West Grove Primary

[kohbee2.06303gmail.06303com]

mother777:

My DD1 who is in P2 has been selected for \"High Achievement maths progress class\" and she has 1-1/2 hour hour lesson on every Monday morning.


but this week she brought back some questions in model drawing as home work. the teacher just taught them 1 model question (which my daughter did not understand clearly). But gave 7 questions as home work.

They looked very tough to me..around P4/P5 level age model questions..infact one question was entirely wrong also..unsolvable

any parent can confirm, is this the way the progress class is run..??
if yes, this will stress up the kid instead of boosting their love for maths..

Hi, my son is also attending the class. As far as I know they are not allowed to bring the worksheet home. The students are to try solving the questions during lesson time after finishing whatever routine work the teacher has assigned. If they can't finish or do the questions they were told that it is Ok and the teacher will go through with them at the next High Maths lesson.

Out of curosity, I have asked my son about the questions they were given. After hearing one or two questions, I agree with you that the questions are very challenging for P2 students and even for me who belongs to the 'Algebra' generation (not very familiar with the Model problem solving method). I am leaving the teaching to the teacher as I do not want to confuse my son as my methodology might be wrong.

So far my son is not able to solve most questions and I am monitoring to see if he is still keen to attend the lesson. Currently, we are treating it like another CCA, like a Maths Club. Hopefully he will learn some problem solving skill in the process. Like you, I hope that the lesson will not dampen their interest in Maths.

[kohbee2.06303gmail.06303com]

Just to add that the students were given a few days (up to Friday) to try the questions.

[mother777]

Well yes they were told to finish the questions by Friday. But they were told to do them during their free time at school. Since other students frp

DD's class could not finish it, form teacher told the supplementary class teacher abt this.

Some of kids did bring the questions back to home (got to know from other kids mothers).

So I tried to go thru the questions with my daughter using model drawing
Just hope she understood.
If anybody want to know what the questions were..try to look for my request for help in P2 maths post

[scm292]

Seems that wgps starts early these days.

My suggestion is if your kids can cope, lt them continue. The rewards will come later especially if u consider DSA for yr kids in p6.

DS was involved in something similar for maths from p4 onwards but for schools in the west cluster consisting of wgps, maps, bl garden ps etc (cannot remember how many sch). Wgps had around 10 students I think.
We let him participate, treating it as an enrichment.
The classes helped him improve a lot in math. Wgps also send the students in this group to math olympiad, awards from these MO helps to boost up the achievements for DSA. Most dsa test questions for math are also similar to MO so students who have such training can manage hast test or similar test better during DSA to sec sch.

[mother777]

well, I will let my daughter continue for now..

I am not sure she will be bringing her future assignments back home for me to see what the teacher is teaching

if she brings it home or if the teacher gives back the corrected assignments, then as parents we can have better idea what is being taught and can help our kids at home

i think neighbourhood schools have also started bucking up the speed and drilling of kids..

may be recent top PSLE student being from Rulang was the key to triggering this kind of early intervention by teachers.. :roll:

[kohbee2.06303gmail.06303com]

scm292:

Seems that wgps starts early these days.

My suggestion is if your kids can cope, lt them continue. The rewards will come later especially if u consider DSA for yr kids in p6.

DS was involved in something similar for maths from p4 onwards but for schools in the west cluster consisting of wgps, maps, bl garden ps etc (cannot remember how many sch). Wgps had around 10 students I think.
We let him participate, treating it as an enrichment.
The classes helped him improve a lot in math. Wgps also send the students in this group to math olympiad, awards from these MO helps to boost up the achievements for DSA. Most dsa test questions for math are also similar to MO so students who have such training can manage hast test or similar test better during DSA to sec sch.

Hi scm292, thanks for your sharing and advise. It is comforting to know that your son has benefited from the classes.

After looking through the questions and the sample solution given, I realised that the children need to know the following concept before they can understand how to solve the questions:
1) know how to draw the model (which they just started in P2 with the simple addition & substration questions)
2) know the meaning of multiples
3) know how to form equations and manipulate the parameters in the equation
4) know how to do division
5) know the concept of timeline

In view of this, the questions are definitely overwhelming for the kid at P2 level.

Personally, I think it might be better for this High Maths sessions to start when the kids are in the upper primary when most basics have been taught. Otherwise, it would just be a session whereby kids just learn to solve the questions by copying the solutions given by the teacher without fully understanding the meaning behind the steps even though the teacher tried his best to explain to them.

BTW does anyone has any idea if this High Maths class is just for 1 term or is it for the whole year?

[mother777]

Hi JR,


Hopefully you got a better picture about what I was complaining about being taught in the high progress maths class to P2 students..

When my DD1 brought back her assignment paper, I was like \"what the H@#$ :yikes: ?

I belong to an era where maths was done the algebra way..so in a span of few days..I had to use my help line (KSP forum and my office colleagues whose kids are higher level) and tried to understand the question my self..

Don't know about others..but I got stressed.. and literally :faint: wondering how my DD1 is supposed to understand this.. :scratchhead:

Well she had another class this morning, by evening will get to know:

1) what was taught today?
2) did the teacher accept the answer that my DD learned from me?
3) Did the teacher provide any sample answers back to them?

will keep you all updated.. :boogie:

PS: I am not sure the class will continue after term 1. So far the schedule is only till term 1 end.

[kohbee2.06303gmail.06303com]

Hi mother777,


Your earlier post got me stressed up too I have also cracked my head trying to figure out how to solve the questions.

Anyway thanks for bringing this topic up for discussion. It also spur me to find out more about the model solving method. I must admit that it is a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

I have also tried to explain to my son those concepts that are required for solving one of the questions this morning. Hopefully, he will have a better understanding of the solution when the teacher go through with them.

Does anyone has any idea if the school will organise workshop on the Model Problem Solving Method for parents?

[mother777]

Hi JR,


Nope, did not hear about any workshop for parents. Hope parents with kids in upper primary can advice if school organizes any such workshops for maths (or other subjects)…

[kohbee2.06303gmail.06303com]

Hi mother777,


Finally got to see the worksheet for the high Maths yesterday night. The model done by the teacher is different from the one I saw on the P2 Math forum page. There is only one drawing and all the info is compressed into this drawing. I have difficulty understanding the subsequent working for the first question: 3u = 3 years. Can you enlighten me?