Raffles Institution (Year 1-4)
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4. when RI will open DSA application,
5. what qualification the kid is needed to get RI DSA at quite high possibility?
6. in RI, students from original GEP stream and MainStream can get along well? or they often form their own fraction?
my kids is now P6, and want to learn more about this. thanks for any feedback. -
transformer2020:
any parents can share some RI life in response to my concerns:
1. I heard RI focus on GEP students only, and focus on the talent class, in terms of educational resources, and teachers? is this true?
2. For attending National or International competition, are they just focused on GEP students, or they select candidates based on preliminary open contest within the school?
3. If RI focuses more on comprehensive ability, such as presentation, CCA, managing events, how they are compete with NUS High school in respective Int'l competition on Math/Chemitry/Physics/Biology.transformer2020:
1. No, that is entirely false. There is a mix of GEP and 'high achievers' in the so called 'GEP' classes. A teacher who teaches the 'GEP' class can and will also teach a 'normal' class.4. when RI will open DSA application,
5. what qualification the kid is needed to get RI DSA at quite high possibility?
6. in RI, students from original GEP stream and MainStream can get along well? or they often form their own fraction?
my kids is now P6, and want to learn more about this. thanks for any feedback.
2. No, whether you are GEP or you get 300 for PSLE doesn't matter at all in RI. You start afresh and everyone is given an equal chance to excel and represent the school in competitions.
3. RI wins countless of olympiads yearly so you do not have to worry about not being able to compete with NUS High. The labs in school are on par with those in NUS High.
4. Usually around July. Check the school website for details.
5. Sports/music talent or impressive academic results, otherwise, i suggest you let your kid get in RI base on his own merit aka his PSLE score.
6. They get along very well. Batch bonding activities are organised at least once a term and pupils from mainstream and GEP get to mingle with each other in their CCAs and during recess time.
You don't have to worry so much about the GEP issue, as no student is given extra benefits in RI. Everyone is equal. -
thanks diudiu for your prompt and clear answers. i have some other doubts needs to clear as far as we talked about NUS High. any parents can share the expericence?
a. Raise Funds.
As most of RI students come from rich or prestigious family, i learned when the school asks for ‘donation’, those families will ‘donate’ full amount to replace ‘student’s running for charity compaign’. and that amount is significant. Is that true? i think tudents from working class may feel psychological side-effects, hence affecting their character development.
while in NUS High, they do have charity activity, but even the students donate ‘1 cent’ on their own nobody will laugh or talk about that; and the teach carries on this anonymously.
b. Costs model - what’s the cost model and average cost for each year studying in RI?
RI will carry on a lot of CCA or project, and may have outsourcing training or enrichment. does all this cost will be incurred and beared by students? how big amount generally at each level?
for attending National or Int’l competition on behalf of school, does all travel fee will bear by student himself?
I understand NUS High will bear nearly all the cost, to raise the students as they can. and they have incentives to discount school fee based on family income.
c. accelerated study path
as we know NUS high has accelerated study path for the students based on his merits, say kid has reach Sec 4 math, so the student does not need to just sit and waste time with sec 1, can frogleap to matching level. in RI, is there same mechanism there? or how they deal with accelerated students?
d. If the student unlikely put in to Mainstream class in RI, is there any possibility that he jump in GEP or talent class with improved performance later on? or all talent class fixed at the entrance.
my kid has distinctive performance nationwide/int’l wide, but he is not GEP, and face really difficulty in sharing resource focused on only GEP (such as study material, practise paper). i really want to know if this system barrier exist in this prestigious middle school.
a little more touch on NUS High school and it looks more open and eager for talent, supported by NUS university spirit - Excel, and Freedom. -
I really dont remember RI asking for any donation last year leh? Wonder why people have this impression that RI ask for donation? :?
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Transformer2020, I do no know where u gather ur information about RI from but I can tell this after my DS spent one year there. RI practices meritocracy. My DS, despite his achievements in Maths competitions, had to still sit for test like everyone else who wishes to be in the math club. And for the pull-out math program called the euler program, he had to fill a detailed application and take a test like everyone who wanted to join, and attend an interview after the shortlist was announced. RI doesn’t give a care whether the pupil is ex-gep or not. Same for the science club and the Galileo program and I believe, the RA program. And ALL other activities. All purely based on meritocracy.
Also, I don’t recall being coerced to donate money to the school. No one cares who ur father is there. Well, tt’s according to my son’s experience.
To choose the right school, u have to first n foremost understand ur child’s interest n learning style. A happy n motivated child will thrive regardless of school choice. -
My DS has spend 3 years in RI. I have never been forced to donate. I also cannot remember getting more than one letter a year requesting to donate. I have seen a few cases from my friends children asking for donation and at least 4 in a year. In fact, I received a lot of information from RI about scholarship and information to get financial assistance. You should get the right information from the relevant people.
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Quite a few of my ds friends are down with fever after the kiwi cup. Heard that a lot of them were seated in the sun for a long time. Do watch out for your boys and make sure they drink enough fluids…
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very glad to receive kind feedback. it really helps clear my doubts. I got most of those information based on talks with my friends, from last year.
If its meritocratic environment it really helps. thanks a lot. -
transformer2020:
a. Nah, like all the other parents have said, RI does not ask students for donations. Though an exception is the yearly ORA Day where students will be given a card to ask for donations from their family/friends. ORA Day was cancelled last year but should be back this year.thanks diudiu for your prompt and clear answers. i have some other doubts needs to clear as far as we talked about NUS High. any parents can share the expericence?
a. Raise Funds.
As most of RI students come from rich or prestigious family, i learned when the school asks for 'donation', those families will 'donate' full amount to replace 'student's running for charity compaign'. and that amount is significant. Is that true? i think tudents from working class may feel psychological side-effects, hence affecting their character development.
while in NUS High, they do have charity activity, but even the students donate '1 cent' on their own nobody will laugh or talk about that; and the teach carries on this anonymously.
b. Costs model - what's the cost model and average cost for each year studying in RI?
RI will carry on a lot of CCA or project, and may have outsourcing training or enrichment. does all this cost will be incurred and beared by students? how big amount generally at each level?
for attending National or Int'l competition on behalf of school, does all travel fee will bear by student himself?
I understand NUS High will bear nearly all the cost, to raise the students as they can. and they have incentives to discount school fee based on family income.
c. accelerated study path
as we know NUS high has accelerated study path for the students based on his merits, say kid has reach Sec 4 math, so the student does not need to just sit and waste time with sec 1, can frogleap to matching level. in RI, is there same mechanism there? or how they deal with accelerated students?
d. If the student unlikely put in to Mainstream class in RI, is there any possibility that he jump in GEP or talent class with improved performance later on? or all talent class fixed at the entrance.
my kid has distinctive performance nationwide/int'l wide, but he is not GEP, and face really difficulty in sharing resource focused on only GEP (such as study material, practise paper). i really want to know if this system barrier exist in this prestigious middle school.
a little more touch on NUS High school and it looks more open and eager for talent, supported by NUS university spirit - Excel, and Freedom.
b. Its the most expensive secondary school in Singapore, not taking into account the international schools.
c. Euler program is catered for lower sec students who are more able in Maths. Galileo program is catered for lower sec students who are more able in science. In upper sec, there is the Raffles Academy aka RA program for students who excel in certain subjects like Math, Lit, Geog, Hist.
d. No chance at all. Until he gets to Sec 3 where he will change class again and is streamed again. So basically, your son will have 2 classes in his Year1-4 life in RI. (Sec1-2 and Sec3-4) -
as the whole school is on GEP pedagogy and everyone is on the enriched curriculum, there is hardly any difference between ‘mainstream’ and ‘GEP’ class, and even ‘GEP’ classes also have some ‘mainstream’ pupils.
that is one of the main reasons why the school remains the most popular all these years
as in most schools with many classes, it is inevitable that some will be faster and some will be some what slower but at the end everyone covers the same materials
as a fellow ksp member mentioned earlier, everyone regardless of GEP background or otherwise, starts at the same baseline in this school, and after sec 2, with the subject streaming, it is totally history in terms of ‘GEP’ status
and even in sec 1, ‘GEP’ status is probably existing in some minority’s mind only, as the vast majority just do work and study together, regardless of race, language, and GEP status
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