Raffles Institution (Year 1-4)

[Snow Crystal]

katherina:

thanks vlim. i know it shdnot matter. but ds very quiet altho usually very noisy. and his friens parents have also said to me they have to spend time encouraging their Ds not to be down. on cca - ds went so many tryouts, 6 already, and hes abv average for some (even play for school but guess not so good) also told cannot get in. some of the tryouts have 60 to 80 boys for 10 places. then for mep/aep/csp/msp also so hard. class com also cannot. subj rep also didn't get. very worreid.

RI is a big pond and the boys will find themselves being small fishes there. If you are good, there's always some boy there better than you. We are talking about gathering of the brainiest here - top 3%. Easy to be lost and deflated in confidence. Whatever CCA he ends up with, try to make best out of it. Can't get class comm, aim for other leadership positions later on. Tell him to try to make more friends and be friendly in school. Don't be quiet. Open up talk to more schoolmates. How about self recommending to teachers for upcoming openings for leadership posts? Train his guts. As parents, let the kids handle things on their own but give lots of mental support and encouragement. Some parents prefer to put their sons into smaller ponds so that the DS can shine more as bigger fish. But since your DS has already landed in big pond, go grab every small opportunity. Jiayou ok!

[Fretting]

katherine you should not worry so much. its 6 years - this is only sec 1. the boys will grow up, and figure out what they are good at. it may seem unfair on the face of it that the psle and what you the boys did in primary school should be the determinant of what they get to do in sec one (and maybe there could be a better selection method e.g. after CA/SA sec 1 tests or making merit cca spots more available). However, if you think about it, there’s still time for the boys to do well in school over a wide variety of subjects. if they do well in the secondary school tests and exams, or in the merit cca - there’s no reason why the boy shouldn’t be able to put his hand up and ask RI to reconsider him for the core cca or special programs, competitions etc. Quite sure they should be fair about it. Also, i think if you think hard - you probably won’t remember much about your primary school or lower sec days… and imho it does not have as significant a consequence on adult life, as say, A levels, university or when you first started working. So let DS know - its okay.

[fruitplus]

Hi Katherina,


Don’t get demoralise. It is tough to get into the sports CCA, in the first place, places are reserved for those DSA via sports, secondly, they are looking for boys who are able to win medals, so it is very tough.

Like what Snow Crystal said RI is a big pond.

My son got brainwashed by the teacher and seniors and join uniform group last year. He told me he regrets a little. But hubby and I feel that it is a good thing bcos DS is not a outdoor person, and he has more muscles now

To toughen up, NPCC and NCC seem to be 2 of the good choices. Unifom groups provide a lot of opportunities for developing Leadership qualitiy for the boys.

Happy Lunar New year to everyone !

[katherina]

thx everyone for encourging replies. ds had wanted to try 4 dbates - i said dont bcoz hes chnse cannot spk so well. he didnt listen come back from debates v down becoz so many boys, topics v harrd and some so calm and spk so well. he went for the sports he rep the pschool in the coach said somethng like no need to try furhthr. i told him nvmind go for maths (since i math grad), he came back said didn’t qualify. i have told him, core cca and specprog, must be of std to win medals for sch othw not good even if can get in. he wanted the musical groups but they say need music background. think i will take ur advice and ask him to do npcc. hope he will turn out okay.

[limpeh]

Don't worry. I was from a neighbourhood pri sch and didn't really do any CCAs there. And in the first few months I did feel that the GEP pupils knew a lot more, and of course I ended up in a UG because I had no sports or music background at all. But in the end I got used to it. After some time everyone is on the same footing. Especially at the start, don't think too much about those Euler and Galileo progs (in my time there weren't such things anyway), because time is needed to settle in, and there are still other opportunities (such as RA in Y3). Even so, I did get the feeling that some opportunities especially competitions, are always given only to the same few (i.e. 4 ppl/subj or so) people to do, because the school wants to win so they always send the same people back.


In UG, especially from Y3 onwards, there are a lot of planning and projects to do. NPCC and NCC will get your child fit but from what I know it's quite tough too. In the UG, I learnt a lot about doing things and dealing with people, esp office politics which I suppose will be very useful in life.

[naggo-nitemare]

Chinese orchestra does not require music background. There are many other merit cca like interact, humanities, photography etc etc clubs to join.

[iFirefly]

limpeh:

Don't worry. I was from a neighbourhood pri sch and didn't really do any CCAs there. And in the first few months I did feel that the GEP pupils knew a lot more, and of course I ended up in a UG because I had no sports or music background at all. But in the end I got used to it. After some time everyone is on the same footing. Especially at the start, don't think too much about those Euler and Galileo progs (in my time there weren't such things anyway), because time is needed to settle in, and there are still other opportunities (such as RA in Y3). Even so, I did get the feeling that some opportunities especially competitions, are always given only to the same few (i.e. 4 ppl/subj or so) people to do, because the school wants to win so they always send the same people back.


In UG, especially from Y3 onwards, there are a lot of planning and projects to do. NPCC and NCC will get your child fit but from what I know it's quite tough too. In the UG, I learnt a lot about doing things and dealing with
people, esp office politics which I suppose will be very useful in life.

:goodpost: You have a very positive attitude, and I respect you for that :salute: ... Very few students, even parents, share your positive outlook! So, you must be a 'senior' boy from RI?

[Ms tay]

祝大家一帆风顺，二龙腾飞，三羊开泰，四季平安，五福临门，六六大顺，七星高照，八方来财，九九同心，十全十美。

:rahrah: :celebrate: :celebrate: :rahrah:

[vlim]

新年快乐!!! 事事顺利!!! 要什么 cca 得什么 cca, 要什么奖，得什么奖!!!

:celebrate: :celebrate:

[Ms tay]

vlim:

新年快乐!!! 事事顺利!!! 要什么 cca 得什么 cca, 要什么奖，得什么奖!!!

:celebrate: :celebrate:

身体健康，学业猛进，年年考第一.......... :imcool: :rahrah: :celebrate: :celebrate: