All About SAP Schools
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well, correction here - we do not speak much chinese at home…
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Which school are u particularly interested in? Even in SAP schools, standards of chinese varies. Hong Wen , Nanyang, Ai Tong and Tao Nan are those I know that have high standard for their chinese.
If i had understood it correctly, it’s at P5 that the kids can opt out of higher chinese. Advice from teacher : Just let the child take it as far as he can… unless u see him / her struggling, it’s probably time to pull him/ her out. It wouldnt be useful to pull him out after a yr of higher chinese… becoz i myself was tempted to. I thought abt it this way: what values am i teaching him, to give up after a short try? So i just continue to support him in any way i could : financial by getting tutor, emotional: when he feels the going is tough to encourage him. His chinese teacher actually told me he cried in school twice becoz he had to write faster n much more, teacher made them do BI JI, extra notes for the class. And most importantly to create the environment for him, borrow chinese books from library , buy too, get him to watch chinese news… even to get him to read chinese papers… -
My son is also in a SAP school... and we hardly speak Chinese at home. He was able to handle P1 and P2 quite well with Chinese tuition... but the cracks are starting to show in P3 where the acceleration starts. It gets pretty tough... at least to his Chinese-ignoramus daddy. The only thing we can do is to take it upon ourselves to send him to enrichment classes... they do help, but can get quite stressful for everyone. We have learnt our lesson and are starting our daughter young now for her Chinese \"immersion\". No choice. At least my Chinese is now better after going through P1 and P2 with my son
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yes, i kinda agree… U may be able to survive P1 and P2… But the higher the level, how well yr foundation had been is gonna show. Am looking at Aitong and hv been talking to parents whose kids had just graduated from there and apparently, hv not got very feedback with regards to the school…
Btw, how long is a principal expected to stay? Or allowed to stay? Many people I checked with says it is 5 years but I have seen principals who stayed longer than that… -
chief kiasu, where do U send yr kid for chinese enrichment? Mine (k2)is at Berries but was told it is good and yes, my kid thoroughly enjoys it. Was told that once U hit P 1, they may not be the best as they tend to be geared towards ‘fun fun’ and less academic… (well, whatever that means… ). I hv heard Jiang at Fu lu shou is really good. But it is not feasible for me…
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Hi all
Anybody can advise me whether to continue higher chinese?
My girl is in P5. Band 2 for normal chinese. She has 52 marks for SA1. It is not cheap at TienHsia (ie she is taking both the enrichment & writing). On one hand, seems no tuition cannot survice coz nowadays we know schs don’t really teach or even they teach, is not enough to tackle exams. On the other hand, she did equally bad for other subjects. I was thinking to withdraw from higher chinese enrichment from TienHsia and perhaps spend more time on Maths, but she is interested in Chinese. I don’t really believe in paying and paying for interest but no results.
Thank you -
Hi caroline3sg,
Score is not indicative, unless you know the average for the class. Is she above or below average ? Is she struggling with the subject or is it just because this paper was exceptionally tough ?
Are you just thinking of withdrawing her from higher chinese enrichment or from the school higher chinese class?
Some teachers actually prefer the kids to spend more time on Maths than HMT. For some non SAP schools, one of the criteria to do HMT in P5, is all subjects except Science, must be Band 1 in P4. Science must be Band 1 or 2. Of course, they are saying now that parents have a choice, but the school actually recommends if your child should do HMT in P5, based on the criteria set by the school.
So, if your child is struggling with Chinese, have no interest, then, probably no point to do HMT. If you get distinction for HMT, you get 3 points added to your PSLE aggregate, 2 for Merit and 1 for Pass. So some teachers seem to think that if you spend more time on Maths, you should get more than this 3 points.
But if your child is interested in, then, I think she should continue. Maybe just do 1 enrichment instead of 2. -
Lizawa
Thank you for your mail.
My issue is money must be well spent. I have no opportunity yet to speak to sch chinese teacher. Given 52 marks, I believe chinese teacher would advise to drop. Form teacher already advised to drop. When drop? now or year end. If yr end, then what difference if continue till P6. But she has interest. And given her overall 4 subjects, she won’t be able to get into NanHua Sec Sch. Maybe St. Margaret which only require normal chinese. In fact, all along I never wanted her to study higher chinese. It was because many TienHsia mummies want to switch at end of P4 and the enrichment teacher said she can make it. And she likes the TienHsia teacher.
Withdrawing from enrichment but continue higher chinese in sch –> waste time since have to stay back one afternoon.
Drop higher chinese in sch –> she doesn’t like normal chinese teacher. Form teacher said normal chinese teacher is changed.
Continue enrichment in higher chinese but take normal chinese in sch –> confusing, right?
Writing is a must. And if continue the enrichment, I have to pay for my son as well since both time slot is same. This Fri is first lesson of term 3. Got to decide by this week. -
Hi caroline3sg,
Did you show the enrichment teacher your daughter’s paper ? If she has initially thought that your daughter can make it for Higher Chinese, then, probably she can give you some insight as to why her marks is
not up to expectation.
By the way, don’t forget that from P4 - P5, there is really a big jump. Many children and parents will be quite shocked with the SA1 results. So, if your daughter has only done HMT for 1 semester, it could be too early to tell if she can cope or not.
I think doing HMT also helps in the child’s normal chinese. With more exposure to vocab and reading and more writing to do, should see improvement in Normal Chinese. Provided that your daughter is not struggling with the subject. -
Thank you Lizawa,
Yes, I have given a copy of the exam paper to TienHsia teacher before sch holiday. Haven’t got a chance to talk to her. I have also reminded my girl today to inform her higher chinese to call me.
Indeed, she maintained her normal chinese standard since P2. So in a way, higher chinese did help. She is just an average student and does things rather slowly. Of all subjects, she likes chinese best, so not struggling. TienHsia teacher said her ''inner motivation to push herself forward" is not strong and evident. If she fully develops it, she can achieve better results.
Thank you.
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