Maris Stella High

[elixir]

The cl system in the school (or my ds’ class) is very structured. I know what is happening in the class. Ds is coping well in chinese also because of the dedication of the cl teacher. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the el / ma teacher.

[Zoji]

ptr:

I find mshs does have a good system of teaching Chinese. Ds doesn't go to any tuition or enrichment, has no inkling what is hypy before pri one because his kindy doesn't teach it and I didn't let him go to any Chinese prep class. Before primary one, he is also a kandang, doesnt speak much chinese. But now, he is reading short stories with hypy and he converse rather fluently in Chinese at home with me, albeit with a lot of reminders. And his results are satisfactory by my standards.


I spend 30min to 1 hour coaching him everyday in all subjects. So maybe about twenty min on chinese. We rely heavily on all the school/ recommended resources like 课本，字卡， 好朋友，亲子活动 and xuele. I like it that all test content and format is given clearly, so I can help him prepare. I stick very closely to the format like 辨字测验， 短文填空，etc to prepare each tests. So far he is doing well for tests. some careless mistakes when it comes to hypy 声调, but otherwise he understands what is going on.

Ds also learnt very difficult Chinese in k2 like 弟子规，听写 words like 水蒸气，过滤.... But all give back to teacher le. Here in pri one, I find whatever new characters he learnt is reinforced all round in the books, flash cards, xuele, 好朋友 (I read this newsletter with him cover to cover every week). So the words stays with him and he uses them in daily conversation. And these easier words build up his confidence.

I think the teachers really work hard with the students, so I really commend their effort. Btw ds is in 1I. Aside from the usual chops and stickers for encouragement, I heard from ds that they have a group point systems whereby each group accumulate points for answering qns in class and they earn presents like chocolate and sweets. Sound like hogwarts

I don't mean any offense to anyone here. I just feel that mshs does have a system and we can try to work with it and also not stress our kids. Even for ds who doesn't have tuitions, his daily curriculum is grueling as compared to my time. He studies the whole morning, reach home about two plus to three, bathes and lunch. Then does his school homework. After that he has sometime for fun. After dinner when we r home, he has to study with me again. So on days when he is tired, I just read him stories and he just listens or I let him play xuele.

same class as my ds... so far im also ok wif ds progress thou he can do better and make lesser careless mistake

[Zoji]

anyone of ur ds is taking the schoolbus?

ds is currently taking the mid-size schoolbus to school. recently ds is being instructed to sit with 2 other boys together in the 2 seaters. anyone know if that is ok or against the law? they are already not wearing any seat belt and now need to squeeze together…thanks

[barbie88]

My son is currently in P6 preparing for mid year exam now. I must say that I am very disappointed with the preparation the P6 students are receiving.


I have an elder son who was previously with Nanyang Primary. The quality and quantity of work sheets given by the 2 schools are quite different. For Math, MSHS worksheets were mainly from the practice workbook and some MSHS past papers, wherelse NYPS had a lot more in-depth challenging questions on top of the past yrs papers and workbook. My son’s Math tuition teacher who has students in St Andrew commented that MSHS’s Math homework are very much lesser as compared to other schools. Mothers of past MSHS P6 boys also complained to her that MSHS gave out little homework.

At the start of the year, son told me that his English teacher said she will not be giving out a lot of homework to them this year so as not to stress them out. Now that we are mid year through, i realised the teacher kept to her word, OMG. If the school dont prepare them well this last P6 year, then when?

Since there is the P1 registration coming along shortly, I thought I’d just share with parents that it might not be worth it to push too hard to come to MSHS.

[cherryc]

During my son PSLE, not only the worksheets outdated , the form teacher cum main subject teacher went on leave quite often because her wedding is one day after Prelim. At least one third of his class mates went normal stream . I was pretty sad when this happened

[ninenine]

So sad to hear stories like this… but their exam papers are selling outside the school too right?


Cherry c, did your boy did well last year? i guess that is the reason why their standard has dropped so much but afterall are they better than neighbourhood schools? They are actually SAP school which is suppose to be better schools.

[cherryc]

Didn’t make it back to MSHS and now in neighbourhood school in express course. His PSLE was 2 years ago. I felt bad for those boys who got well below 200 points cos I knew these boys from young and believe they are capable of better results. The class was big, 40 boys with teacher screaming all the time . As you know by now, his ex principal and ex- vice principal were in newspaper for the wrong reason so I thought he definitely had experienced more things in his pri sch than others !!

[flametree]

i have 3 sons. 2 graduated from maris in year 2006 and 2010. my youngest is p3 this year. The PSLE prep experience that my elder 2 boys received was very different from what was described in the earlier 2 posts.


With the youngest in p3 now, I felt that the standard has gone up a lot compared to years ago.

I guess my boys were lucky to have their commited teachers.

hope this helps.

[cherryc]

That’s great to hear as despite my Grievances , my younger son is going p1 next year. I think our elder sons are in the same batch and I think the top score was below 265 and only 1 person got above 260?


Anyway, it is in the past , I hope the current principal and teachers will restore MSHS to its former glory .

[ninenine]

so cherryc your boy is going to P1 of MSHS next yr? if yes, it would be the same as my boy.