What goes into choosing a suitable Secondary School

[chengsmummy]

very good tips, daisyt.


During last year’s secondary selection, my daughter and I made the selection together. I help her list down the schools and she prioritize them.I preferred a mixed school, DMHS, but she chose the girls school, simply because majority of her friends wanted to go to the girls school.

[csc]

A number of neighbourhood schools do have OPEN HOUSES one or two weeks before the release of PSLE results. Watch out for the banners outside the school or check out the school’s website.


My children’s primary school organises SEcondary School Fairs for parents of pr 5 & 6 pupils in NOV where a number of secondary schools will set up booths to exhibit their school’s activities and talks are conducted by the school teachers and even principals too. I remember listening to the VP of RVHS talking about integrated program.

[snowz]

daisyt:

When selecting sec school last year, it was a joint decision between me and my girl. Based on her result, I listed out my criterias and she listed down the schools she liked which were within my criterias.


We went to 3 schools open house and made the following observations.

1) Culture of the school
- the students converse more in English or Mandarin
- the notice boards of a few CCAs, how were they presented ?
- the performance of the CCAs during the open house, eg how well the students know their CCAs and present their CCAs.
- the classrooms decorations and cleaness. From the decos, you can more or less tell if the students are bonded to their class and feel at home.

2) Environment of the school
- the toilets are well maintained ?
- the environment of the school, homely ? comfortable ?
- very important, the canteen. Are there many variaty of foods ? Its very important because your kids would eat in school for breaks and lunches.

3) The students
- the behaviour and attitute of the students
- how helpful, how polite, how far can they make us have the homely feeling
- their attitire, how neatly they wear the uniform, school shoes, hair style

Is IP or not IP school a criteria of choosing a sec school?

[daisyt]

snowz:

Is IP or not IP school a criteria of choosing a sec school?

Hi snowz, for us its not but it happen that her scores and preference schools fall in IP. There are other schools she like not in IP but after finding out more on IP, we decided to go for it.

[turquoise]

snowz:

[

Is IP or not IP school a criteria of choosing a sec school?

That depends on whether an IP education suits your child. If a child is up for the rigours of IP education and is an independent learner, then he/she can consider the IP route. Bear in mind that the IP route is targetted at the top echelon of PSLE students.

[JustKP]

luckystar:

If the child had keep up a good result thru out the years,RI,RGS,HCI,NYGH,NUSH,ACSI -- choose among these branded school based on distance. Cause these are the hottest school among the geps and high achivers.

I should think that Dunman High (DHS) is one of the top as well. They have produced a President Scholar from their very first batch of IP students :celebrate: Moreover, they are effectively bilingual

[Huang]

Hey Guys,


I will have to start by saying thank you! Great advice out there that I will definitely have to share with my relative. I feel that sometimes it is easy for parents to forget and regress into the "Primitive Mindset" and start making all decisions for the child.

daisyt Posted: 20 Aug 2009 10:22 Post subject:

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When selecting sec school last year, it was a joint decision between me and my girl. Based on her result, I listed out my criterias and she listed down the schools she liked which were within my criterias.

We went to 3 schools open house and made the following observations.

1) Culture of the school
- the students converse more in English or Mandarin
- the notice boards of a few CCAs, how were they presented ?
- the performance of the CCAs during the open house, eg how well the students know their CCAs and present their CCAs.
- the classrooms decorations and cleaness. From the decos, you can more or less tell if the students are bonded to their class and feel at home.

2) Environment of the school
- the toilets are well maintained ?
- the environment of the school, homely ? comfortable ?
- very important, the canteen. Are there many variaty of foods ? Its very important because your kids would eat in school for breaks and lunches.

3) The students
- the behaviour and attitute of the students
- how helpful, how polite, how far can they make us have the homely feeling
- their attitire, how neatly they wear the uniform, school shoes, hair style

WOW!!

Seems like a very detailed science experiment sort of evaluation, I seriously think some people here should hold talks and start "waking up" those parents who are still in the dark.

Anyone else?

[springles1]

Can I know from parents who are sending kids to secondary school that are far from home.

How are they coping? Do you feel that you should have chosen closer to home?

I do not have much good schools closers to my home and all good schools are like 45 to 1 hour travel with 2 MRTs or buses.

[springles1]

Can I know from parents who are sending kids to secondary school that are far from home.

How are they coping? Do you feel that you should have chosen closer to home?

I do not have much good schools closers to my home and all good schools are like 45 to 1 hour travel with 2 MRTs or buses.

[kaisuism]

springles1\" post_id=\"2106916\" time=\"1682692399\" user_id=\"142914:

Can I know from parents who are sending kids to secondary school that are far from home.
How are they coping? Do you feel that you should have chosen closer to home?

I do not have much good schools closers to my home and all good schools are like 45 to 1 hour travel with 2 MRTs or buses.

I do not have any experience to share but my child has classmates who take at least 1 hour to travel to school and my child did not hear them complain about the travelling. Some schools need to transfer whether is MRT to bus or bus to bus so it is unavoidable. If not will have to walk 10 mins if no transfer. The question you should ask is if this school is worth the travelling time. Anyway 45min to 1 hour is still acceptable.