Small fish in big pond or big fish in small pond?

[sleepy]

jtoh:

Is this for lower primary? I thought most schools will start to group higher ability students together from upper primary.

According to principal, the 'bored' ones can wait for GEP screening, going to transfer out anyway. Those who didn't qualify for GEP stay back but streaming by subject banding will only be in P5.

[jedamum]

jtoh:

jedamum:

[quote=\"sleepy\"]
Don't have streaming in dd's school. Students are randomly allocated to each class. No advanced class for any subject or advanced students. Same set of worksheets regardless of abilities.
So you see some extremely bored students & some struggling to catch up students, all in the same class

sleepy,
my ds told me that the top student in his class at times does his school homework, home assessment book (P6 std :yikes:) or past year papers during classtime (he is seated at the back and no way the teacher should stop him since he shows no dip in performance). i think the parent and the kid must be eagerly waiting for the GEP outcome.

P6 standard! :yikes:[/quote]for english assessment book. i also :shock: when i heard that.
ok...to add, this small fish big fish thing. we don't have to think too much la. alot of factors in play. take for instance this very bright classmate (the one doing P6 standard english). if i am in his shoes, i may be under tremendous stress to perform well because everyone in class is expecting so. not that he can't but sometimes, examination situation and frame of mind when sitting the paper plays an outcome in the results.
not the biggest, but being a slightly smaller fish (not the smallest though) in a big pond may be a more suitable environment for him to thrive.

[sleepy]

jedamum:

sleepy,

my ds told me that the top student in his class at times does his school homework, home assessment book (P6 std :yikes:) or past year papers during classtime (he is seated at the back and no way the teacher should stop him since he shows no dip in performance). i think the parent and the kid must be eagerly waiting for the GEP outcome.

dd's teachers do not allow students to do 'other' stuff during lesson time le. Must pay attention. If read storybooks during lesson time, books get confiscated.

Gosh, don't know what would happen to students who bring higher level work to class? Teachers probably see that as an insult? :lightrod:

[jedamum]

sleepy:

jedamum:

sleepy,

my ds told me that the top student in his class at times does his school homework, home assessment book (P6 std :yikes:) or past year papers during classtime (he is seated at the back and no way the teacher should stop him since he shows no dip in performance). i think the parent and the kid must be eagerly waiting for the GEP outcome.

dd's teachers do not allow students to do 'other' stuff during lesson time le. Must pay attention. If read storybooks during lesson time, books get confiscated.

Gosh, don't know what would happen to students who bring higher level work to class? Teachers probably see that as an insult? :lightrod: :evil:

hm...maybe reading story books cannot because it may show a sign of boredom. but doing assessment books in class is also a form of learning, no? :evil: afterall, not many students want to do assessment books during 'free time'.

[sleepy]

jedamum:

not the biggest, but being a slightly smaller fish (not the smallest though) in a big pond may be a more suitable environment for him to thrive.

I agreed !

[jtoh]

jedamum:

sleepy:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]sleepy,

my ds told me that the top student in his class at times does his school homework, home assessment book (P6 std :yikes:) or past year papers during classtime (he is seated at the back and no way the teacher should stop him since he shows no dip in performance). i think the parent and the kid must be eagerly waiting for the GEP outcome.

dd's teachers do not allow students to do 'other' stuff during lesson time le. Must pay attention. If read storybooks during lesson time, books get confiscated.

Gosh, don't know what would happen to students who bring higher level work to class? Teachers probably see that as an insult? :lightrod: :evil:

hm...maybe reading story books cannot because it may show a sign of boredom. but doing assessment books in class is also a form of learning, no? :evil: afterall, not many students want to do assessment books during 'free time'. [/quote]I've had friends' kids who did extra exercises in their workbook beyond what was asked of them and the teacher made them erase all their work.

[jtoh]

sleepy:

jtoh:

Is this for lower primary? I thought most schools will start to group higher ability students together from upper primary.

According to principal, the 'bored' ones can wait for GEP screening, going to transfer out anyway. Those who didn't qualify for GEP stay back but streaming by subject banding will only be in P5.

That school's a little bochap then. Not surprising if the brighter kids choose to leave for GEP if the school's not doing anything for them.

[nms1]

jedamum:

sleepy:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]sleepy,

my ds told me that the top student in his class at times does his school homework, home assessment book (P6 std :yikes:) or past year papers during classtime (he is seated at the back and no way the teacher should stop him since he shows no dip in performance). i think the parent and the kid must be eagerly waiting for the GEP outcome.

dd's teachers do not allow students to do 'other' stuff during lesson time le. Must pay attention. If read storybooks during lesson time, books get confiscated.

Gosh, don't know what would happen to students who bring higher level work to class? Teachers probably see that as an insult? :lightrod: :evil:

hm...maybe reading story books cannot because it may show a sign of boredom. but doing assessment books in class is also a form of learning, no? :evil: afterall, not many students want to do assessment books during 'free time'. [/quote]But the teacher does need to keep control of the class so I would say that if the pupils truly are bored then the parents need to raise it with the school and come to some arrangement otherwise the classroom will end up in chaos.

[nms1]

I agree & disagree with the ST article. I think some parents are too hung-up on getting into one of the brand-name primary schools. We could have had a chance at Rosyth but I didn’t feel that my daughter would thrive in that kind of environment and we were lucky enough to have good alternative options. She is now at CHIJ (OGLC) and is loving it. She has been placed in the "enrichment" class for Chinese which has been a great boost for her confidence and she is holding her own in other subjects. The school is small enough to be friendly and the pastoral environment is what we were looking for.


However, I will say that there are also schools which I wouldn’t want her to attend. It’s a horrible thing to say but if too many of the pupils comes from backgrounds where the parents cannot or don’t want to provide the learning support at home, then the whole cohort will be dragged down and even being the biggest fish in that pond may not be that great as you will not be stretched. I saw this happen to my brother (not in Singapore); his teachers told him he was great, he topped the class but ended up with miserable A levels and failing to get into university. On the other hand, my teachers were always telling me that I wasn’t doing well enough and I never came top of the class but I ended up doing much better than me - I think he’s forgiven me by now

[Vevey]

\"Will his self-esteem be dashed if he goes from being top of the heap to being 30th in class, which may happen in a highly competitive school?\"


That's what happened to me when I decided to go to a SAP sec school w my \"good\" PSLE score. Most of my pri sch friends w similar scores opted to go for a good neighbourhood sec sch instead.

Within e 1st week, I understood what is \"人外有人， 天外有天” as most of my new classmates were really v smart & competitive, w PSLE scores 10-18pts higher than mine. :oops:

I never become the cream of the crop again & it was a life-changing pt bcos being an Ah Q, I decided that there is more to life than grades & never work really hard again.

So even tho I managed to get into a good JC, a popular faculty in NUS, the honours class etc, I continue to enjoy life while not putting in more effort in my studies than it was needed.

Would the outcome b any different if I had opted for a small pond for as long as possible? I only know I'm contented.