Singapore Sports School

[winnie_pooh]

May i know how to prepare the child to be qualify to go sport school?


What are the needs and requirement?

[astronomer]

jeslyn hui:

:frustrated: So ,what is the cut off point????

There is really no cut off point. Although it is mentioned that the minimum requirement is PSLE result must be eligible for express stream.

The main criteria is being good in sports. If your child has done well in sports in primary school or has shown to have potential to do well, you can always try applying to sports school. Your child will go through trials and interviews and then offered a reserved place.

When the PLSE results are out and your child is eligible for express stream - your child reserved place will then be confirmed. If your child is only eligible for N(A) or N(T), he/she may still get a confirmed place but will depend on many factors. It will depend on how good he/she is in sports and whether there is still vacant place in the school (there is a fix number of intake each year). It will also depend on how many classes of N(T) and N(A) the school decide to have.

For those who wish to do the IB diploma, there is a cut-off point of 230.

The students of the sports school have are very diverse PSLE result. I think there had always been a N(T) class every intake and some top student has >270.

Well this is my observation.

[astronomer]

winnie_pooh:

May i know how to prepare the child to be qualify to go sport school?


What are the needs and requirement?

If he/she is good in sports during the primary school or has shown potential to do well, he/she can try the sports school.

[Imp75]

Are there singapore sports school pupils who have also done very well for the O level or IB? Can the pupils really manage the time between academic and sport? Any statistics to show?

[astronomer]

Imp75:

Are there singapore sports school pupils who have also done very well for the O level or IB? Can the pupils really manage the time between academic and sport? Any statistics to show?

You may want to check out the Sports School website. They usually have news about the students results. Btw, they have just started the IB program.
http://www.sportsschool.edu.sg/SchoolArchives.aspx?id=15#73

Here is a section about the 2011 results(copy and pasted from their website):-

GCE ‘O’ Level Examinations Results
National U17 Netball Player Elizabeth Hwang Scores 9 Distinctions
2011 Sea Games Triple Silver Medallist Stephanie Chen Makes 5 Distinctions

Elizabeth Hwang Jia Yuan from the Netball Academy is Singapore Sports School’s top student-athlete in the 2011 GCE “O” Level examinations with 9 Distinctions and an L1R5 score of 8 points.

A total of 13 student-athletes scored at least 4 Distinctions and L1R5 scores of 13 and below. Besides Elizabeth, they are Khor Jia Wei (Table Tennis; 8 Distinctions; 8 points), Kwa Lay Teng (Bowling; 6 Distinctions; 8 points); Ida Mariah De Vierno (Swimming; 6 Distinctions; 9 points), Tan Yu Wei (Table Tennis; 6 Distinctions; 10 points), Sofia Bensily (Badminton; 6 Distinctions; 10 points), Amanina Affan (Netball; 6 Distinctions; 11 points), Casey Wong (Table Tennis; 6 Distinctions; 11 points), Stephanie Chen Mei Qi (Swimming; 5 Distinctions; 12 points), Lynette Goh Hui Yu (Track and Field; 5 Distinctions; 12 points), Wong Li Jia (Track and Field; 4 Distinctions; 12 points), Kelvin Lee Wei Zheng (Bowling; 4 Distinctions; 12 points) and Nur Amelia Omar Abdullah (Netball; 5 Distinctions; 13 points).

Kelvin’s results are commendable as he had entered the School with a PSLE T-Score of 186. Others who deserve special mention are Charmaine Rei Lau (Swimming), who came in with a PSLE T-Score of 194 and scored an L1R5 score of 13 points, and Jonathan Cheung Hon Chung (Bowling; PSLE T-Score 196) and Jasvinderpal Singh s/o Kuldeep Singh (Football; PSLE T-Score 177) – both of who scored 14 points.

Altogether, 63 student-athletes took the 2011 GCE “O” Level examinations. Another 27 are on the through-train pathway. When they entered our School, they came with PSLE T-scores of between 156 and 252 points. Yet, among those who sat for the GCE “O” Level examinations, 100 per cent passed 3 or more subjects – higher than the national average of 95.3 per cent; and 92.1 per cent passed 5 or more subjects – higher than the national average of 81.9 per cent.

The Pass rate for the 16 subjects that our student-athletes sat for was also higher than the national average, as were the Distinction rate for 9 subjects. In Biology, 88.9 per cent of student-athletes scored Distinctions as compared to the national average of 47.3 per cent; and in Science (Physics/Chemistry), 82.6 per cent of student-athletes scored Distinctions as compared to the national average of 27.1 per cent.

Among those who sat for the 2011 GCE “O” Level examinations, 85.7 per cent has qualified for entry into Junior Colleges/Pre-University, while 95.2 per cent of them are eligible for Polytechnic education.

And here is another article about a former top student of the school:-

Scott Ang Presented Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship
Swimmer/Triathlete Scott Ang Yiqiang has been awarded the Public Service Commission Scholarship (Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship). He received his Scholarship from Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in-charge of the Singapore Civil Service, at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, on 24 July 2012.
Scott is the first recipient from Singapore Sports School, since its establishment in 2004, of this prestigious Scholarship for outstanding young men and women with the passion to serve Singapore and Singaporeans through a career with the Public Service.

Scott was from the Swimming Academy, where he also trained in cycling and running for triathlon events. He sat for the GCE “O” Level Examinations in 2009 and scored 6 distinctions and a L1R5 score of 7 points. He then went to Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme where he scored 44 out of a possible 45 points in his Year 6 Examinations.

Scott represented Singapore in Triathlon at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. While at ACS (Independent), he was also elected President of the Students’ Council.

For a school that had just been established for less than 8 years, it has done rather well academically. I guess the students of the sports school are taught how to managed studies and sports much better than students in mainstream school.

[astronomer]

Many parents are not aware that the Singapore Sports School is a secondary school. It may seem a strange statement but you will be surprise at the number of times parents will ask, “So what do they study at the sports school?”


Best answer I have come across from parents with DC in the Sport school: “It is just like any regular secondary school with one distinction – all the students there must do sports for their CCA”

The curriculum is the same as what students in regular secondary school covers. There are classes for N(T), N(A) and express. There are sec 1, sec 2, sec 3, sec 4 and sec 5 students. They study EL, MT, science, maths, history, geography, literature, bio, physic, chem, add maths etc. all the usual subject learned in regular schools. They will then sit for their GCE N-level or O-level.

School lessons start later than in regular school – 9:00AM and ends later. The reason school lesson starts later is because sometimes (some sports) they train in the morning in addition to the afternoon 4:30PM session. Sport training is of course very very important. So important that is gets equal emphasis. It is not a CCA, it is part of the curriculum. But then again not important enough that a student can ignore his/her studies. If they start to slack in their studies the school will not hestitate to ban the student from training as punishment.

And the students stay in the school (boarding) from Monday to Friday (check-out on Friday evening and check-in on Sunday evening) during the term. And just as with regular schools, they have the same school holidays.

The above are the basic academic route most parents in regular secondary school can recognise. But the sports school want to groom the student athlete as long as possible. Spending 4-5 year in sports school and then leaving after the O-levels or N-level could be a wasted effort. Effective sports training for young athlete goes beyond 4-5 year. Leaving the sports school and going into a poly or JC will disrupt the training these student have been going through since sec 1. So to prolong this academic-sports benefits the sports school has come out with other pathways beside this basic N-level and O-level route.

Since 2010, the Sports school has also started the International Baccaulaurette (IB) Diploma program. So the Sports school is now also a IP- intergrated program school, whereby student get into Sec 1, study up to Sec 4, then bypass the O-Level and go straight to JC1 (but it is called year 5) followed by JC2 (year 6) and then take the IB Diploma. So the sports school is now also similar to some independent school like ACS(I), RI or HCI. They can graduate straight from the sports school (with an IB diploma) and go into a U.

There are also other pathways available. Some are unique and only available at the sports school. There is a Sports school-RP-NTU pathway. In this pathway, students will by pass O-level and enter Republic poly after sec 4. On completion of 3 years at RP, some will go on to NTU.

[worriedbypsle]

Before my girl enrolled for Singapore Sports School, we were given the assurance that she can pull out anytime. Now we try pulling her out from there and they are singing a very different tune.


It has become so frustrating to deal with all the bullshits from Singapore Sports School and regret sending my girl for their dsa.

Any advice from parents here?

[Imp75]

just curious why are you pulling out?

[astronomer]

worriedbypsle:

Before my girl enrolled for Singapore Sports School, we were given the assurance that she can pull out anytime. Now we try pulling her out from there and they are singing a very different tune.


It has become so frustrating to deal with all the bullshits from Singapore Sports School and regret sending my girl for their dsa.

Any advice from parents here?

From your posting it seems your girl had sat for the PSLE this year? Since it is the 4th of December, you probably had already register your girl in the sports school for 2013? And if your girl was also successful in the DSA to a mainstream school, you would have being given a LOA from the sports school. Did you submit the LOA to the mainstream school and got the principal to sign it? If yes, this would involve that mainstream DSA school too if you intent to let your dd go there. So it is complicated.

You probably did not manage to get in touch with the right person from the sports school. At this stage in time the enrolment cycle is already towards the end. So reversing the whole process (de-registration) from the school will involve a lot of coordination. If you had sign some scholarship with the sports school for your dd then it becomes even more complicated.

Hope things get better for you. Do share more details about your frustrations. But it is funny how things sometimes turn out. I have come across parents who were fustrated with the school because their dd or ds wanted so much to get in but could not...So this is probably a good time to contact the school (for that vacated slot).

Btw, care to let us know which sports your dd got into?

[chien6]

Hi all…


Many thanks to the kind parents in taking time and effort to talk about the school… It’s not common and not the most talked about school, thus making info gathering more challenging… I really appreciate all feedback…

I understand its something new being in boarding school at such young age, I’m just wondering whether cases of bullying exist? What about kids misbehaving in hostel? BGR issues… And the challenges the school faces?

Many thanks
C