All About Preparing For Primary One

[janet88]

RRMummy:

Hi all,


It says in the papers today that by 2013, all P1 exams will be phased out.

:celebrate:

My tutor told me her school has phased out exams for P1 and P2...parents are not for it as students will have to face exams as well as Science at P3.

[RRMummy]

janet_lee88:

My tutor told me her school has phased out exams for P1 and P2...parents are not for it as students will have to face exams as well as Science at P3.

I'm trust they will come up with ways to evaluate the children's progress on a regular basis. I personally think that it is not neccesary to make them 'perform' well during exams to gauge the children's ability to learn.. I feel that the emphasis on exams tends to make us focus too much on how to teach them to score instead of cultivating love for learning.. and learning beyond the needs for exams..

exams are but gauge of how much they can 'perform' during the short 1 or 2hours.. I personally do not think exam is critical if we have other means of knowing that they have indeed learnt concepts and are able to apply the concepts..

maybe without the exams, schools can have more time to engage in meaningful exploration and experiments. If N2 - K2 can explore abt volcanos and many science concepts, these can always be so for P1 onwards - by means of learning thru FUN...so science will not be a new topic that only appears in P3? :idea:

So, I'm not against doing away the exams. JMHO

I hope and pray that my children gets to learn in a fun, meaningful and less stressful environment.

[tankee]

janet_lee88:

My tutor told me her school has phased out exams for P1 and P2...parents are not for it as students will have to face exams as well as Science at P3.

No exam does not mean no assessment.

Tao Nan school give revision tests that are said to be similar to SA1, just that the scores are not counted towards the year-end grade.

So no need to worry about not used to taking \"exam\"

[tankee]

RRMummy:

...I'm trust they will come up with ways to evaluate the children's progress on a regular basis. I personally think that it is not neccesary to make them 'perform' well during exams to gauge the children's ability to learn.. I feel that the emphasis on exams tends to make us focus too much on how to teach them to score instead of cultivating love for learning.. and learning beyond the needs for exams......


................maybe without the exams, schools can have more time to engage in meaningful exploration and experiments. If N2 - K2 can explore abt volcanos and many science concepts, these can always be so for P1 onwards - by means of learning thru FUN.......:

Tao Nan are having little assessments spread out in term 3 & 4, including show & tell (5%), etc.

And this week, it is \"Exploration Week\" for Tao Nan. Students formed groups to do assignments & riddles, including a field trip to the Zoo, ends with some presentation. This is not counted towards year-end grades.

[RRMummy]

tankee:

RRMummy:

...I'm trust they will come up with ways to evaluate the children's progress on a regular basis. I personally think that it is not neccesary to make them 'perform' well during exams to gauge the children's ability to learn.. I feel that the emphasis on exams tends to make us focus too much on how to teach them to score instead of cultivating love for learning.. and learning beyond the needs for exams......


................maybe without the exams, schools can have more time to engage in meaningful exploration and experiments. If N2 - K2 can explore abt volcanos and many science concepts, these can always be so for P1 onwards - by means of learning thru FUN.......:

Tao Nan are having little assessments spread out in term 3 & 4, including show & tell (5%), etc.

And this week, it is \"Exploration Week\" for Tao Nan. Students formed groups to do assignments & riddles, including a field trip to the Zoo, ends with some presentation. This is not counted towards year-end grades.

Wow!! I like! :celebrate: Too bad, Tao Nan is out for me.

[janet88]

Exams will be phased out for P1 from 2013. By then, year 2004 kids will be in P3.


I hope my daughter will enjoy P1. It should be interesting, getting to know new friends, teachers and adjusting to a formal school environment.
As for exams, I heard that the school has no CA nor SA1. But there will be tests to evaluate the kids’ performance and a Parent-Teacher meeting in May.

In the meantime, we are focusing on her learning in K2…learning to recognize words. She has problems remembering Chinese characters. But I dont want to be too strict on her this year. We spent quite a bit of time learning these characters for her 听写 yesterday - 穿，脱，洗，折. In the end, she only managed to get 穿 correct.

[RRMummy]

janet_lee88:

Exams will be phased out for P1 from 2013. By then, year 2004 kids will be in P3. .

My DD1 is the same age as your gal. But my DD2 will be in P1 in 2013.. so we'll see how it goes then...

janet_lee88:

I hope my daughter will enjoy P1.

Same here. :celebrate:

janet_lee88:

It should be interesting, getting to know new friends, teachers and adjusting to a formal school environment.

I think it is a big step for them - graduating into BIG school - interesting yet scary.. overwhelming yet exciting... I can't believe my firstborn is going to a REAL school soon...

janet_lee88:

In the meantime, we are focusing on her learning in K2...learning to recognize words. She has problems remembering Chinese characters. But I dont want to be too strict on her this year. We spent quite a bit of time learning these characters for her 听写 yesterday - 穿，脱，洗，折. In the end, she only managed to get 穿 correct.

When practicing and you give her the mock 听写 at home, does she get all correct?

I sometimes use this method with my gal if there is a word which she tends to mix up... example 洗 - ask her to imagine the person standing (the base as the 2 legs) and splashing water (3 dian shui) on the face. When we are practising then we make this soundeffects \"splash, splash, splash\" when writing the 3 dian shui. It helps my playful gal remember . :lol:

[janet88]

Hi RRMummy,

I seemed to have lost touch with P1 already. Times have really changed.
Hey, let’s keep each other posted since our gals are the same age.

It’s INDEED a BIG change for them - from play school to REAL school. Personally I do find it overwhelming esp after walking into the canteen and thinking how my precious daughter will have to learn how to queue up to buy food, adjust to new environment, make new friends and learn to see a school time-table etc etc.
For my firstborn, honestly I wasn’t this worried since it’s a boy.

Mock 听写, she got all correct. Maybe this 听写 thing is still new to her. Will practice earlier and get her to learn it more often. Thanks for your advise. Will go through what you mentioned to teach her again.

[RRMummy]

janet_lee88:

Hi RRMummy,

I seemed to have lost touch with P1 already. Times have really changed

My P1 days were so so different than hers will be.. :lol: No reward in guessing me old mummy...

janet_lee88:

Hi RRMummy,
Hey, let's keep each other posted since our gals are the same age. .

That would be great! :hi5:

janet_lee88:

For my firstborn, honestly I wasn't this worried since it's a boy.

And the transition was smooth for him then?

janet_lee88:

Mock 听写, she got all correct. Maybe this 听写 thing is still new to her. Will practice earlier and get her to learn it more often. Thanks for your advise. Will go through what you mentioned to teach her again.

No, no, not advice la. :oops: me just sharing my experiences. As I have also gained so much from all the experiences shared here... have to find the right way to make my gal tick..

The reason I asked abt the mock:
The first few times my DD had spelling back in K1 she also did all correct for her mock but not the real thing. Not that I minded that she did not score at all but was curious what happened. Firstly, she has no idea that spelling/tingxie needs to be completed within the short time it is given. (My playful gal :roll: )

I later found out that the way the teacher gave the spelling was different than how we did at home. She basically said it twice very quickly instead of like more slowly like ram-bu-tan. So my gal was not use to the style and she did not give much time for kids to think and write. My gal said she did not have chance to write..

So knowing that, we tweaked the way we did the mock at home and everything thereafter was perfect...

But again, so long as we know that our DDs know their words chinese/english whether they scores let's not worry... In fact, too much pressure, may also make them nervous..

..my gal is very sensitive and gives herself unnecessary pressure.. One day, the first thing she said to me when I pick her up was \"Sorry, Mummy\". Reason was because she made mistake in her spelling coz she wrote q instead of p. My silly gal... :lol: Oh course, I reassured her that not getting 5/5 is perfectly fine with me so long as I know she has worked hard and tried her best. :love:

Hope the 'visualing' of the tingxie character will work for your gal too..

:celebrate:

[janet88]

Our P1 days were very different...I think I learnt a lot of stuff only then and NOT during kindy days. Now the child has to know number bonding in K2...yours truly here not exactly a spring chicken. HaHaHa.


And the transition was smooth for him then?
When son went to P1, it was truly a learning experience for all of us. Bcos we didn't know what to expect, neither do we know the school culture. So it was like being dumped in the deep end of the pool, then struggle to float. My poor son

As for spelling/tingxie, I don't stress on her poor marks. No point giving her pressure this year...let her enjoy 4 months more of K2. I don't want to think about it, but I'm very heartbroken to let her go to P1.