St Margaret's Primary

[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!

[ponyo]

Hi foreverj,

yes , if you have the time, do become a PV and see the school for yourself. At least you will have a good opportunity to interact with the staff.

They do have a learning support officer now to help kids with learning disability though I think she is quite stretched. In my kid's class, there is a girl with ADHD (the FT was so stretched...poor teacher) and she is getting help now finally. Poor kid.

One more thing, this year, they have a character badge system so as to motivate the gals to behave well. My kid's FT asked the girls to identify an area of character development they want to achieve in the beginning of the year (helpful, kindness, hardworking etc) and then the teacher will monitor their behaviour in class and reward them accordingly in Term 3 (for my kid's case). Unfortunately, my kid didn't get hers as her FT lost her badge :stupid: 'cos she gave out the badges during the week my kid was sick with HFMD. She was soooooo sad as she was really working at it.

anyway, glad that your kid will be joining the family. Am sure she will enjoy school.

[Tan Olivia]

Ponyo, you mean they use assessment books titled My Pal for teaching of english, maths? Cool. Just to double confirm before I run over to popular to take a look. I am blessed to have a friend like you to get some advise on. Thanks a million ponyo!!!


Stellar? So the girls just do filing? Wow…any books that the teachers use to guide the students on that parents can also help with the kids at home?

Chinese is it using stellar method too? Wow…sounds so different from what I am learnt in the past. We had textbooks and workbooks. Now…no books…worksheets…like higher level of education.

Yes i agree fully with ponyo that students will only do well when they have consistent effort in their studies. Great minds think alike!

[Tan Olivia]

Can i check with you ponyo what time do they start school? 730am?

[jacsplace]

Hi ponyo, thanks for the tip about kit kats. Always great to have a break yah :love:


If I may give my own two cents' worth about SMPS ... to me it's middle-of-the-road. There are no extremes. It's not extremely good, which I like because there's no unnecessary pressure to perform. It's not extremely bad, which I also like because it means everyone's well-behaved!

But like anything, SMPS is not perfect. My husband and I shortlisted six schools and we managed to speak to the principals of five of them before P1 registration last year. All the principals were great, but we finally chose SMPS because Mrs Poey seemed like the most understanding when it came to first-time school. She was the only principal who said she wanted P1 life to be not stressful, so no homework (although my daughter has quite regularly as she can't finish in class).

My daughter's FT is young so she relates to her students very well. She was able to help us out when our daughter got bullied by another girl. Hope the other FTs for the next five years will be as good. But nothing is perfect so just have to make the best of it.

[Tan Olivia]

jacsplace, your child is in which level?

[Tan Olivia]

Can I check is SMPS a resource school for special needs kids?