[Geylang] Primary Schools

[netchat]

MMM:

netchat:

yuppie..


MBS no need ballot for P2B.. hehehe

my son is in..

Can you share how do you qualify under phase 2B for MBS?

i am a devoted buddhist since young.. so is my parent.. so i am also a member of SBF.

[huatkueh]

netchat:

MMM:

[quote=\"netchat\"]yuppie..


MBS no need ballot for P2B.. hehehe

my son is in..

Can you share how do you qualify under phase 2B for MBS?

i am a devoted buddhist since young.. so is my parent.. so i am also a member of SBF. :)[/quote]Wa netchat, that makes it so much more easier right? So do you have to meditate and chant scriptures everyday?

[huatkueh]

Hey Chief, was actually monitoring MBS numbers for P2B, it was @ 54, but final figures turned out to be 55, is this a case of an application being twins? Just wondering if it works this way, thanks in advance.

[ChiefKiasu]

huatkueh:

Hey Chief, was actually monitoring MBS numbers for P2B, it was @ 54, but final figures turned out to be 55, is this a case of an application being twins? Just wondering if it works this way, thanks in advance.

No. Tracing back in our daily log, it appears that 2 parents who successfully registered in Phase 2A2 for Maha Bodhi actually withdrew their applications on the last day of Phase 2B. So these extra places were equally allocated for Phase 2B and Phase 2C. The light must be shining for all those who applied in Phase 2B this year

[MMM]

Hi Netchat,


My kids are in MBS (P2 and P1). I am not a devoted buddhist but I was an old girl :lol: In fact, having gone to a convent sec school created \"fusion\" in my case. But to me, MBS is not for just for buddhist as during my era, I also had alot of catholic and christian classmates.

Congrats that your child gets a place. I love MBS and is proud of the school especially after had several contacts with the teachers and principal for the past 2 years. FYI, I didn't use to like the school that much previously and put my kids there out of convenience.
The teachers are concerned on not just the academic but also the emotional aspect of the child. Should the child has a weakness in certain area, they would conduct tuition to guide the child. So far, no one has asked me to look for external tuition,etc.... The observation is not just for 1-2 teachers but general observations of the teachers that taught/ are teaching my kids currently. They are approachable and is very willing to help if you approach them and will give tips on how to guide the kids,etc....

In P1 orientation this year, I also observed that the school finally realized its value. If you look at their website, they now call themselves a \"premier SAP school\". This is something new. I am happy for their action as this is a reputation that was build long ago and they've not been capitalising it over the years. During the 70's, my auntie had to queue at 3am outside the school inorder to get a place for my cousin. I was lucky and probably fated as a monk got me a place in the school and it was the last 2 places left and my mum didn't have to queue.... but was \"accused by her cousin who wanted to put his daughter there but couldn't get a place of giving donations to earn a place.... which she never did.

From a curriculum perspective, the kids get exposed to kombang, indian dance, modern dance as part of their asthestics session. I also understand that at upper pri level, they will also be learning conversational malay. I think these activities are good so they are not only exposed to the chinese cultures only. In terms of homework, for P1 and P2 (not sure about P3 onwards), it's minimal as the kids usually complete their homework in school. So this leaves us time to do enrichment classes work at nite and they get to sleep by 10pm :!:

Also, the new school is a plus... I've been wanting to visit but due to H1N1 we can't. But my son's class was featured in the slideshow on the website. BTW, when school starts next year, it's good to volunteer for those P1 activities. You can choose to volunteer for those few days only eg. helping the teachers to bring kids to class, for recess,etc.... it's rewarding and probably the only way to get upclose to the kids as the school don't want the parents to crowd around the kids. So only parents volunteer can do so.

Back to my question on SBF. I called and they told me that they only accept membership from temple. Is there any way to join???? I've a friend who is keen on MBS and I was hoping to find lobang for her but she is not that holy.

[huatkueh]

ChiefKiasu:

huatkueh:

Hey Chief, was actually monitoring MBS numbers for P2B, it was @ 54, but final figures turned out to be 55, is this a case of an application being twins? Just wondering if it works this way, thanks in advance.

No. Tracing back in our daily log, it appears that 2 parents who successfully registered in Phase 2A2 for Maha Bodhi actually withdrew their applications on the last day of Phase 2B. So these extra places were equally allocated for Phase 2B and Phase 2C. The light must be shining for all those who applied in Phase 2B this year

Ah ha I see... cheers chief!

[dizzyguy]

Hello everyone, I am glad that my child is admitted into next year P1@MBS.


Phase 2A(2).

Can Parents share their experience here about their kids encounter with the school.

[dizzyguy]

Where can I get good Chinese Enrichment Class for my kids?

Is HUA good ?

[MMM]

Hi dizzyguy,


You can refer to my encounter with MBS in the earlier response to netchat. I've a P1 and P2 there and I am very happy with the school especially the teachers. Being a SAP school, there are bound to be certain level of academic std as personally I found MBS chinese exam paper more challenging especially when I let the kids do the papers of other top schools. Eg. for chinese strokes, iso asking how many strokes are there in a character, they will highlight a particular stroke and ask what is the stroke sequence. To me this is more difficult unless the child knows the stroke sequence perfectly. I find this very challenging for the kids.

Typically for P1, they've streaming for chinese classes after SA1 results. Those stronger in the language will go to 1 class and the class size is such that those good ones will probably go to a bigger class size (eg. my girl had 30+ to 40 for her chinese class) while those weaker ones will have smaller class size so that the teachers can give them more attn. Undeniably the scope of things that they learn will be diff eg. the spelling list for those better ones will be more difficult.

Eg. My P1 son scored band 1 results for his SA1 chinese but it's getting more difficult now as the kids are required to write more characters rather than simply recognising/ hypy and his character writing sucks. During meet the teacher session, my son's teacher commented to me that we must encourage him to write neatly,etc... and then I told her that I bought those chinese characters books to let him practise during school hols. She told me that don't overdo it as don't kill his interest in the chinese language. It is more important for the kids to like the language and enjoy chinese learning. This is good as it shows that the teachers are keen to make chinese learning fun for them.

Also, they used to have written expression (compo) for P1 during SA1. But this year, they moved it to SA2. I applaud the teachers' decision in that except for some kids who are probably very well prepared for P1, I personally found it quite challenging for most kids to write mini compo comprising of 8 sentences that are perfect in terms of grammar and spelling.... To me, term 1 and 2 is more for the kids to adapt to primary school life and system. I had a talk with the P1 mgr (who happens to teach my son) on the written expression and it was a conscious effort by the school to re-evaluate what the kids are required to do. Note that for P1 SA2, they will also start the chinese compo test during SA2.

Observed that you went in under 2A2, are you ex-student ?

For chinese lessons, my kids are in Molin and I found it good for them so far. I believe there are some other popular ones such as Tien Hsia, Berries, Jiang,etc.... I also sent the kids to Hua for chinese speech & drama as this is taught by a ex-MBS teacher and came highly recommended by my daughter's CL teacher in terms of effectiveness. The purpose was to help them to speak proper mandarin (helps in oral exam) and also eventually make them less shy of public speaking.

I am so happy that there are more MBS parents in kiasuparents now that we can share about the school and experience. Sorry for the long posting...

[MMM]

Just want to add that in terms of kids' experience with the school. My kids enjoy school and learning in the school. They love MBS and I know they feel proud of the school through their actions. I told them that MBS is ranked 11 based on academic excellence on kiasuparents. They are always asking why not even better, etc.. I told them the students need to have very good results inorder to make the school proud of them. So if they want to push the school's score up, they need to work hard. (btw... I don't think my kids are that calibre :lol: ).


They also enjoy the CCA. Eg. my P1 is doing wushu while my P2 joins school band and basketball. Typically they also enjoy shopping at the bookshop which is run by popular book shop now and have their favorite stalls at the tuckshop.