River Valley High School [*IP]

[justsay]

MXYMum:

Just curious ... isn't it compulsory to take HCL once your child is in RV? Can you actually opt out? My son loves memorizing 成语 and reading 古典名著 but not sure if he can do reviews, since he has never done them before. It'll be good if they are given a choice on whether to take HCL.

Hi MXYMum, your son's interest in 成语 and 古典名著 will certainly help ! He should be fine with reviews if you can guide him along in the beginning.

It is compulsary to take HCL in RV...no choice. They need at least a B4 for HCL and English for full promotion.

Compulsary HCL was what my dd hesitated when we were putting in the 6 choices last year. Though dd took HCL in primary school, I was also worried if dd can cope after reading daisyt's comments.
However, once they are in it they'll be used to it, though it can be stressful at times.
Fortunately, dd has a very good teacher. When the class did not do very well for HCL, he would encourage them. He wants his students to learn.
Till this moment, dd is happy to be in RV and is looking forward to go to school everyday.

[daisyt]

justsay:

It is compulsary to take HCL in RV...no choice. They need at least a B4 for HCL and English for full promotion.

Did I mention before? P was thinking of A2 for HCL instead of B4 for full promotion. But it seems this is not possible yet at the moment. :lol:

[MXYMum]

justsay:

MXYMum:

Just curious ... isn't it compulsory to take HCL once your child is in RV? Can you actually opt out? My son loves memorizing 成语 and reading 古典名著 but not sure if he can do reviews, since he has never done them before. It'll be good if they are given a choice on whether to take HCL.

Hi MXYMum, your son's interest in 成语 and 古典名著 will certainly help ! He should be fine with reviews if you can guide him along in the beginning.

It is compulsary to take HCL in RV...no choice. They need at least a B4 for HCL and English for full promotion.

Compulsary HCL was what my dd hesitated when we were putting in the 6 choices last year. Though dd took HCL in primary school, I was also worried if dd can cope after reading daisyt's comments.
However, once they are in it they'll be used to it, though it can be stressful at times.
Fortunately, dd has a very good teacher. When the class did not do very well for HCL, he would encourage them. He wants his students to learn.
Till this moment, dd is happy to be in RV and is looking forward to go to school everyday.

Expectation is really high in RV!

Being Autistic, my son is very poor at comprehension as most of them are very literal in interpretation and lack social understanding. Hence, he has problems understanding the subtle meanings of passages, especially for Chinese.

The P6 this year is in the pilot programme with the new Chinese syllabus with strong emphasis on understanding (comprehension) and oral. HCL is practically consisted of comprehension passages only, which was the reason he didn't do well. He did well with the old syllabus of which recognition of words were emphasized.

My son's strength is in memorizing things, as he has excellent memory. His sister is much better in Chinese (she's good with writing and comprehension) but cannot memorize things as well.

Hmm ... I really need to think hard when doing school selection.

Thanks for all the information!

[MXYMum]

daisyt:

justsay:

It is compulsary to take HCL in RV...no choice. They need at least a B4 for HCL and English for full promotion.

Did I mention before? P was thinking of A2 for HCL instead of B4 for full promotion. But it seems this is not possible yet at the moment. :lol:

What happens if they do not get full promotion? Do they need to repeat the entire year again or get kick out of RV?? No exceptions even if the pupils does well for the other subjects other than CL or HCL? :shock:

[daisyt]

MXYMum:

What happens if they do not get full promotion? Do they need to repeat the entire year again or get kick out of RV?? No exceptions even if the pupils does well for the other subjects other than CL or HCL? :shock:

From what I have heard. In the past, there was so called promotion with conditions, retained and the O lvl class. Promotion with conditions means you get to be promoted to the next level but you must meet certain conditions they set for those results you not good at, within a time frame. Also heard that the students need to go back during Nov/Dec school holidays to brush up. O lvl class, maybe only applicable for those year 3s who don't show good results. I am not very sure on this.

Now, there is a change. Either retain or transfer out and no more O lvl class - from P's mouth. Promotion with conditions, not very sure because no mentioned and only end of this year, then get to see see hear hear again.

Now, there is partial exception and full exception for end of year exams. Partial is when you score GPA3.5 and above, those subjects you score As would be excepted. Full exception of all subjects if score GPA4.0.

[cascada]

MXYMum:

Being Autistic, my son is very poor at comprehension as most of them are very literal in interpretation and lack social understanding. Hence, he has problems understanding the subtle meanings of passages, especially for Chinese.

The P6 this year is in the pilot programme with the new Chinese syllabus with strong emphasis on understanding (comprehension) and oral. HCL is practically consisted of comprehension passages only, which was the reason he didn't do well. He did well with the old syllabus of which recognition of words were emphasized.

My son's strength is in memorizing things, as he has excellent memory. His sister is much better in Chinese (she's good with writing and comprehension) but cannot memorize things as well.

Hmm ... I really need to think hard when doing school selection.

Thanks for all the information!

Hi MXYMum, I kpo here a bit.
Did u read today's ST Forum. A reader wrote that he was able to get his 2nd child exempted from PSLE CL due to medical condition. Would this exemption help your boy?
I know of someone who was exempted from PSLE CL (not sure what was the reason they gave possibly returning student from overseas), so his t-score was calculated based on 3 subjects. During S1 posting, he was assigned to a more English-focused IP school but he appealed successfully and is now in HCI. I was quite shock to hear that HCI accepted him cos HCI also has very high requirement for HCL. As he didn't take PSLE CL, really not sure how HCI ascertain his CL ability since he also didn't take any CL admission test administered by HCI too.

[justsay]

daisyt:

MXYMum:

What happens if they do not get full promotion? Do they need to repeat the entire year again or get kick out of RV?? No exceptions even if the pupils does well for the other subjects other than CL or HCL? :shock:

From what I have heard. In the past, there was so called promotion with conditions, retained and the O lvl class. Promotion with conditions means you get to be promoted to the next level but you must meet certain conditions they set for those results you not good at, within a time frame. Also heard that the students need to go back during Nov/Dec school holidays to brush up. O lvl class, maybe only applicable for those year 3s who don't show good results. I am not very sure on this.

Now, there is a change. Either retain or transfer out and no more O lvl class - from P's mouth. Promotion with conditions, not very sure because no mentioned and only end of this year, then get to see see hear hear again.

Now, there is partial exception and full exception for end of year exams. Partial is when you score GPA3.5 and above, those subjects you score As would be excepted. Full exception of all subjects if score GPA4.0.

Are you referring to yr 2 students ?

For yr 1 students, parents received a letter from school to say B4 for HCL and English, GPA 2 for overall results for full promotion. Otherwise, they will look at CCA and other 2 criteria for advancement to year 2.
GPA 3.5 will have exemption for subjects with A1.
GPA 3.8 and above will be full exemption.
But last month P met yr 1 & yr 2 students to tell them that they will need to be transferred if doesnt meet minimum B4 criteria but parents did not receive any letter on this.

[justsay]

daisyt:

justsay:

It is compulsary to take HCL in RV...no choice. They need at least a B4 for HCL and English for full promotion.

Did I mention before? P was thinking of A2 for HCL instead of B4 for full promotion. But it seems this is not possible yet at the moment. :lol:

:shock: :!:
At this moment, I know that each class there are only a handful who score A. 1 to 3 of them is what I heard. I don't think it is possible to implement with this criteria, no now at least.

[justsay]

MXYMum:

No exceptions even if the pupils does well for the other subjects other than CL or HCL? :shock:

I don't know and I hope so, dd is one of them.

[MXYMum]

cascada:

MXYMum:

Being Autistic, my son is very poor at comprehension as most of them are very literal in interpretation and lack social understanding. Hence, he has problems understanding the subtle meanings of passages, especially for Chinese.

The P6 this year is in the pilot programme with the new Chinese syllabus with strong emphasis on understanding (comprehension) and oral. HCL is practically consisted of comprehension passages only, which was the reason he didn't do well. He did well with the old syllabus of which recognition of words were emphasized.

My son's strength is in memorizing things, as he has excellent memory. His sister is much better in Chinese (she's good with writing and comprehension) but cannot memorize things as well.

Hmm ... I really need to think hard when doing school selection.

Thanks for all the information!

Hi MXYMum, I kpo here a bit.
Did u read today's ST Forum. A reader wrote that he was able to get his 2nd child exempted from PSLE CL due to medical condition. Would this exemption help your boy?
I know of someone who was exempted from PSLE CL (not sure what was the reason they gave possibly returning student from overseas), so his t-score was calculated based on 3 subjects. During S1 posting, he was assigned to a more English-focused IP school but he appealed successfully and is now in HCI. I was quite shock to hear that HCI accepted him cos HCI also has very high requirement for HCL. As he didn't take PSLE CL, really not sure how HCI ascertain his CL ability since he also didn't take any CL admission test administered by HCI too.

My understanding was that the PSLE T-Score for those exempted from CL is actually lower, which is why I didn't apply for it. Moreoever, MOE does not grant exemption for all SN kids. If the kid is failing Chinese in school, the school can write in to apply for exemption.

My son was getting A's for Chinese from P1 to P4, he started getting B's from P5 onwards. In fact, he was selected by the school to do HCL last year but was requested to drop HCL when his grades dropped to B.

Anyway, he wants to appear as 'normal' as possible just like his peers, without any special treatment. Thus, he does everything just like the other kids. Just want to keep him happy.

Regardless, it's too late to do anything now.