GCE debate rages as study shows UK kid's maths woes

[oxyleo]

optimistforum:

I don't see the point of out of school tutoring in Singapore; reason-being you have a plethora of wonderful assessment books (complete with model answers). That's all you need. My DC are testament to that. We use Singaporean assessment books and I do not feel the need to use a tutor. My functional literacy and numeracy has improved too (but can you telling from my spelling mistakes...I maen pselling msitkaes

:rotflmao: hmm.. I spell pretty well, funny, didn't spot any at all!

[optimistforum]

Oxylea stay online, I will pm you

[oxyleo]

optimistforum:

cherryc:

Hi,


After doing all the SIngapore assessment books, i guess your kids will excel in UK education system ??!! I really hope the day won't come for us to declare that there is no meritocracy in our schools !

What do you think of the merits and weakness of our system ?

What is the main difference in teaching for the private schools vs public secondary school ? If a child is really smart but lack of resources, will he/she still be able to go Cambridge/Oxford in UK??

I do not think that my kids will excel as I have have to force, cajole and offer inducements to get them to work. They prefer the Wii and TV anytime.

Merits of your system, seems most people are culturally predisposed towards a quality education. Please never lose that. Drawbacks, a lot of your learning seems rote based, and your quality education system is down to out of hours tutoring. Why can't they teach in schools what the tutors teach after school!!!

This touches on many raw nerves Optimistforum so much that we can't quite even have a decent debate about it, without drawing swords. And honestly, it is hard to see where those, who do not seem to want to change status quo, are coming from. I know that there are genuine concerns about the dumb down effect, like you've pointed out, but I find it highly unlikely that we will ever head that way. As it is, those far ahead seem to display extreme infuriation and appear offended even, at the mere mention of co-mingling children with different test band results, as they seem to see it as utterly unfair that the bright ones get slowed down. And we are talking about Pri School education here. Ah well.

My best friend's son is hopefully going to Oxford in the autumn. He needs two A* and one A. He gets 93 to 100% in his A Level assessments. You guessed right, it is not just an exam after two years but lots of mini assessments and resits. One person in 2010 resat 29 modules before he passed his A Level in Maths.

Only the posh kids get into Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Durham and Warwick. Quite alot from top state secondaries get in too.

[Melodies]

P5 is English, you mean English grammar? I suppose it is peanut for your DS1 since he is English! Open Cloze passage and Comprehension are the killing sections for most of the Children here in Singapore. BTW, for English, you can try RGPS, ACS, Methodist, SCGS & Cathodic High English exams papers.


One more question, are you trying to enroll your DS2 in Singapore primary school here soon?

optimistforum:

Hi Oxylea

Only P5 for English, he still struggles with P3/4 Conquering Cloze, and Maths only P3 Challenging Maths. He is not great at all.

[optimistforum]

Melodies:

P5 is English, you mean English grammar? I suppose it will be peanut for your DS1 since he is English! Open Cloze passage and Comprehension are the killing sections for most of the Children here in Singapore. BTW, for English, you can try RGPS, ACS, Methodist, SCGS & Cathodic High English exams papers.


One more question, are you trying to enroll your DS2 in Singapore primary school here soon?

optimistforum:

Hi Oxylea

Only P5 for English, he still struggles with P3/4 Conquering Cloze, and Maths only P3 Challenging Maths. He is not great at all.

P5 for vocab, grammar and MCQ comprehension.

Well being English makes no difference, he does not read so the said books help him. For comprehension I use old MCQ O Level Books or FCE books. He does struggle with comprehension cloze - and that is the definer that determines if you can understand text or not.

I am not trying to enrol DS2 to Singapore. I would love to, as I am jealous of your results and discipline. Alas, we will stay in the UK and make do as best we can.

[Melodies]

Err.. Some parents think that those wonderful assessments are not good enough because they want their DC to score >91% n get A*. Scoring an average mark of A for 4subjects will just give you 220 for psle and you may not end up in top secondary but in neighborhood secondary. You need to score at least 250 (high 4A or low A*) to get into good school(not top school yet). hence, they subscribe their DC for those tuition which set very competitive n challenging questions n just hope to edge out other student. After all, psle t score is a relative score if compare u compare to other student .

optimistforum:

I don't see the point of out of school tutoring in Singapore; reason-being you have a plethora of wonderful assessment books (complete with model answers). That's all you need. My DC are testament to that. We use Singaporean assessment books and I do not feel the need to use a tutor. My functional literacy and numeracy has improved too (but can you telling from my spelling mistakes...I maen pselling msitkaes

[optimistforum]

Dear all, and especially those posters I engage in discourse with I am semi-retiring from this forum, as events iny life have necessitated the need for me to focus on those. This will be my last post for a long time.


I hope all your children succeed well, and that you all are happy and healthy.

I have learned a lot from you all, and for this I wlll always be grateful

Bye.