GEP 2012 - Screening & Selection

[porcupine12trade]

Lock:

We have made our choice, submitted the form and now all we can do is wait for the posting.

Hi Lock,

Is it ok to share your choice and how did you arrive at the choice, thank you.

[meekopeeko]

Interestingly, spoke to a few teachers at the booths and all of them emphasized that our GE kids will be prepared adequately for PSLE.


Of course expectations can be different. What the teachers mean by being prepared may not be good enough for some of the parents and busybodies here.

Now I really understand what our kids are robbed of. LEARNING JOURNEY. It’s not just the GE kids, it’s also the same for mainstreamers taking PSLE. When we adults say we want to protect the children’s childhood, it should include the space for children to explore, learn and grow freely.

Being brilliant at P3 whether in GEP or mainstream does not mean that the same child will do fantastic at P6. Or at sec 4. Or jc2. Or uni. I don’t think parents ought to be over-confident about the prospects of a child regardless of the programme he enrols into, because there are many challenges yet to be overcome. It’s probably not wise to make decisions based on pigeon-holes.

[Lock]

porcupine12trade:

Lock:

We have made our choice, submitted the form and now all we can do is wait for the posting.

Hi Lock,

Is it ok to share your choice and how did you arrive at the choice, thank you.

First of all, we (DH and I) are not concerned with the PSLE score. If that was one of the deciding factors, we would have stayed in Rulang and not even go for GEP.

Rulang's result over the past years:
Highest Aggregate Score:\t281('08)\t283('09)\t275('10)\t283('11)
No. of Pupils Scoring 4A*\t20('08)\t20('09)\t32('10)\t20('11)
No. of Pupils with aggregate score of 250 and above: 65('08) 74('09) 78('10) 63('11)

Do bear in mind Rulang is NOT a GEP school and the school is located in a HDB heartland, hence, the profiles of the majority of the students there are mainly neighbourhood kids. For the school to do so well consistently over the years says much about the dedication of the teachers and the programmes there. We love Rulang very much and was torn with GEP or not initially.

However, having spoken to current teachers from various schools, friends whose kids are in the GEP programme and their kids, we have come to like what we hear about the curriculum and the close mentoring each kid can get from their teachers in GEP. This is something Rulang can't match up. (top classes have 40-45 students). Though Rulang also has very good enrichment programmes but a large portion of the time will still be taken up for drills and practices for PSLE. I would say the learning journey in Rulang will not be as enriched compared to GEP.

Once we have decided to go GEP, then the decision-making for the choice of school is much easier. After talking to DS and also knowing our kid's strengths and weaknesses, it was decided that he will not take HCL next year even though he did not score too badly for his SA2 CL. We do not rule out HCL in P5/P6 but for now we prefer to let him slowly learn and enjoy the language than to 'kill' it from the start.

Heard from friends currently in NHPS that the CL there is EXTREMELY difficult, plus from this forum, someone mentions that 75% of NYPS GEP kids have tuition. That, to us is an alarmingly high percentage. DS only has CL tuition currently and we hope to keep it that way even in GEP. With these 2 schs out, and other centres being TOO FAR away, we are only left with ACS and HPPS.

Finally, we put ACS as 1st choice due to religion and the CCAs they offer and that leaves HPPS to the 2nd choice. Yes. I only put 2 choices.

[laikiasu]

Wow, Lock, you have the exact same sentiments as me!

Nearest to me is Rosyth but I noticed they don’t offer as many CCAs as ACS. I was quite touched by my DS being so considerate over the distance we have to travel to ACS so he said he didn’t mind Rosyth even if he has to take HCL.
Well, my DH and I are more or less decided, it’s between Rosyth and ACS as first choice, but now will leave it to my DS to make the final decision and pen down the choices. After all, he will be the one who will go through the learning journey and life experiences. As parents, we can only guide them.

Oh, LOCk, do pm me if you’ve been posted to ACS.

[Kabby]

agree with the part about HPPS kids being very humorous. my ds was laughing away when they were talking to him. I was asking the trs some questions then so did not hear what they talked about. but after that when i asked ds, he said they were telling him all the pranks they played on each other and the teachers, and about science experiments that they tried out in class that were out of the world!


after that, ds kept saying that's the only school he wants....

[Zann]

marcolisa:

Ragamuffin shinobi:

Glad that we went for the briefing. DS is convinced that GEP curriculum is something he would like to try, he thinks the student briefing is great and he actually enjoyed the session. From not wanting to go to he is definitely going for it.

For the benefit of other who might want to know, this year out of 4000 who cleared first round, 557 made it to GEP, of which 325 are boys and 232 girls.

School posting result out on 26th Nov.

Hi JAR, I went for the briefing this morning and just realise that although I know the posting will be on 26th nov, I don't really recall how they said they would inform us... :oops: did you or any other parent happen to catch that?

When I submit the form jus now after the briefing, the staff tell me to check the address on the form if it is correct, they will post the result to us to this address.[/quote]

Can share with us what are your choices like?

[marcolisa]

Zann:

marcolisa:

[quote=\"Ragamuffin shinobi\"]
Glad that we went for the briefing. DS is convinced that GEP curriculum is something he would like to try, he thinks the student briefing is great and he actually enjoyed the session. From not wanting to go to he is definitely going for it.

For the benefit of other who might want to know, this year out of 4000 who cleared first round, 557 made it to GEP, of which 325 are boys and 232 girls.

School posting result out on 26th Nov.

Hi JAR, I went for the briefing this morning and just realise that although I know the posting will be on 26th nov, I don't really recall how they said they would inform us... :oops: did you or any other parent happen to catch that?

When I submit the form jus now after the briefing, the staff tell me to check the address on the form if it is correct, they will post the result to us to this address.[/quote]Can share with us what are your choices like?[/quote]

I hv chosen NHPS finally.

Firstly, I would like to choose SAP school and non-mission school. Secondly, I am staying in the west, so I was deciding between NYPS or NHPS. I would like to go to the best primary in SG. However, heard from some parents, NYPS GEPpers are quite competitive, the class size is bigger, kids still need to go GEP enrichment class, more CCA to attend and it's not easy to get in too. Another main factor for choosing NHPS is the distance. It's only 4 km away from my home, so the kids won't need to wake up too early, and don't need to spend most of the time on traffic.

Spoken to NHPS teacher, teacher are very friendly, kids are very confident & give me a good picture of what he experienced in GEP. I also spoken to ACS & NYPS, feel they not keen to talk to us when they saw which school my son was originally from. ACS teacher said I should not choose them as I stay too far from school and they hv 35 kids from school already.

My DS Chinese is not too good, NHPS offer HCL in P4, but we can choose CL if the kid can't cope with HCL in P5


I finally put NHPS on first choice & NYPS on second choice (although I think it's unlikely to go into NYPS in second choice)

[monmon31]

marcolisa:

I hv chosen NHPS finally.

Firstly, I would like to choose SAP school and non-mission school. Secondly, I am staying in the west, so I was deciding between NYPS or NHPS. I would like to go to the best primary in SG. However, heard from some parents, NYPS GEPpers are quite competitive, the class size is bigger, kids still need to go GEP enrichment class, more CCA to attend and it's not easy to get in too. Another main factor for choosing NHPS is the distance. It's only 4 km away from my home, so the kids won't need to wake up too early, and don't need to spend most of the time on traffic.

Spoken to NHPS teacher, teacher are very friendly, kids are very confident & give me a good picture of what he experienced in GEP. I also spoken to ACS & NYPS, feel they not keen to talk to us when they saw which school my son was originally from. ACS teacher said I should not choose them as I stay too far from school and they hv 35 kids from school already.

My DS Chinese is not too good, NHPS offer HCL in P4, but we can choose CL if the kid can't cope with HCL in P5


I finally put NHPS on first choice & NYPS on second choice (although I think it's unlikely to go into NYPS in second choice)

ACS booth has the least number of people traffic. Given the majority of the places that are already taken by their own boys, chances would be slim. You mentioned 35 places taken which leaves another 15 places only ( 25pax/class).

[monmon31]

laikiasu:

Wow, Lock, you have the exact same sentiments as me!

Nearest to me is Rosyth but I noticed they don't offer as many CCAs as ACS. I was quite touched by my DS being so considerate over the distance we have to travel to ACS so he said he didn't mind Rosyth even if he has to take HCL.
Well, my DH and I are more or less decided, it's between Rosyth and ACS as first choice, but now will leave it to my DS to make the final decision and pen down the choices. After all, he will be the one who will go through the learning journey and life experiences. As parents, we can only guide them.

Oh, LOCk, do pm me if you've been posted to ACS.

Do any of you stay nearby ACS? 35 slots hv been taken up by old boys and so not many places left.

[Kabby]

ds says the teacher in the classroom he was assigned to asked the kids their choices of schools and several boys named ACPS as their first choice.


it is a very good school and the P made a good speech I think, which appealed to many parents.