guinea pigs every new year as they progress. They may be a cool school in future, but right now they are just a test bed with new teaching team. I'd let other brave parents contribute their child to be part of the school maturity progress. Principal and their VPs will just be rotated after a few terms. Ultimately, the big chunk of your child's success is what you consistently do with them at home and whether the kid's peers are black or white pearls.

the principal and vp are not from any ordinary school...so parents buy their SAP experience.
the principal stays for just 7 years and will be rotated after that. this school is brand new and when i first heard of the balloting within 1km, i was really curious since it is not tested. ultimately success cannot depend on just the school itself.

[janet88]

ssmumpua:

So radin mas is no longer very academic driven anymore?


The affiliation is for kellock with STC is like a safety net.

the safety net definitely gives parents a peace of mind especially with psle getting harder every year.

[floppy]

janet88:

SPC:

Give APS another 6 years. Its pretty much trial and error now. There would definitely be initial implementation gaps. Feels like P3 and P4 are guinea pigs every new year as they progress. They may be a cool school in future, but right now they are just a test bed with new teaching team. I'd let other brave parents contribute their child to be part of the school maturity progress. Principal and their VPs will just be rotated after a few terms. Ultimately, the big chunk of your child's success is what you consistently do with them at home and whether the kid's peers are black or white pearls.

the principal and vp are not from any ordinary school...so parents buy their SAP experience.
the principal stays for just 7 years and will be rotated after that. this school is brand new and when i first heard of the balloting within 1km, i was really curious since it is not tested. ultimately success cannot depend on just the school itself.

The situation at APS is not unique. MOE seems to be deliberately moving experienced and sought after Ps and VPs to the newer schools in order to set up the schools. Same same for Punggol and other estates where schools that have less than 5 years of history, i.e. no graduating batch, are already facing ballot.

[janet88]

floppy:

The situation at APS is not unique. MOE seems to be deliberately moving experienced and sought after Ps and VPs to the newer schools in order to set up the schools. Same same for Punggol and other estates where schools that have less than 5 years of history, i.e. no graduating batch, are already facing ballot.

but there is a cantonment primary school under this cluster which is very new too. why the need to add a APS?

[floppy]

janet88:

floppy:

The situation at APS is not unique. MOE seems to be deliberately moving experienced and sought after Ps and VPs to the newer schools in order to set up the schools. Same same for Punggol and other estates where schools that have less than 5 years of history, i.e. no graduating batch, are already facing ballot.

but there is a cantonment primary school under this cluster which is very new too. why the need to add a APS?

The two schools may be close, but it's not that close leh.

I'm second guessing URA may have felt that it was necessary to have a school nearby to serve the developments around Redhill MRT and Tiong Bahru Road. Hence, the zoning for APS. Likewise, the zoning for Cantonment is probably required to serve the redevelopments around Cantonment Road and the very atas housing in CBD (closest primary school to CBD). Otherwise, there will be plenty of complaints (like what we often read on KSP) about not having schools within 1km or 2km.

[SPC]

janet88:

SPC:

Give APS another 6 years. Its pretty much trial and error now. There would definitely be initial implementation gaps. Feels like P3 and P4 are guinea pigs every new year as they progress. They may be a cool school in future, but right now they are just a test bed with new teaching team. I'd let other brave parents contribute their child to be part of the school maturity progress. Principal and their VPs will just be rotated after a few terms. Ultimately, the big chunk of your child's success is what you consistently do with them at home and whether the kid's peers are black or white pearls.

the principal and vp are not from any ordinary school...so parents buy their SAP experience.
the principal stays for just 7 years and will be rotated after that. this school is brand new and when i first heard of the balloting within 1km, i was really curious since it is not tested. ultimately success cannot depend on just the school itself.

I was from 'SAP' school. My peers were solid but the teachers were not. The science teacher can inform us that aeroplane will fly to outer space, the pilot shall switch off the engine, allow the earth to rotate, and when the destination is reached, the pilot will turn on the engine and start the descent. The class remembers this topic to this day, and would raise this topic, joke and laugh at this particular science teacher during outings. I did not remember the teachers being spectacular, but I remembered my peers trying very hard not to become the last 15 ranked in class each year. We wasted no time in school and at home. TV is only 1 hour duration on a Sunday morning.

Another real example, I have a friend who has taught in both AJC and RI. The same teacher put in both school's environment, had to work extra hard in RI, as the students at RI were tossing him 'out of the blue' questions everyday. The teacher had to do home work each night. He had an easier time at AJC, where the questions thrown at him were much less.

After distance consideration (allow the kid to have more time to rest, play and work hard), the next key consideration is actually the peers' quality. Loosely speaking, this is tied in to the efforts and attitude of the parents.

Like you said, I will agree that inorder to attract sufficient student intake, they need to introduce carrots to buy-in the parents. Carrots like temporary putting in branded Ps and VPs to do the start up. However, this carrot is really secondary consideration. Bear in mind that the Ps and VPs can be good at running an established school, but to do a startup, that would need a different skill set.

[phtthp]

SPC:

Give APS another 6 years. Its pretty much trial and error now. There would definitely be initial implementation gaps. Feels like P3 and P4 are guinea pigs every new year as they progress. They may be a cool school in future, but right now they are just a test bed with new teaching team. I'd let other brave parents contribute their child to be part of the school maturity progress. Principal and their VPs will just be rotated after a few terms. Ultimately, the big chunk of your child's success is what you consistently do with them at home and whether the kid's peers are black or white pearls.

Usually, new schools are test bed for guinea pig. Need several round of psle batches, to test out the standard first

[janet88]

you can put principals who helmed top schools when starting a new school, but the teachers and students’ background play a big part in the success. if the students are from neighbourhoods which cannot afford tuition or parents who leave everything to the school to teach, then you can’t expect impressive grades.