Are good schools really necessary for our kids?

[hquek]

Anna:

Yes, I have actually been in touch with the form teacher, and ask abt my son problem. Her comments, my son is not focussing in class, careless...yeah.. On our side, we have told him to double check his works before submitting, and pay attention in class.

Not focussing in class may be due to many reasons like he dunno what they talking about, it's too simple for him, thinking too much about games and fun etc. You'll have to try pinpoint what is it.

Easy to say \"pay attention\", \"double check\", but honestly, at a young age, I don't think they know what it really means, or that they will be able to hold on to that idea for a long time.

[shirley.020816tamzil]

I agree with most, good teachers are more important than good schools.


I feel that in this case, parents probably need to play a huge part, maybe you can spend some time going through his syllabus with him and find out from him which are the areas that he doesn’t understand. Sometimes, he may understand the basic concept, but not when applying it. If he really can’t tell what area he don’t know, analyse all his worksheets, exercise and papers to find out what area he’s weak in. Usually can see a pattern.

Probably will not be able to work on them all at one go (too over-whelming for the child), but can target one area at a time, when he’s better or more confident in it, then move on to the next weak area. A lot of patience and love needed here…

I noticed that for tuitions, they don’t focus on the student weak area, they run through the syllabus like the school does, so it’s not customised for the child. Even for one-to-one tuition, unless the tutor take the trouble to find out what the child is weak in or parents specifically ask the tutor to focus on which area, the tutor may also just goes through the syllabus as it is. When the child does not fully understand the basic concept yet, he may have problem trying to understand the more difficult ones/applying the concept at the later stage. I think it’s important to build a strong foundation for the child.

[sleepy]

Although having a good teacher is important...whether the child ends up with a good teacher in school is a matter of pure luck, beyond his or his parents' control


What's within control is parental guidance. Coach him at home.

[longreach]

i agree, good teacher is very important. I have a friend’s daughter who is in one of the most desirable primary school in Singapore. During the PT meeting, the teacher told my friend to engage tuition for his daughter in order to catch up. The teacher simply "wash hand".

[vlim]

I think 'good schools' are mostly more established and through years of valuable experiences, most of them have their methods of nurturing their students but of course there will be few kids that will have attitude problems or otherwise. Nevertheless, good and kind teachers still play an important roles.... :roll:

[radiantmum]

I commonly hear these claims from parents whom die-die must go into a \"good\" primary school


(a) MOE sent better teachers there
(b) Papers/Exams standards are higher

I am not sure the validity of above but am using my DS as a guinea pig to assess (b)

For primary schools - I am neutral. As a parent, if have a choice, I will choose a popular school but will not shift house or make kid travel a long distance for it. Actually, depending on each kid, some may actually thrive better in a not so result-oriented or competitive environment - -gives them time to build their self-confidence which is most important to me.

& afterall, my primary school is unknown (& closed down in fact ;-<) but I did get into a \"good\" secondary school - like many other friends I know.

[littlecloud]

I have a child who is now in P4, but is in her third primary school.


I agree that good teacher is more important than a good school - but this point does not help in choosing a school at all. Simply because we can often choose the school, but can never choose the teacher. Also, what is viewed as a good teacher to one child might not be viewed as a good teacher to another child.

IMHO, when deciding whether to switch school, we need to be clear why we are doing that. Each school has its strength and it is not how strong the school is, but how well it matches what we want for our kids after understanding their interests, strength and weakness.

But one thing is definitely more important than the school, and that is the support from us parents.

[hquek]

radiantmum:

For primary schools - I am neutral. As a parent, if have a choice, I will choose a popular school but will not shift house or make kid travel a long distance for it. Actually, depending on each kid, some may actually thrive better in a not so result-oriented or competitive environment - -gives them time to build their self-confidence which is most important to me.

& afterall, my primary school is unknown (& closed down in fact ;-<) but I did get into a \"good\" secondary school - like many other friends I know.

I was from an unknown pri school (also closed down) and then went on to a good sec school. It was only in that sec sch that I realise there is so much that was untaught, so much that I had to see - felt like a frog in a well. Good school I feel has its worth more in the programmes and exposure it gives to the kids.

So from that basis, I feel it's important for my son to go to the best school within my location - mum is taking care of kids so logistics has to be considered, I'm not so good as to shift house to get closer to school. Ultimately, I have to consider the logistics for the next 8 years (DS1 & 2 mah).

[verykiasu2010]

why are good schools deemed "good" by the public ?


because they produce lots of top students ?

then why are they able to do so ?

because of their experience and expertise in their program, how they run the classes [ same text as determined by MOE - and yet markedly better outcome in terms of PSLE results ] - how the teachers teach, how they manage he kids, how they know how to bring out the students’ ability - not just BLINDLY teach and throw the lessons at the students.

also, good schools usually always have many other useful enrichment programs that benefit the students, giving them a more holistic and broader education - not just academic subjects teaching / learning. the whole host of enrichment programs in some good schools are astounding and they have trusted service providers to run them and make for seamless integration with the school’s core time-table. for those students who want them, and are willing to pay for them (whole year basis is about two to three hundred $$) - they are really worth every cent of it

[agentcodybank]

Personally I feel that good secondary schools is necessary for our children.


I intentionally put my son into a neighbourhood pri school, of course, occassionally I have my doubts. But I try to remind myself of my intention and the reason why I did so.

I came from an unknown pri sch in a poor neighbourhood. I learned to get along with many different kinds of friends, poor ones, very poor ones and even had a big "brother" from VITB class (I think it was called something like that, it was the predecessor of monolingual class) taking care of me. These experiences shaped my outlook in life and how I interact with different strata of society.

I went to a very very branded secondary school. It was a good balance for my development, and at the right time. I would not have benefited that much if the sequence had been reverse.