[Geylang] Primary Schools

[lohtf1965]

We are anxious parents of girl going into P1 registration this year.

Canossa Convent is our first choice but we are concerned about the low uptake yearly in this school. Are we missing something?

[BerryCherry]

Beside KW, what shld be the 2nd choice?

[July July]

Hi All,

This is our first time experience to enrol our child for Primary One.  
This morning, I and my hubby made a visit to Haig Girl, a girl school we only recently heard of. We have a pleasant feel of the school serene and quiet environment. Both of us have a good impression of Haig Girl.  We were told by the Admin lady that somewhere in July, the school will have a open house for the public to visit and to learn more about the school.  We are happy to register our girl into this girl school

[snowball2907]

July July:

Hi All,

This is our first time experience to enrol our child for Primary One.  
This morning, I and my hubby made a visit to Haig Girl, a girl school we only recently heard of. We have a pleasant feel of the school serene and quiet environment. Both of us have a good impression of Haig Girl.  We were told by the Admin lady that somewhere in July, the school will have a open house for the public to visit and to learn more about the school.  We are happy to register our girl into this girl school

Hi July July, I'm also thinking of enrolling my girl in HGS.. have heard good feedback about the school, like the teachers are very nurturing and they have a very good art education programme. Their open house is confirmed on 4th and 5th July from 8.30am to 12 noon.

[MMM]

jiangnan:

Hi,

What's my chance of getting into this school, register this yr, under 2C, if stay <1km?

Thanks.

Hi,

I received some PM with regards to MBS and thought I will share my experience with the school here.

I was alumni so unfortunately can't share much on how to get into phase 2B except for joining grassroot and SBF. SBF seems to be a grey area. My assumption is that you probably need to know those \"prominent\"? monks who probably has connections (eg. committee with school????). I really don't know. But based on impression, there is a filtering process at SBF on who gets the letter as well. Not possible to issue to all. If you look at past trend, the demand is always = supply. No need to ballot. This has been so for many years. So I get a feeling that they manage this phase 2B to be just nice.

On the school, I supposed no school is perfect as it all voice down to what you want for your kids. Every parent/ child is different.

But what works really well for me was :
* The school has a wide range of CCA (band, choir, chinese orchestral, wushu, robotics, dance, badminton, etc...). Of which band and CO are those which get gold with honours/ gold at SYF. This has potential DSA benefits for parents contemplating it. But other than that, I didn't appreciate this until I heard from my niece from a neighbourhood school in CCK area that she don't have a CCA because the one she is interested in is full and there isn't much of a variety in her school. Somehow, I think my kids were fortunate to be given such choices in MBS to develop their interest/ passion. Also, I don't recall having to go through balloting for a CCA which I heard for some schools.
* Academic. There is a focus on academic. Though I feel that their CL, Maths and science are strong. EL seems to be so so. Could have been better. But what touches me most is that the school never tell parents to look for tutor to help their kids. Teachers conduct remedial lessons to help the kids. On top of that, they don't focus on top students only. Yes, the top kids are exposed based on their abilities. However for weaker kids, they are not ignored. In MBS, chinese as well as P5 & above classes, the observation is that for kids doing normal subjects but are weak, the class size is much smaller. On the contrary, top classes have more kids. This shows that MBS never desert the weaker kids, instead, they also put in efforts to help them.
* Overseas chinese immersion opportunities. Not sure about other schools. There are plenty in MBS. My P4 did Nanjing last year. For P5 this year, they have hangzhou and Taiwan to choose from. My P4 this year will be doing beijing as part of wushu immersion. Yes, parents need to pay around $600 after subsidy (for 1st timer). I also understand that the school provides for needy students as well.

With that, I really feel very happy that we made the right choice to put the kids in MBS.

On the part on religion, I just wanted to share that there are alot of non-buddhists in the school too. This includes the teachers. This is the case during my era as well. Kids from P1 has buddhist studies. But it's more like a story form to understand story of buddha. Nothing staunch. For upper primary, the kids can opt out of buddhist studies. Eg. my P4 stopped as it clashed with his enrichment lessons. It is not compulsory. Many a times, such studies focus on morale values, etc.... I would say it's nothing staunch.

BTW, I am not trying to drive up demand. But rather share and help dissolve some of the misconceptions about the religion aspect. I personally went from MBS to a convent school so i was exposed to different religion. In fact, I thought my days in the convent school was more staunch since there was always term mass, chapel in school, etc....

It's interesting as I managed to get in touch with 50% of my MBS classmates with the help of FB. We've a judge, scientists who did their doctorate, teachers, businessman, people in creative field (media, cartoonist,etc...) and other professions.

[July July]

snowball2907:

Hi July July, I'm also thinking of enrolling my girl in HGS.. have heard good feedback about the school, like the teachers are very nurturing and they have a very good art education programme. Their open house is confirmed on 4th and 5th July from 8.30am to 12 noon.

Hi Snowball,
We like to enrol girl to HGS, my girl loves art, and this school have good art education programme. However, both myself and hubby comes from mixed school, also a bit worried how different will it be between a girls school and mixed school environment, some of my girl's K2 parents kept telling me mixed school environment is better, as in girls school, the girls may be more tomboys and rough. The decision we made will pave the way to her future :scratchhead:

[snowball2907]

July July:

Hi Snowball,
We like to enrol girl to HGS, my girl loves art, and this school have good art education programme. However, both myself and hubby comes from mixed school, also a bit worried how different will it be between a girls school and mixed school environment, some of my girl's K2 parents kept telling me mixed school environment is better, as in girls school, the girls may be more tomboys and rough. The decision we made will pave the way to her future :scratchhead:

I think going to a girls' school at primary level is ok - read from some posts that this may be better for kids who are less confident as the girls tend to help one another out, compared to boys who at this age are rougher and less sensitive. For secondary school education, I would prefer my girl to go to a mixed school, but i think whether it is single gender or mixed gender has its pros and cons. Sigh, what difficult decisions we have to make all the time. And hopefully, they will turn out to be the right ones. =p

[J2mum]

lohtf1965,


My girl is currently P2 in Canossa Convent. Yes, their intake is small but that is also an advantage cos the teachers are able to know each kids better and the teachers are able to cater for the gals need. They are shifting to a temp holding place for 2 yrs for the new premises to be up. I believe they will increase their intake soon.

[lohtf1965]

J2mum

Thanks for your reply.
We wanted a girl's school and at the temp site, they will go single session :boogie:
This is important because we work full time and my other boys are in single session.
It is also very near our home like 5 minutes walk
We like the focus of the school and also thought having a small student population might have its advantages.
The only downside we feel is that the range of CCA is rather limited (but better than 5 years ago when I visted its website) and academically it does not seem very strong.
Too bad it seems MOE will not retain much of the school because I like the homely and rustic feel of the current premise even if it is a bit old.

[denang]

Just want to check something about Maha Bodhi School…


1) Is it a single session school?
2) What mother tongue languages does the school offer?

Can’t seem to find anything from their website. Would appreciate any help, thanks.