Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary

[php]

notabox:

Trapwithin:

My P1 Experience

Thank you for your gracious sharing! With a child attending formal education for the first time, it is rather overwhelming for us parents. I am grateful for all the help we get in making this a smoother journey. :lovesite:

haha....not only love this site....particularly this PHPPS's thread with all the wonderful PHPPS's parents.....

[janet88]

For P1 parents, here’s some crucial info for you to remember.


Apply for the student Popular card membership once you get the student pass/ID. Then every June/Dec, you enjoy 20% discount for assessment books/stationery/story books.

Dec - Popular will have a BookFest held in Suntec annually.

Assessment books which are HOTSELLERS are:
Fabian Ng - Problem-solving processes
PSLE Science Revision Guide

[php]

Trapwithin:

My P1 Experience


Glad to see that a lot of info is shared here for parents whose child is in P1 this year. By the now, the school would have started the school work, time table is finalised and the P1 students would have met all their teachers.

Looking back, I fumbled and learnt through the whole year when my dd started P1 last year. I was the normal father that pick her up from school and ask her how is school but never really get involved in her schoolwork until Term 2. I only get very involved in Term 3, that's why I join KSP around that time

As we progress, we discovered that PHPPS standard is quite high. We learnt a few things and made changes and adjustments along the way.
I am sharing our \"mistakes\" and \"methods of coping\" so that all new P1 parents can be more well prepared as the year progress.

1. Dismissal - We moved her dismissal exit from Side Gate to Back Gate, becasue of moving traffic into the church and mainly becasue of the rainy days. Though back gate is more crowded, it provide shelters.

2. CCA - we started CCA early because we wanted to let her have a more balanced life. Some of the CCA, the school engage professional trainers/coaches which would cost quite a fair bit if our kids learnt them outside. So we treat it as a free enrichment :lol:

3. Reading - Start Readng early. PH has a strong culture for reading and they adopt STELLAR quite seriously. Students are not allow to bring comics during reading time. Based on recommended textlist, P3 is reading Rol Dahl's BFG. So you would like to use that as a benchmark. For P1, many kids read Fairy Series for the girls and Boys read the \"Gerome Stilton series\" (Popular is having a good offer on them now). Maybe migrate to Enid Bryton's Secret Sven or Famous Five if they find the above too simple. For Chinese reading, read tamarind's blog under Languages in this forum. I personally find it very effective and had help my dd and I a lot.

4. English - Start teaching them how to write compo. Year end exam required them to write 8-10 statements with a storyline. A good start would be journal/diary writing, just 5 sentences. Their vocab should be strengthen through reading. For comprehension, learn the right techniques to answer the question. In SA1 last year, the highest marks for English is 99 or 100 (I forgot) but for SA2, it went down to 95 or 96.
The comprehension is \"killer\" and it seems like the standard bar has been raised. So be prepared.

5. Chinese - We went into \"damage control\" for Hanyu Pinyin even though dd learn them during the kindy days. Maybe her foundation in Hanyu Pinyin was not done properly or maybe HCL is more \"chim\" But overall read the text and there is only a few HCL assessment around. EPH assessment book is again tougher than other publisher's. The exam is also \"controlled\" by a fix list of \"chinese words\" so it is more manageable compared to English.

6. Maths - We started on Topical Assessment books early so that we can start on the Past Years Exam papers. Without going through the syllabus, doing past papers might be tough. EPH has some good assessment books. We find 4-in-1 Challenging Maths one of the toughest ass book follow by Andrew Er's books. There is also a good book (I think is from EPH) that is called Diagnostic XXX. This ass book is particularly good for identifying a student's weakness in a particular topic. If your child find ass book not challenging enough .. start on the Past year papers.

7. Careless Mistakes - All students make careless mistakes even the brightest. The key is not to eradicate but to minimise, this will relief stress for both parents and child. The Main Antidote for careless mistake is \"double-checking\".

8. Benchmark. The mean score for PHPPS P1 are pretty high - above 80 with median even higher .. usually. so basically quite a lot of the students are in Band 1. For those super KSP, the benchmark for top class (for personal reference) since there is no streaming for P1 to P2 anymore. You need about 95% average for all subject to get into the Ex-CH2 class, so around 285/300. All the marks between students are very very close. So 1 mark can set standard ranking back by qutie a lot, but no worries .. there is no standard ranking now

9. Outsourcing. If both parents are working, strongly encourage that you outsourced. It does helps to a certain degree if you monitor them.

For English, Learning Lab is extremely popular among parents (they pitched at about 25% higher than the top school in Singapore, though some says 1 level). I heard good review about The Atlernative Story - will leave that to some parents who has kids there to comment. In general writing skill is key.

For Chinese, if you are academic based, just wanted to follow the school syllabus closely - go for Berries and Tian Xia. For creative writing skills, Busy Bee is a good bet.

For Maths, Learning Lab and Global Maths are pretty popular. Students will strong interest in Maths, parents might want to try MathsHub. I think if you look at PH yearbook advertisement, they are there. Maybe they help to train Maths Olympiad student in PH .. but I am not sure.

10. Psychology - Build confidence in the child early. Once a child tasted an achievement, they will naturally be highly motivated.

Another long-winded post .. hope it helps. :celebrate:

trapwithin, i always look forward to your post....thanks for your effort...

[Happy Mama]

verykiasu2010:

php:

[quote=\"Happy Mama\"]
I have just gone to Popular to buy the book! Only 2 copies left for Pri 3!!!

wow Happy Mama, you are so efficient.....E3 just mentioned this morning and you fast-hand-fast-leg bought liao....Popular must be your neighbour...

she works IN popular ............. (may be)[/quote]Hahaha!! No la, what to do? I'm a KIASU mum. Hey, but aren't we all kiasu parents? That's why all of us are here on Kiasu Parents Forum, right?

Since I was doing nothing at home (other than on KSP forum), I decided to hop into the car and drive to Bt Timah Popular to get the book for DD...

[Funx3]

lizhi:

Funx3:

Aiyah, Remember Told U we Bought Misc Staff?

Things Like Roll-fix, White Board Markers, Multi-Pocket Files, and ....

Books R for my Son - Japanese Dictionary, How-to-Read-&Write-Japanese, etc.
He wants to Learn Japanese to Better Understand the Latest Animae Series Downloaded ....

And for My Hubby - All the Self Improvement Books ....

And For This Mummy - The Cookery Books .... Yummy ....

Sad to Say, My Gal only Get \"ONE\" CL Story Book ....

:lol: :lol: so richful Misc Staff! your Son? how many years old?

Yeah, Very RICH indeed in Misc Stuff .... Ha-HA ....

Don't Worry About My Son - He's OLD Enough to Collect His \"O-LEVEL\" Results Next Mon. He's Much More Computer Savvy Than this Old Mummy Of His ....

Can You Visualise He Has 7 sets of HArd-Disk (Or is It Eight? I Lost Count!) that is in the GigaByte Region to Store His Animae Shows ....
:lol: :lol:

[Funx3]

Trapwithin:

Funx3:

And For This Mummy - The Cookery Books .... Yummy ....

This Mummy can cook

Yeap, Love It, But Now Vomiting Blood Trying to Teach My Newly Arrived Indonesia Maid to Cook .... :stupid: :stupid:

Thought I have Retired from the Cooking at Home,
Used to Leave ALL cooking to My Maid Previously, But Now ....
Sigh .... :x :x

[janet88]

Hi Happy Mama,

You hopped into the car to Popular BT to get the book...I went to daughter's school to buy the Onsponge Conquer Maths problems since there is no stock in Pei Hwa. Can't even wait until stock arrive...really kiasu

[rcxmum]

XYZ1:

rcxmum:

[quote=\"markfch\"]
Regrettably I can't take leave tomorrow. But dw will be there to lend support.

Yea.... hope the msg will b short n sweet!!:)
Do u mind to tell me which class will your Ds be in? Mine is Int 5

Hi rcxmum, my ds is in int 5 as well...hope to share more with u going fwd, my dh peeped at my ds today and he was busy talkg to e gal next to him...and when i asked him abt today, he juz said nothing happened in sch today :stupid:[/quote]Hi looking forward to more sharing as well dun be like that lah, may be u can re-phrase your question? May be to him, talking to a gal is not too much of a happening?:) teacher is a very good one, can \"fang xin\"! is your Ds from glory kindi?

[Funx3]

php:

Funx3:

[quote=\"verykiasu2010\"]
I only kaypoh here and poke fun. Honest.

Aiyah, We have move into more Varied Topics Now ....
Things Very General Like :
\"Premium\" HDB Resale Price, Pricey Canteen Food, Enrichment Centre Recommendations, etc etc

Sure U Can Contribute and Help US Achieve our Next Benchmark -
800 Pages?


See - I Got Full Confidence We can Reach 500 Today!!!!
:celebrate: :celebrate: :celebrate: :celebrate:

do you know, markfch is very busy this week.... if not, we would have done it yesterday....haha....[/quote]Mark!!!!
Where R Thou????

[php]

Happy Mama:

Trapwithin:

My P1 Experience


Glad to see that a lot of info is shared here for parents whose child is in P1 this year. By the now, the school would have started the school work, time table is finalised and the P1 students would have met all their teachers.

Looking back, I fumbled and learnt through the whole year when my dd started P1 last year. I was the normal father that pick her up from school and ask her how is school but never really get involved in her schoolwork until Term 2. I only get very involved in Term 3, that's why I join KSP around that time

As we progress, we discovered that PHPPS standard is quite high. We learnt a few things and made changes and adjustments along the way.
I am sharing our \"mistakes\" and \"methods of coping\" so that all new P1 parents can be more well prepared as the year progress.

1. Dismissal - We moved her dismissal exit from Side Gate to Back Gate, becasue of moving traffic into the church and mainly becasue of the rainy days. Though back gate is more crowded, it provide shelters.

2. CCA - we started CCA early because we wanted to let her have a more balanced life. Some of the CCA, the school engage professional trainers/coaches which would cost quite a fair bit if our kids learnt them outside. So we treat it as a free enrichment :lol:

3. Reading - Start Readng early. PH has a strong culture for reading and they adopt STELLAR quite seriously. Students are not allow to bring comics during reading time. Based on recommended textlist, P3 is reading Rol Dahl's BFG. So you would like to use that as a benchmark. For P1, many kids read Fairy Series for the girls and Boys read the \"Mouse series\" (forgot the name as I do not have ds, but Popular is having a good offfer on them now). Maybe migrate to Enid Bryton's Secret Sven or Famous Five if they find the above too simple. For Chinese reading, read tamarind's blog under Languages in this forum. I personally find it very effective and had help my dd and I a lot.

4. English - Start teaching them how to write compo. Year end exam required them to write 8-10 statements with a storyline. A good start would be journal/diary writing, just 5 sentences. Their vocab should be strengthen through reading. For comprehension, learn the right techniques to answer the question. In SA1 last year, the highest marks for English is 99 or 100 (I forgot) but for SA2, it went down to 95 or 96.
The comprehension is \"killer\" and it seems like the standard bar has been raised. So be prepared.

5. Chinese - We went into \"damage control\" for Hanyu Pinyin even though dd learn them during the kindy days. Maybe her foundation in Hanyu Pinyin was not done properly or maybe HCL is more \"chim\" But overall read the text and there is only a few HCL assessment around. EPH assessment book is again tougher than other publisher's. The exam is also \"controlled\" by a fix list of \"chinese words\" so it is more manageable compared to English.

6. Maths - We started on Topical Assessment books early so that we can start on the Past Years Exam papers. Without going through the syllabus, doing past papers might be tough. EPH has some good assessment books. We find 4-in-1 Challenging Maths one of the toughest ass book follow by Andrew Er's books. There is also a good book (I think is from EPH) that is called Diagnostic XXX. This ass book is particularly good for identifying a student's weakness in a particular topic. If your child find ass book not challenging enough .. start on the Past year papers.

7. Careless Mistakes - All students make careless mistakes even the brightest. The key is not to eradicate but to minimise, this will relief stress for both parents and child. The Main Antidote for careless mistake is \"double-checking\".

8. Benchmark. The mean score for PHPPS P1 are pretty high - above 80 with median even higher .. usually. so basically quite a lot of the students are in Band 1. For those super KSP, the benchmark for top class (for personal reference) since there is no streaming for P1 to P2 anymore. You need about 95% average for all subject to get into the Ex-CH2 class, so around 285/300. All the marks between students are very very close. So 1 mark can set standard ranking back by qutie a lot, but no worries .. there is no standard ranking now

9. Outsourcing. If both parents are working, strongly encourage that you outsourced. It does helps to a certain degree if you monitor them.

For English, Learning Lab is extremely popular among parents (they pitched at about 25% higher than the top school in Singapore, though some says 1 level). I heard good review about The Atlernative Story - will leave that to some parents who has kids there to comment. In general writing skill is key.

For Chinese, if you are academic based, just wanted to follow the school syllabus closely - go for Berries and Tian Xia. For creative writing skills, Busy Bee is a good bet.

For Maths, Learning Lab and Global Maths are pretty popular. Students will strong interest in Maths, parents might want to try MathsHub. I think if you look at PH yearbook advertisement, they are there. Maybe they help to train Maths Olympiad student in PH .. but I am not sure.

10. Psychology - Build confidence in the child early. Once a child tasted an achievement, they will naturally be highly motivated.

Another long-winded post .. hope it helps. :celebrate:

Thanks for your informative post, Trapwithin. By the way, do you have any Science enrichment centres to recommend?

i heard this one not bad... Perceptum at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre...can't confirm this as my dd is only P2.... maybe the rest of them can share their views...