Choosing and Evaluating Primary Schools

[janet88]

sherkoh:

Hi, I am new to this board and has a son born in 2014, also a daughter born in 2017. I am having a huge headache shortlisting primary schools for my son as we have just relocated back to Singapore. How do I begin my search for a school that has a holistic approach to education, and not just focus largely on academic pursuits? No preference on area yet as we are still looking for a place to buy. Thank you in advance for any advice.

frankly speaking, i can't think of any school which has a truly holistic approach. since you have a younger daughter, i suppose you would want to enroll your son in a co-ed school in order to have one less headache when your younger one is due to register for p1. it also depends on whether you want to have affiliation to the secondary school. even staying within 1km for some co-ed schools, there is still balloting for popular ones.

[zac's mum]

sherkoh:

Hi, I am new to this board and has a son born in 2014, also a daughter born in 2017. I am having a huge headache shortlisting primary schools for my son as we have just relocated back to Singapore. How do I begin my search for a school that has a holistic approach to education, and not just focus largely on academic pursuits? No preference on area yet as we are still looking for a place to buy. Thank you in advance for any advice.

Since u have a boy & a girl, to simply things, just limit your choices to co-ed schools.

Have u considered you or your husband’s alma mater??

For holistic schools, from my research, there are 2 groups of such schools: Christian and secular.

Most Christian co-ed schools are highly popular unfortunately: Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, St Hilda’s Primary, Fairfield Methodist Primary, and Geylang Methodist School Primary. (Somebody please point out if I have missed out any). PHPS is a SAP school so eliminate unless your DS’s Mandarin is fantastic. SHPS - I dunno how holistic it is, could be academically-driven due to GEP status. The other 2 are quite holistic but pls check out more.

Secular schools that are holistic (as far as I’ve heard): Cedar Primary, Bukit Timah Primary.

[janet88]

zac's mum:

Since u have a boy & a girl, to simply things, just limit your choices to co-ed schools.

Have u considered you or your husband’s alma mater??

For holistic schools, from my research, there are 2 groups of such schools: Christian and secular.

Most Christian co-ed schools are highly popular unfortunately: Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, St Hilda’s Primary, Fairfield Methodist Primary, and Geylang Methodist School Primary. (Somebody please point out if I have missed out any). PHPS is a SAP school so eliminate unless your DS’s Mandarin is fantastic. SHPS - I dunno how holistic it is, could be academically-driven due to GEP status. The other 2 are quite holistic but pls check out more.

Secular schools that are holistic (as far as I’ve heard): Cedar Primary, Bukit Timah Primary.

for Pei Hwa, if you are able to spend time to coach your kids in their Chinese, you may want to consider...but it is a SAP school, so it is very academic based. Fairfield has affiliation to secondary but be prepared to ballot within 1km, same goes for Keming which is in Bukit Batok. There is Bukit View Primary.

[zac's mum]

Ok I wish to amend my previous post:


Since u have a boy & a girl, to simply things, just limit your choices to co-ed schools.

Have u considered you or your husband’s alma mater??

For potentially-holistic schools, from my research, there are 2 groups of such schools: Christian and secular.

The Christian co-ed schools are: Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary, St Hilda’s Primary, Fairfield Methodist Primary, Geylang Methodist School Primary, Holy Innocents Primary, De La Salle Primary, and St Anthony’s Primary. (Somebody please point out if I have missed out any).

PHPS (SAP school) is highly academic [janet88 - I believe from your personal experience with your DS1?] so eliminate that.

SHPS - I dunno how holistic it is, could be academically-driven due to GEP status. The others are quite holistic but pls check out more.

Secular schools that are holistic (as far as I’ve heard): Cedar Primary, Bukit Timah Primary.

After finding out more about these schools, you just need to shortlist one for 2C purposes (balloting if u wish), and one backup for 2C(S) purposes. If u wish to skip the balloting, just apply straight to your 2C(S) school one phase earlier.

[janet88]

zac's mum:

The Christian co-ed schools are: Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary, St Hilda’s Primary, Fairfield Methodist Primary, Geylang Methodist School Primary, De La Salle Primary, and St Anthony’s Primary. (Somebody please point out if I have missed out any).


PHPS (SAP school) is highly academic [janet88 - I believe from your personal experience with your DS1?] so eliminate that.

SHPS - I dunno how holistic it is, could be academically-driven due to GEP status. The others are quite holistic but pls check out more.

Secular schools that are holistic (as far as I’ve heard): Cedar Primary, Bukit Timah Primary.

After finding out more about these schools, you just need to shortlist one for 2C purposes (balloting if u wish), and one backup for 2C(S) purposes. If u wish to skip the balloting, just apply straight to your 2C(S) school one phase earlier.

st anthony primary has affiliation to SJI (for boys). de la salle also has affiliation to SJI.
bukit timah primary is not bad...frankly there are hardly any schools which are holistic in the true sense.

mission schools have a strong english background if you wish to put your kids in single gender schools. can consider SJI for son and SCGS for the daughter (but the school is rather academic driven too).

[zac's mum]

janet88:

...frankly there are hardly any schools which are holistic in the true sense...

Hi janet88, sorry that you may have had bad experience yourself, but I can personally say I have found a very holistic school for my DS, which is ACS Junior. Unfortunately it is a boys school, so not really in consideration for those with daughters.

Some things I can truly say about my DS’ school: P1 year-end report book contained no marks, no class position. Only holistic development which was graded by a tick in one of 3 boxes. Similar to preschools. Whole class promoted to same P2 class with same teachers following them up.

While there are the mini-tests and spelling and tingxie (which start in Term 2 I think), the school’s emphasis is not on those. As a parent, I actively coach my DS in all of these to make sure he grasps the academic stuff, but my philiosophy is: I look more for the longer-term life goal of training my DS to be a gentleman, and ready to use his unique giftings to serve the community. I’m happy to have found THE school which is a co-partner in this.

(Just as an aside, ACS Primary is relatively more academic. I have verified that their report book has tabulated marks, which is like every other primary school I believe. So ACS Junior is a rare gem)

[janet88]

zac's mum:

As a parent, I actively coach my DS in all of these to make sure he grasps the academic stuff, but my philiosophy is: I look more for the longer-term life goal of training my DS to be a gentleman, and ready to use his unique giftings to serve the community. I’m happy to have found THE school which is a co-partner in this.

p1 wasn't exactly honeymoon in daughter's school but it was considered ok...she was blessed with a very warm principal and her teachers did teach very well. we worked together throughout her 6 years, so she enjoyed her primary school years.

[zac's mum]

Seen over at the Nanyang Pri thread:


https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4406&start=4000

92.84% of the 2017 PSLE students qualified for Express stream (ie T score >200)

15 students were given a choice of either Express or N(A) stream (ie T score 188-199)

So it seems getting into the so-called number 1 school in SG does not guaranteed a high PSLE score (if that is your goal).

Sometimes for an average child, it’s better for his/her morale to be in a 2nd tier school.

Food for thought.

[janet88]

zac's mum:

Seen over at the Nanyang Pri thread:


https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4406&start=4000

92.84% of the 2017 PSLE students qualified for Express stream (ie T score >200)

15 students were given a choice of either Express or N(A) stream (ie T score 188-199)

So it seems getting into the so-called number 1 school in SG does not guaranteed a high PSLE score (if that is your goal).

Sometimes for an average child, it’s better for his/her morale to be in a 2nd tier school.

Food for thought.

the more popular the school is, the more time, effort and money parents are 'expected' to invest.

[lee_yl]

zac's mum:

Seen over at the Nanyang Pri thread:


https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=4406&start=4000

92.84% of the 2017 PSLE students qualified for Express stream (ie T score >200)

15 students were given a choice of either Express or N(A) stream (ie T score 188-199)

So it seems getting into the so-called number 1 school in SG does not guaranteed a high PSLE score (if that is your goal).

Sometimes for an average child, it’s better for his/her morale to be in a 2nd tier school.

Food for thought.

You mean even if one goes into elite primary school, it doesn’t guarantee a high tscore and there are students who still end up in NA?

I suppose for every school, there are bound to be a handful who could suffer from study-related disabilities. Like in my DD’s school, there’s this girl with dyslexia and despite her results, the school did not ask her to leave.

So if NYPS has 15 of such students who did not do well but the school did not ask them to transfer out and continued to give them the best education, that to me, is a good school.