Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

[Mvm]

There is a link to the parents portal on the school’s webpage. However we need an ID and password to log in. Any idea when year 1 parents will start to have access?

[South African]

autolycus:

Just remember that ACS(I) provides a very large and eclectic buffet. Some of the dishes are completely incompatible with others, even though their common setting is fairly well designed.


At my age, I've come to realise that you don't have to eat some of every available dish in order to get your money's worth. Indeed, the best approach is just to eat a lot of what you like to eat, and then do corrective or remedial exercise to get into the desired shape if you really have to.

In other schools, the buffet may be smaller but more rigorous. There are some places which seem to provide nothing but salads, others which only deal in protein. That's fine too, as long as the child eventually compensates for it. After all, we humans are omnivores.

And lastly, 'well-rounded' doesn't mean obese.

Hi autolycus, just pm you on queries about leadership programme.

[kandc]

Autolycus & ngbrdad,


Thank you so much for your reply and especially thanks to autolycus’ comments! I am really hesitating to "push" my son to take HCL, as I may have made a wrong decision to push him to study HCL in primary school. Results proved he is rather weak in learning Chinese, got only a pass for his PSLE HCL So I am learning from this site to explore if there is any other ways?

Is there any bonus points (affiliation or CCA) for ACS(I) body to enter IB by JAE at Y5, besides the HCL 2 points? Also got maximum bonus point by JAE? Is it difficult to get 2 bonus point from CCA? Seems that the 2 bonus point from HCL will be very important if applying other JCs.

[autolycus]

kandc:

Is there any bonus points (affiliation or CCA) for ACS(I) body to enter IB by JAE at Y5, besides the HCL 2 points? Also got maximum bonus point by JAE? Is it difficult to get 2 bonus point from CCA? Seems that the 2 bonus point from HCL will be very important if applying other JCs.

No, there are no affiliation points applied; those are only for selected JCs. The maximum point bonus is 4 points. 2 bonus points from CCA in ACS(I) is normally fairly easy.

In perspective, you'll need about 5 points adjusted to get into ACS(I)'s IBDP by JAE if you haven't entered by any other means. If you're a student in ACS(I) who has pursued CCA assiduously and also got a raw aggregate score of 6-7 points, you will have those 5 points. The HCL would give you 3 points.

However, if you need HCL + CCA to get your 5 points adjusted, that means you had 9 points. The best case scenario is that you had 5 A1s and everything else was 4 or worse. The worst-case scenario is that you had a 4 for English, which pretty much indicates a limitation to your language skills.

Again, considering the holistic interests of the student, I'd rather apply for another place. The IB programme requires lots of concerted effort, and although the average grade produced by ACS(I) is very high (top 3-5 in the world every year considering both northern and southern hemispheres), there are always a few who don't do so well.

The best advice I can offer is to avoid overdoing things. Work hard, but focus on things that the student has genuine passion for, and on things that are truly essential — some math, some science, a technical mastery of language, the ability to write good humanities/lit essays. Don't do things for the sake of 'trajectory'.

Why not? Because the world is changing at a greater rate. Predictability (if we ever had it) has decreased. You can't tell what will be useful or not, but if the ability to learn is super-solid, your son will be able to adapt to many of the things the future will throw at him. That comes first.

[South African]

Hi, my son is in ACSI express. So far how’s the workload in your sons’ class?


My DS says the sch teach very little and very little homework and Maths is too easy. Is it like that for your boys and is the school expecting the kids to read more and on their own? Or is it just simply too laid back or my DS is too efficient?

How’s the workload for the IB stream?

[number1]

My son also in express. So far ; very free; even more relax than primary school days . Cca not started as well. He’ s getting restless.

[autolycus]

South African, number1: it's a little-known fact that deserves to be better known and seems obvious on hindsight — the Sec 1 induction period is generally more slack than the Primary 6 intensive-suffering period.


A more important fact is the idea you will find in Nadar & Einarsson (2010), 'Memory reconsolidation: an update', Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences Vol 1191, pp 27-41. Apparently, strong training leads to memory inflexibility and inability to learn. Hence slackness interspersed with periods of shockingly intense stimuli seems to be a good idea.

[South African]

Hi Autolycus, thanks. I guess I will enjoy this time bonding with him while I can. And give him encouragement and motivation to strive for better results. Yes, after the intense grilling in P6 these days, its a breeze for now.

[ngbrdad]

Same for my son.

Really enjoying Sec1 life at the moment.

[kandc]

Hi Autolycus,


Really appreciated your advice & fully agree with you. I do understand the IB is a good programme to train students to be holistic. But exactly as you pointed out, it is not suitable for every boy. So my question will be how to judge/observe as early as possible if the boy fits in IB programme or not? The judgement would be "the ability to write good humanities/lit essays"?? Therefore, as you commented in your last reply to my post, "the worst-case scenario is that the boy had a 4 for English, which pretty much indicates a limitation to your language skills". So usually poor English mastery will limit his performance in IB exam, better look for another place b4 the IBDP exams? Thanks a lot!