Integrated Programme (IP)

[micko07]

Disclaimer: I’m not a parent, just a very curious and talkative student who wants to share her two cents about the IP system

I’m a student who just graduated from NYGH and will be moving on to HCI next year. Personally, I think choosing NYGH and IP has been a great decision and is one I’ve never regretted. I initially wanted to go to RGS but didn’t make it through DSA and was offered DSA-NYGH instead. Subsequently, having a can’t-be-bothered attitude (I scored 278+3), I went to NYGH and had a great four years there. As far as I know, we never (or at least, very seldom) have problems, the entire atmosphere in my school is pretty good, competitive but stimulating (never cut-throat so you don’t feel too pressurized, just motivated to try to do your best.) It really depends on your class; some are more cliche-ish than others. On the whole though, I’ve never felt that others were discriminated against because of appearance, financial status or any other reason.
Frankly speaking, not to sound rude/offensive/egoistic, I don’t think I’ve lost out at all compared to my peers in RGS as the environment, experiences and opportunities NYGH provides is just as good, if not better IMO, because programmes like Bicultural Studies (Chinese) isn’t offered in RGS. Competition in RGS is also much tougher compared to NYGH, which offers a more relaxing, less cut-throat environment. The teaching style is also slightly different, to put it very bluntly, RGS throws you into the deep end of the pool right away whereas NYGH will gradually lead you in from the shallow end then finally let you go. (said by an NYGH friend’s sister, who was from RGS) But anyway, there’s no harm in putting RGS before NYGH as students are ranked based on merit for allocation of places. Unless you’re from NYPS, it won’t matter. And there’s always the option of appeal. Just keep calm, be confident and expect all the standard questions (Eg why do you want to come to XXX school? How can you contribute to our school? etc.) The interviewers aren’t that bad! (well at least the ones I had for DSA were nice)
I think that the IP curriculum provides more flexibility, depth and breadth as the time used for O level preparation goes to other activities, like going overseas for Regional CIP, attending sabbaticcals, work experience, overseas camps, A*Star/NUS/NTU attachements etc. In addition, we also go slightly beyond the regular curriculum, for example, we learn nomenclature in Chemistry and our English lessons and exams are more in line with the A level GP. The workload isn’t that bad; it is managable with good time management and hard work (I had time for piano, yangqin and participated quite actively in CIP and service-learning projects)! And yes, we do a fair bit of group project work (again good preparation for A level Project Work) and we write thesis papers (which includes doing our own lit review, emailing academics for interviews, calling up NGOs, presentations etc.) Eventually, this will help you if you participate in research progs like the Science Mentorship/Research Prog or Humanities and Social Sciences Research Prog) or in JC for subjects like KI and China Studies, whereby doing a thesis contributes to part of your final A level grade. IP also helps to nurture your confidence because we have quite a lot of presentations and you have to be pretty thick-skinned to approach strangers for interviews/surveys. Securing a place in a good JC/ school is also a relief because you won’t be so worried about Os and can focus your energies on doing other activities, like overseas attachements and field trips. I suppose the only trouble is if you screw up your A levels because you won’t have Os to fall back on (not very likely though as long as you work hard).
I’m terribly sorry for this very long and wordy post! (I think I digressed too much)
Congrats to all parents and PSLE graduates on a job well done this year and good luck in secondary school! If anyone has questions on NYGH or IP, do post them and I’ll be more than happy to answer!

[Vanilla Cake]

Hi micko07,


Thank you for your useful and helpful post. I think you are \"mishieru07\" from ST's stomp.My cousin is \"chocolatecake\" in stomp and both of us are opting for DHS.

Posting results will be out on 18 Dec 2008.

Warmest regards.

[daisyt]

Hi micko07, thanks for sharing and I am glad you are so kind to share. I am one of the parents who are not sure about IP when my girl was choosing her sec school. I actually asked around 5 parents / adults and all gave me the same answer, "No for IP because its too risky." After discussed with my girl, she is willing to accept the challenge and to her IP teaching method sounds interesting and she wants to go for it. Hence out of all her 6 choices, 4 are IPs. She has also told me a lot of similar stories of what you have mentioned here about RGSS. She is NYGH crazy and she is going to be happy to read your posting.


I personally still prefer a school that emphasise on chinese culture and fortunate enough, her aggregiate allows her to choose these schools.

One thing I would like to share. A teacher was telling me, to decide whether to choose IP or not, depends a lot on your child’s learning attitute and character. If the child is those quiet type and prefers traditional teaching and learning environment, IP is not suitable. And I quite agree with this …

[FlameFighter]

everybody onli talks about RGS and NYGH, ,wat about other IP skus lik Dunman High and River Valley High? From wat i noe, the costs of RGS & NYGH sch fees are vry expensive and not lik DHS(around $22) every month. this has shown that DHS has been progressing steadily, although it does not have such a high sku fee like RGS and NYGH. So why isit that ppl still talk like RGS and Nygh are the top pririority? ( same goes for RVHS although not sure bout the sku fees)

[lizawa]

FlameFighter:

everybody onli talks about RGS and NYGH, ,wat about other IP skus lik Dunman High and River Valley High? From wat i noe, the costs of RGS & NYGH sch fees are vry expensive and not lik DHS(around $22) every month. this has shown that DHS has been progressing steadily, although it does not have such a high sku fee like RGS and NYGH. So why isit that ppl still talk like RGS and Nygh are the top pririority? ( same goes for RVHS although not sure bout the sku fees)

RGS and NYGH are independent schools, hence the higher school fees. But if you get the MOE scholarship, MOE will pay for the school fees (up to $2400 per year) for 6 years.

The different schools' IP Programmes are not the same, although they all skipped 'O' levels. DHS, RVH, NJC will have school fees like government schools cos' they are not independent. Also, we haven't seen the pioneer batch of IP students from DHS, RVH or NJC graduate yet.

[Vanilla Cake]

lizawa:

Also, we haven't seen the pioneer batch of IP students from DHS, RVH or NJC graduate yet.

DHS's pioneer IP batch started in 2005 and took this year's A lvl. Next year (2009) sometime in March will the results be released. This was what I heard from the principal's speech this morning.

[Vanilla Cake]

VJC considering IP intake at year 1 ? Pls read this thread :

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,156789,00.html

[WeiHan]

I have been curious how parents choose schools for their kids. What criterias and qualities of the schools do they really find out before they make decisions? Is the quality of independent schools really better than non-independent schools? If so, what are they?


Maybe even choosing schools reveal much of Singaporeans trait, "choose the longest queue and you won’t be too wrong".

[daisyt]

Hi WeiHan, I can share my own experience in helping my child to choose her school. I do not choose the schools for her, I leave it to her to make her own decision. However I told her, my only criteria is, it must be a SAP school. That’s my individual preference because I always hope my child can be nurtured in a strong chinese culture enviornment.


Then it happened that majority of the SAP schools are IP. My worries came in and after talking to her and checking around, she told us she was willing to take up that challenge and put in extra effort. (IP is quite risky, at least that’s the feedback I received from most parents). My job was to tell her all the feedbacks I have received (good and bad) and the consequences. That’s how she came up her list of 6 choices.

[WeiHan]

Vanilla Cake:

I am in a dilemma.Based on last year's COP :


Dunman High School - 260
National Junior College (Secondary Section ) - ?
Nanyang Girls' High School - 265
Raffles Girls' School (Secondary ) - 266
River Valley High School - 254

I got 260. Could I use merit in HCL to add 2 bonus points to become 262 if I apply for SAP schools? Heard that DHS's COP is very high and that those getting borderline COPs do not automatically get into DHS.

Hi Lizawa,

After deducting DSA students, how many left for S1 intake for NJC?
Any chance for me to get into NJC since this is the first year that they are taking Sec 1 students for IP? Will the COP be high ?

Warmest regards.

Looks like the mean psle agg for DSA is lower for most schools. For example, for Dunman High, according to the principal's tabulation, the mean agg for 2007 batch is 260 instead of the higher number shown in the MOE website. http://www.dhs.sg/adm/newspdf/2008DHSprogramme.pdf

I think it will be nice if MOE can includes these info in their website such as how many students get a place through DSA and their mean score etc....