Mee Toh

[mom74]

Sorry, aren’t supplementary classes and remedial have the same objective? It shd help students who need extra coaching.


understand for P1 now, the teacher will ask the students to coach their classmate.

[mrswongtuition]

Supplementary and Remedial have different functions.


Supplementary is additional lessons to cover the syllabus which may not be covered during school curriculum time due to distruptions or lack of time or poor time management on the teacher's end.
This is usually COMPULSORY FOR THE ENTIRE CLASS.
For the 'better classes', these supplementary lessons are usually used to give students more practices and go through practice papers.
For the 'weaker classes', these supplementary lessons are usually used to cover syllabus or do workbook questions/go through corrections.

Remedial classes are for weak students, focusing on rebuilding their foundation.
This is usually for SELECTIVE STUDENTS.

Regards,
Mrs Wong
Tuition Web: http://www.mwtuition.com.sg
Personal Blog: thelittleonesinmylife.blogspot.com

[Lamy]

I knew some of the previous P6 pupils that couldn’t make it to the Express Stream and I thought that they were not given a fair chance. Have you heard of other schools not providing remedial classes?


It is alright if we can let our child develop at their own pace and there is nothing wrong with doing Normal Stream but is this the best, MTS can assist? Having remedial for P6 in March and June will be too late for some of the weaker students.

[mrswongtuition]

Lamy:

I knew some of the previous P6 pupils that couldn't make it to the Express Stream and I thought that they were not given a fair chance. Have you heard of other schools not providing remedial classes?


It is alright if we can let our child develop at their own pace and there is nothing wrong with doing Normal Stream but is this the best, MTS can assist? Having remedial for P6 in March and June will be too late for some of the weaker students.

Standing from the teacher's POV (I'm an ex-school teacher), as much as they would love to spend time holding remedials, their afternoons are usually packed with non-academic stuff (admin work, meetings, committee, etc). As such, they also have limited time.

However, I know that most schools do have remedial and if they are really understaffed, they actually hire 3rd party (external tutors) to coach the weak ones.

And usually, this 'remedial' starts from P3, once they are identfied.

Honestly, MTS does not give a lot of support. This is one of the reasons why majority of my students are from MTS. Parents who can't coach personally will have no choice but to send their kids to tuition.

And I'm very amazed at how MTS can allow a weak student to progress without intervention.
E.g. #1:
This boy was in P6 last year. He joined my tuition class when his P5 exam results were out. He only scored 20+/100 for ALL SUBJECTS. Usually, in other schools, such cases will be reviewed and usually parents will be called in to chat with the P and discuss if there's a need to do FOUNDATION subjects instead.

However, there was nothing. The parents also did not understand what was going on in school for their child!

When I taught him, I had to start all over from P4 work. Slowly build up to P5 work then P6 work. It took a lot of time.
And, some days he will miss tuition and his mum told me that his teacher asked him to stay back in school (WOW! We thought that finally there's remedial for him!). However, when I questioned the boy on what the school teacher covered with him, he told me that teacher told him to stay back to do class decorations, not remedial!

Thankfull he did well after I started to push him and his parents watched him more closely (no TV/computer on weekdays and limited on weekends).


E.g. #2:
P1 boy who failed English. Got low 30s. Parents panicked and asked the school teacher if they can put him in remedial but teacher told them no remedial for P1/2.
No choice, they turned to tuition again. And after 1 month of tuition (he started just 1 month before SA2), he managed to pass his paper and got 60/100.


These children CAN improve and CAN be helped, but seems like the school leaves them to 'rot'.

Lamy, if the child put in effort and teachers did put in extra effort to guide the child but still end up in NT/NA, I feel that it's alright to let the child learn at his/her pace.
However, there are many many many of them who CAN do well but not given the help. Then that's a real pity!

[underthesea]

I have a son just graduated from MTS last year and a girl in P5. About this remedial thing, I have highlighted to the school when my ds was in P1. I suggested to let parents volunteer to coach the very weak kids (those can’t read or spell, those failed maths miserably). But no reply from school, no action taken also. I feel very sad for this group of kids. Just like MrsWong said, some of the kids can catch up if they are given help.


I am quite disappointed with MTS. A lot of attention is given to the top 2 classes. Look at the prefects, most of them are from the top 2 classes!

Having said that, they are some dedicated teachers in MTS also, I know a few but too bad my dd did not any of them this year.

[sartorius]

Hi All,


I got a question in regards to registering my son to a primary school that I want.

I had just rented out my house in SengKang and currently staying in AMK. Will there be any issue for me to register my son in MeeToh?

My NRIC Address is still showing SK address, but my wife need to change hers to AMK. Any complication in regards to this?

We plan to move back to our own home next year, thus if anyone can provide us with some information, that would be great.

Thanks.

[Lamy]

Here it is....something relating to remedial classes and helping the weaker students from our Minister.


AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMMES TO ASSIST STUDENTS

19. Mr Hri Kumar Nair asked the Minister for Education whether primary and secondary schools are required to implement any after-school programs to assist students who are not coping in their studies.

Dr Ng Eng Hen:

Schools employ a variety of initiatives to help students who are not coping in their studies – both during and after school. This is necessary as many such students require help with issues such as social and emotional management, attitude towards learning, and family-related problems.

In primary schools, specialised early intervention programmes are provided for pupils who lack basic English literacy and numeracy skills. The key interventions are the Learning Support Programme (LSP) for English at P1 and P2, and Learning Support for Mathematics (LSM) at P1. These programmes are implemented by Learning Support Co-ordinators (LSCs) and LSM teachers who are qualified teachers specially trained by MOE. For other primary and secondary students who need additional help in their studies, remedial classes are organised and conducted by teachers based on the needs of the students.


So based on Dr Ng Eng Hen comments, can I assume that MTS should provide remedial classes for the weaker students? And it should be the Principal's responsibility to enforce remedial classes based on the needs of the students............

[Rockdiva]

so why are so many parents still choosing mts over other schools?

[underthesea]

MTS has a strong history as compared to Edgefield or Greendale in Punggol.

[mrswongtuition]

underthesea:

MTS has a strong history as compared to Edgefield or Greendale in Punggol.

Yes. & if one compares their exam papers, MTS sets very difficult papers.