St Margaret's Primary

[lovejoypeacce]

Any moms here interested in joining PTA, please let me know? We are looking for moms to take an active role in the education journey with your girls and at the same time get to know the teachers better. :celebrate:

[foreverj]

ponyo:

I am not an old gal from SMPS (my alma mater's long disappeared thanks to MOE...) but I decided to send my kid there (even tho I live more than 3km away) 'cos I wanted a mission school (am an anglican myself) and one that provides a balanced education. Afterall, education is a life long journey, so it should be an enjoyable process for the kid. Hope that helps.

hi ponyo
in your view, does SMPS provide an enjoyable education for the girls? i have the impression that it's a pretty relaxed school and may not be as challenging for dd. it could go both ways - she could thrive as a big fish in a small pond but she could also become unmotivated. main attraction for us is that its a mission school and provides the christian envt for dd. other than that, i dunno if i m making the right decision to send her there. tks in advance for sharing!

[ponyo]

jacsplace wrote:[quote]Appreciate advice/help/tips on how to celebrate in school. She's in P1. Thanks.[/quote]
Hi jacsplace,
you can pack some goodie bags for your daughter to bring to her classmates and teachers. Just write a note in your daughter's communication book to inform her FT of your intentions first. The FTs in SMPS are usually quite understanding and will usually concede to such requests as long as it is not too disruptive. For my kid's birthday, I bought kit kats for all her classmates and teachers and some extras for her to give to her bus driver/friends taking the same school bus. Her FT gave her the blessing to distribute the kit kats to her classmates before class started and they even sang her a birthday song

just a suggestion.

[Tan Olivia]

I guessed in regards to ponyo's reply on the way education is carried out in primary school, is that it is not so stressful for the kids. Especially when they were from K2 and coming to primary one, the most important thing is to let the kids feel comfortable and after that they will start to drill with the teaching. The transition maybe very great for the students as they are still not used to the real stress of learning. Of course in comparative to other schools, they may go straight to exercise the drilling with the students. It really depends on what parents want for the child. But I like the idea of a character and value builidng environment for the child and also drilling together with it. This is my two cents worth of thots. Please do not feel offended.


Thanks ponyo for the idea on the way they teach mandrain. I like the idea of chinese calligraphy. I havent learnt before and it will great and fulfiling to see our dd being able to do it yah!

Are there any semester exams or have they scrapped it out as mentioned in the newspaper some time back? Kindly advise. I like the idea of CA test to check on the kids' understanding though it will add abit of stress to parents when they bring the result back home.

How about the maths and english teaching? Do they have reading periods for the kids every morning? So sorry to bombard you with so many questions.

[Tan Olivia]

Btw, when you attend the meeting with the P1-3 parents regarding the COP, did they mention that they will maintain at 200 or will it increase like stock and shares anytime? Hee…kindly update me if you know of it. Thanks!

[Tan Olivia]

Dear ponyo,


Do you cater for school bus for your dd? How is it like? long hours?

[Tan Olivia]

Lovejoypeace, are you carrying out an active role in the PTA? What are mummies suppose to do for PTA?

[ponyo]

foreverj wrote:[quote]in your view, does SMPS provide an enjoyable education for the girls? i have the impression that it's a pretty relaxed school and may not be as challenging for dd. it could go both ways - she could thrive as a big fish in a small pond but she could also become unmotivated.[/quote]
Hi foreverj,
honestly, when I was choosing a school for my kid, I had some fears too if I was making the right choice. Thank God I knew some mums in church whose kids were already in the school and when I spoke to the kids, they told me they loved school. One even cried when she had to miss school when she was sick. How's that for a testimony? :lol: . Even my kid's kindy teacher who was an alumni herself shared it was a good environment to grow up in. Now that my kid is in the school, I can see that she is in good hands. The teachers are generally very caring and know their charges well. There are many activities to encourage learning (they have a library corner in class so that those who arrive early can read there or if they finish their work earlier they can read the books there). They have a maths room to encourage hands-on learning and a small insectarium in school too. They also have a very good library. Very well stocked and they have parent volunteers (?) to conduct story telling sessions during recess. In terms of challenges, the teachers have also printed their own assessments for the girls. Seriously, I would rather have my kid enjoying school and having caring teachers who will encourage them throughout their learning journey than teachers who just care about grades. I have a good friend whose DS is in a SAP school. The kid was scoring average marks in school due to the many bright sparks around. When my friend attended the PTM, firstly the FT couldn't even remember the poor boy and apologised that she had too many kids. :? :stupid: And then after looking at the report book, she commented that the boy is doing so-so and asked my friend to send him to tuition class. :!: :shock:
Am not trying to sell ko-yote about the school. The decision is ultimately yours. There is much more to learning than just academics. We need to let our kids have a chance to learn through play and enjoy their childhood too...

[ponyo]

Tan Olivia wrote:[quote]Do you cater for school bus for your dd? How is it like? long hours?[/quote]yes, my kid takes the school bus. The bus operator is RS Transport. So far so good. They have many buses covering different parts of Singapore. I am blessed in that the bus comes at 6.40am in the moring so it's a reasonable time.
[quote]Are there any semester exams or have they scrapped it out as mentioned in the newspaper some time back? Kindly advise. I like the idea of CA test to check on the kids' understanding though it will add abit of stress to parents when they bring the result back home.

How about the maths and english teaching? Do they have reading periods for the kids every morning?[/quote]This year, they only have a CA2 and SA2. However marks scored in CA2 are not counted as it is a practice exam to get the girls used to having exams. Not to worry, even tho they have no exams in the first semester, they have unit reviews to make sure the girls are learning well. I like it that these are not announced (at least in my girl's case) so it's really a true reflection of her learning journey than some last minute mugging :lol: Call me sadistic but learning should be a consistent effort. For maths, they are using My Pals are here + their own assessment book (the teachers printed it themselves). You can check out Popular for the My Pals are here syllabus. For English, they are using the Stellar programme so no text books. The teacher covers grammar (she is learning present and past tense now), vocab and spelling. They also have show and tell for both English and Chinese so the girls can learn how to speak publicly

[foreverj]

ponyo:

Hi foreverj,

honestly, when I was choosing a school for my kid, I had some fears too if I was making the right choice. Thank God I knew some mums in church whose kids were already in the school and when I spoke to the kids, they told me they loved school. One even cried when she had to miss school when she was sick. How's that for a testimony? :lol: . Even my kid's kindy teacher who was an alumni herself shared it was a good environment to grow up in. Now that my kid is in the school, I can see that she is in good hands. The teachers are generally very caring and know their charges well. There are many activities to encourage learning (they have a library corner in class so that those who arrive early can read there or if they finish their work earlier they can read the books there). They have a maths room to encourage hands-on learning and a small insectarium in school too. They also have a very good library. Very well stocked and they have parent volunteers (?) to conduct story telling sessions during recess. In terms of challenges, the teachers have also printed their own assessments for the girls. Seriously, I would rather have my kid enjoying school and having caring teachers who will encourage them throughout their learning journey than teachers who just care about grades. I have a good friend whose DS is in a SAP school. The kid was scoring average marks in school due to the many bright sparks around. When my friend attended the PTM, firstly the FT couldn't even remember the poor boy and apologised that she had too many kids. :? :stupid: And then after looking at the report book, she commented that the boy is doing so-so and asked my friend to send him to tuition class. :!: :shock:
Am not trying to sell ko-yote about the school. The decision is ultimately yours. There is much more to learning than just academics. We need to let our kids have a chance to learn through play and enjoy their childhood too...

thank you ponyo for such a brilliant and honest sharing! many of my church mates have daughters in SMPS too so i know many SMPS girls who love going to school :love: but knowing many people also means there r people who didn't have such good experiences too. one of my church mates transferred the girl out to st nich eventually cos she kept complaining. abt what - am not too sure abt that. the girl flourished under st nich envt. another fren of mine who has a granddaughter in the sch told me the teacher didnt even identify learning difficulties in the girl. eventually becos my fren herself was in the education industry recognised something wrong and was able to advise accordingly, then the granddaughter was able to get some prof help.

i m contemplating doing PV so that i can see for myself how is the sch, eventhough i already qualify under phase 2B. haha, dunno if i have the time. wil see how, but am glad that there are many like-minded parents in SMPS. i love the envt u have described! the library, the maths room and insectarium - and the park just outside the school (we've seen the place cos its outside the school) - such a conducive envt for little girls to grow up in!