Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)

[Oodles Mummy]

Does anyone know how the Year 1s are allocated to their classes? There seems to be a mix of ability in all the classes but my DS’s teacher told him that the better Express classes are 1.5 to 1.9?


I also heard from a friend who said that there are boys who enter via DSA Sports who are doing IP although they don’t meet the IP cut-off at 256. I thought that these boys can only do Express and IP is either via DSA-HAST or PSLE t-score.

There seems to be a sizeable number of boys doing HMT, my DS is in the minority who does Normal Chinese. He and two others from his class has to combine with other Express and IP students to form a class for Chinese lessons. I am very surprised because the general perception is that ACS boys are not so pro at Chinese!

[autolycus]

Oodles Mummy:

Does anyone know how the Year 1s are allocated to their classes? There seems to be a mix of ability in all the classes but my DS's teacher told him that the better Express classes are 1.5 to 1.9?


I also heard from a friend who said that there are boys who enter via DSA Sports who are doing IP although they don't meet the IP cut-off at 256. I thought that these boys can only do Express and IP is either via DSA-HAST or PSLE t-score.

There seems to be a sizeable number of boys doing HMT, my DS is in the minority who does Normal Chinese. He and two others from his class has to combine with other Express and IP students to form a class for Chinese lessons. I am very surprised because the general perception is that ACS boys are not so pro at Chinese!

1. Year 1s are allocated to classes on a semi-random basis. That is, the criteria may include factors such whether they take the same MT subject (because you might have to combine classes and so the timetable must factor that in), what 'stream' they are in, and so on. Apart from such criteria, there is mostly randomness.

2. Entry by DSA Sports does not preclude sufficient talent in other areas to be in the IP, you know...

3. ACS(I) has had increasing prowess at Chinese for some time. I remember when we surpassed the national average, and also when we started producing decent HCMT grades. Part of it is due to the influence of many PRC students and teachers; part of it is changing demographics.



Oh, by the way, that teacher ought to be censured for releasing confidential information. What an idiot. This kind of situation can occur for many simple reasons: for example, a class where all the boys do HC MT will on average have a higher PSLE score than one where they all do CL MT, right? And that goes back to timetabling constraints.

[autolycus]

zuluwarriors1879:

I heard that the Humanities Scholarship Programme pioneer class did very well in the recent IB examinations. Anyone would like to share what are the reasons for this achievement?

Selectivity and performativity. After all, these are top 5% or better students; if they didn't do well, we must have damaged them somehow!

[autolycus]

zuluwarriors1879:

So all credit goes to the students? I presume you are implying that there was nothing unique about the programme or processes that contributed to the results? Well, I guess this would mean that all HSP schools are equal so it does not matter where one goes.

I think my point is that ACS(I) is sui generis. There's only one 'mainstream' IB Diploma programme within the SG education system, and it's one of the three largest IB schools anywhere in the world. It has also had five years to develop its effectiveness; it had three of those years before the Humanities programme began, so it already 'knows' how to score good results.

The school pays close attention to the examination criteria and regulations — this is called performativity; the school has a good cohort which is specially selected — this is called selectivity. The IB programme (relatively speaking) also selects for arts/humanities types, since EVERY IB student must do Lit. That means you have a relatively large pool to choose good humanities students from, by whatever means of selection.

In fact, the post-2002 A-levels were modified to force students to take an 'opposing subject' because the large majority were taking pure science/math combinations and there were very few humanities students left (one elite JC had only ONE humanities class one year!). This explains why there's been a huge market increase in Econs tuition, because all those pragmatic parents want kids to do Math/Science courses, and that leaves the only 'reasonable' humanities subject in JC A-level courses as Economics.

[Labrador]

Hi does anyone know what EP1 in the timetable means?

[Jonathan Lim]

It means elective programme . Students can choose some programme such as cooking , debating etc which will be conducted during that time

[autolycus]

The Enrichment Programme (EP) consists of a range of short courses, from which one may be selected per semester. These courses are designed and conducted mainly by ACS(I) teaching staff. They are held at the end of the day so that if off-site facilities are used, there will be minimal disruption to the timetable. EP1 is Enrichment Programme for Year 1, EP2 is similar but for Year 2.

[BeContented]

autolycus:

The Enrichment Programme (EP) consists of a range of short courses, from which one may be selected per semester. These courses are designed and conducted mainly by ACS(I) teaching staff. They are held at the end of the day so that if off-site facilities are used, there will be minimal disruption to the timetable. EP1 is Enrichment Programme for Year 1, EP2 is similar but for Year 2.

Hi. How do we choose the programme? Is there any url/links to this info? When does it start officially?
Thanks

[Koh-i-Noor]

BeContented:

autolycus:

The Enrichment Programme (EP) consists of a range of short courses, from which one may be selected per semester. These courses are designed and conducted mainly by ACS(I) teaching staff. They are held at the end of the day so that if off-site facilities are used, there will be minimal disruption to the timetable. EP1 is Enrichment Programme for Year 1, EP2 is similar but for Year 2.

Hi. How do we choose the programme? Is there any url/links to this info? When does it start officially?
Thanks

Thanks, Autolycus. Didn't know that...

BeContented, yes, I would like to know too.

[autolycus]

The list of EPs offered should be confirmed soon. When confirmed, the list will be given out to students for them to choose from. Essentially it is a kind of balloting exercise; should the number of first choices exceed the available slots, students will be channelled to their second choice by the EP coordinator and so on. Students may be able to then make a 1-for-1 swap with other students if the coordinator feels it would be helpful. Each EP module runs for 12 weeks concurrently with the rest.


Each year, there is normally a ‘compulsory EP’ (that’s why E stands for ‘enrichment’ and not for ‘elective’) module. Half the level takes that in semester 1 and the other half take it in semester 2. I can’t remember if that still happens, and if so, what it is (yes, I’ve been away a while). The principal’s briefing to parents normally lists the EPs for the preceding year.