All About GEP

[MotherHen]

P5... hahaha... not easy... especially seeing my DS reading story books during exam time... need a lot of self-control on my part not to 'interface' with his 'preparation', or lack of it. Bite my tongue till it bleed, and I kept quiet...


Cheers![/quote]

Haha how true.

DD did not do well too, in particular English. Almost fainted when i saw her results and gave her a tongue-lashing, esp since English used to be her strongest subject. Then after cooling down, I tell myself not to compare with last year. Looking forward to meeting the teachers on Friday to see how we can help.

Sigh....

[thmejlfm]

Same here. My DD P4 this year. Her Maths and Science result really make me fainted. These two subjects used to be her best.


But, now, she failed. I think she felt the stress of it. Kept asking me for tuition for these two subjects. I was so afraid that she does not has enough time to rest.

Will meet her teacher this Friday also.

[Edureach]

thmejlfm:

Same here. My DD P4 this year. Her Maths and Science result really make me fainted. These two subjects used to be her best.


But, now, she failed. I think she felt the stress of it. Kept asking me for tuition for these two subjects. I was so afraid that she does not has enough time to rest.

Will meet her teacher this Friday also.

Get a home tutor 2 hrs x ! per wk. Suspect your dd is unable to cope with the gep programme.

Worst scenario, transfer her to the top express class and heck care what others think.

[ngbrdad]

Hi need some clarification here.

I remembered being told in a briefing by someone from MOE at my son’s school that only certain selected secondary schools’ GEP programme are eligible for the MOE GEP grant.
Some school even though they have their own GEP programme are not on the list eg River Valley High and NJC.
So such schools should not be on the priority list for DSA for GEP students ?

[yukilei]

ngbrdad:

Hi need some clarification here.

I remembered being told in a briefing by someone from MOE at my son's school that only certain selected secondary schools' GEP programme are eligible for the MOE GEP grant.
Some school even though they have their own GEP programme are not on the list eg River Valley High and NJC.
So such schools should not be on the priority list for DSA for GEP students ?

Hi ngbrdad,

oh, I didn't even know that River Valley High has GEP prog. I was at RI last Sat & one of the RI student shared that the GE student is paying lesser for school fees compared to non-GEP students. He knows this because his brother is in RI GEP prog. Since you mentioned GEP Grant, I guess if you choose to go to RVH GEP prog, you'll have to pay full school fees like other RVH students. No grants.

[TREX8]

DD’s in P6GEP now and I would like our experience when getting her P4 CT results, which is a humbling experience for the kids, and a time for parents to manage expectations.


CT1 is the first formal test for P4 GEP kids. DD didn’t do well, definitely not anywhere near to the high 90s and perfect scores that she had been receiving from P1 to P3.

Her average for 5 subjects was 84%, with 70+ for math. I still remembered the day she came back with her report book. She was quiet when I fetched her and just left it at the coffee table (I was seated at the sofa) and walked crestfallen to her room to change out of her uniform.

In her report book was a slip of paper with the highest, lowest and average score for each subject. I looked at the slip and called her out to do an analysis with her.

She was close to the top score for English, above ave for Sc, CL and Soc Studies, way below average for Math (in fact, scored only 1 mark above the lowest score). So I told her she wasn’t doing too bad amongst a cohort of high achieving kids. We agreed that Math is an issue and the problem stemmed from the lack of practise (DD could not finish the paper within the time given).

Over the years, we set expectations and analysed her tests and exam results using banding based on her capability compared to her classmates. For EL and Social Studies, she should be amongst the top scorers. For Sc and CL, she should be above class average. For Math, as long as she inches herself up from the bottom position and proceed closer to the class average, we view that as improvement.

For this recent SA, DD came out beaming and said that she actually scored above class average for math for the very first time!

So parents, don’t discourage your kids. They need time to adjust to a very different curriculum and exam format.

[jtoh]

ngbrdad:

Hi need some clarification here.

I remembered being told in a briefing by someone from MOE at my son's school that only certain selected secondary schools' GEP programme are eligible for the MOE GEP grant.
Some school even though they have their own GEP programme are not on the list eg River Valley High and NJC.
So such schools should not be on the priority list for DSA for GEP students ?

Correct. The schools are RI, RGS, NYGH, HCI, ACSI, DHS, NUSH, SCGS, MGS. Not sure if CHS and SJI were recently added.

RV and NJC are not on the MOE-approved list.

Later on, MOE will give your GEP kid a handout with the list of schools that he should apply for. Note that if your kid decides to go MGS but doesn't attend the gifted programme there (ie the Sophia Blackmore Class), she will also not be entitled to the grant.

[ngbrdad]

If I remember correctly CHS and SJI are on the list.

For ACSI they did mention about the diff between IB and O level. Not sure whether the O level section is on the list or not.
So the option for GEP students are quite limited in secondary school if one want to receive the grant which is $200 per month.

Anyone has any idea about the in house GE programme of NJC and RVH ?

[vlim]

Edureach:

thmejlfm:

Same here. My DD P4 this year. Her Maths and Science result really make me fainted. These two subjects used to be her best.


But, now, she failed. I think she felt the stress of it. Kept asking me for tuition for these two subjects. I was so afraid that she does not has enough time to rest.

Will meet her teacher this Friday also.

Get a home tutor 2 hrs x ! per wk. Suspect your dd is unable to cope with the gep programme.

Worst scenario, transfer her to the top express class and heck care what others think.

Edureach ..dont' scare thmejlfm la :lol:

Hi thmejlfm,
For the 1st semester of p4 GEP are pretty 'challenging/stressful' especially for those who need to change school as they not only need to cope with the more challenging school works but also need to adapt to the new environment.
Just wonder how closely u have been monitoring your dd work. Maybe I can share some ideas in how to assist your dd (nevertheless might not work for all kids). Firstly, help her in time management especially when coming to exam. Secondly, let her practise on past yr (mainstream) papers (can be purchased or download from internet) prior to exam. They might not be as challenging as GEP questions but at least she get to practise it. Thirdly, u have to interact more often with her teachers as at which area she need to improve on and seek for their advise.
Of course looking for tuition is another alternatives especially for kids who are willing to attend.
In short, what I am trying to say is that don't be too panic first..check out what needs she need first..and maybe then she would be able to cope better in semester 2...

[MotherHen]

Edureach:

thmejlfm:

Same here. My DD P4 this year. Her Maths and Science result really make me fainted. These two subjects used to be her best.


But, now, she failed. I think she felt the stress of it. Kept asking me for tuition for these two subjects. I was so afraid that she does not has enough time to rest.

Will meet her teacher this Friday also.

Get a home tutor 2 hrs x ! per wk. Suspect your dd is unable to cope with the gep programme.

Worst scenario, transfer her to the top express class and heck care what others think.

Actually a home tutor might not be such a bad idea. I know tuition is not encouraged. Likewise, my DD has no tuition other than once a week Chinese. However, I've been thinking about it alot since the most recent test papers came back.

Tuition, seen in the right light, can be a form of consistent revision. True, the child's time management is important. But we are also talking about 10- or 11-year olds here. I always thought DD could manage time pretty well, but the couple of months before the CT was terrible. Faced with an avalanche of project deadline, it just seems more important to finish the projects rather than do revision. As a parent, I just don't have the heart to push her any further, seeing that she's already so tired. I'm ashamed to say that for DD, revision started only a few days prior to CT (and for English - no revision/practice at all). It is terrible and there's no excuse for it. So maybe having a regular revision schedule in terms of a couple of hours per week is good?

I think tuition also boosts the confidence of the child. With Chinese tuition, I can really see DD's confidence. As a result, she has done well for Chinese (which used to be her worst subject). With other subjects, she seems so unsure now. Before she took the tests, she was already telling me that she was not going to do well. thmejlfm, like your DD, she brought up tuition, in particular The Learning Lab, as many of her friends are there.