Bukit Timah Primary

[huaywenandkenneth]

The 33 spaces likely to be taken up by non SC non PR, or PR who didn’t have a chance to register. But may not be 100% filled up, unless it also includes those who have been balloted out at phase 2cs elsewhere. I wouldn’t be too concerned about the number.


I am curious about the preference to Montfort jr. These schools are not geographically near btps or where i stay, and I would never think of sending my children there, as they would spend unnecessary time travelling and I would rather they have enough sleep in the morning. Right now it’s only a 7 min drive to btps every morning and I am happy with it.

I posted sometime last year (or even earlier?) that it is unfortunate that btps is in a belt of top league schools and not a first choice school for many. If it had been located elsewhere it might have been a better received school. Not likely for MOE to extend the GEP programme to other pr schools.

[gvyong]

sagacious.sg:

Montfort junior better than Btps? In what ways?

Just using Monfort and Canossa Convent as examples.

It is a Catholic school and will be around long after the Phua Chu Kang North/South/East/West primaries have folded/merged.

Unfortunate that BTPS is not a HPPS.

[HappyLYX]

I realized btps does not have HODs in many depts. Perhaps this is holding them back. Without the middle management it is not easy to get things done, or results tracked. There are level heads and subject heads, but it's not the same. Somehow it reminds me of another thread where someone suggests that the HODs from good schools can be rotated to other schools, and it can well be applicable to btps. But of course, it is a very simplistic way of looking at things.


I am sure if there is one core batch of high performing Psle students, things will be different.[/quote]

I believed there's no guideline / requirement on the rotation of HODs. However, the schools are supposed to hv new principal in every 5 yrs. I feel this is essential as good leader will be able to bring the school to another level.

Comparing to many schools that I came across, the school does not prepare the kids well for PSLE. The PSLE preparation starts from P5 and I would say that the P5 kids in BTPS r still having \"relaxing learning pace\". Other schools push the kids real hard in P5 so that they have ample time for revision in P6.

The school does not believe in collaborating with external providers except for Maths Olympiad which I think the class is only available to top students. They should change their mindset as external courses benefit the school and parents.They are able to bridge the learning gaps for the students and parents only pay a fraction of the normal course fee (as the providers charge school rate). it also save us the trouble on the logistics portion.

Another area of concern will be their PSLE chinese result which was below national average. During the meet-teacher session, I had raised this issue and asked abt the strategies the dept would implement. Unfortunately, I did not see any changes to the way they are conducting the lessons.

lastly, they should remove CA1 and CA2 .

[huaywenandkenneth]

For external providers, my son had lots of them for P1 and P2 - Chinese/Drama, Music, PE etc. Perhaps you are referring to other levels?


Personally I am not in favour of schools relying too much on external vendors, as you get few good ones and many fly-by-night ones. I was a HOD in schools before. You need very careful vetting of the vendors, and some are really just out to make money and not educational. If you are referring to educational partners then it’s a different thing altogether.

I will have to monitor my son’s Chinese language closely. It is now propped up by weekend Chinese tuition but fundamentally I realised he has grown weaker in the language. His word recognition and application skills are weak. Need to motivate them from young, and not just upper primary. Luckily his other subjects are fine, just that he tends to be careless and untidy.

[HappyLYX]

Personally, I feel those short courses such as Music , one day Chinese learning day did not hv great impact on the kids’ learning. The collaboration should be on-going and it must fit into the strategies developed by the respective departments. Some egs of the collaboration b/w vendors and other schools:

1) Chinese programmes - the on-going chinese class is conducted jointly by the teacher from the vendor and school teacher. The ratio b/w student and teacher is now lower. They will incorporate the textbook with other activities for each lesson. In addition, they will hv 2 extra days which students will learn typing chinese compo / poems through software (using HYPY) and other activities. For this programme, parents pay $360 per yr through Edu acc. This neighbourhood school has achieved 90% A and A* for their PSLE chinese.
2) Aesthetics Dep by a well-known girls school - objective of the dept is to inculcate lifelong appreciation and participation in Visual and Performing arts. Throughout the 6yrs of the primary school edu, the students will be exposed to techniques of drawing, painting,shaping,colouring, dooding, ceramics programme as well as other music programmes. I was so impressed by the art works done by my friend’s kid . All these programmes are taught by vendors who are professional in respective areas, outside curriculum time. If I am not wrong, the students do not have to pay for it. This school has many other programmes with the vendors in academic areas as well such as Maths, science which parents pay only fraction of the normal course fee.

Back to Chinese teaching in BTPS, I was shocked to know how han yu pin yin is being taught. It is no longer word blending, the kids learn it in the way like they r learning a English word. The teacher told me that the way of teaching was based on MOE’s latest guideline. She also mentioned the method was ineffective and it was reflected by the poor performance in HYPY of the lower primary levels. However, I did not see any action taken to help the kids. For the past 6 mths, we are trying very hard to teach my kid using the word blending so as to master han yu pin yin. I try not to engage tutor for the subject at this moment.

[jongivy]

davincci46:

I enrolled my DS at The Kidz Club. Any mummies kiddo there now?

Welcome to BTPS and The Kidz Club! My DS in P1 this year goes to TKC too.

[huaywenandkenneth]

I won’t be able to comment on btps Chinese and Aesthestics vendor programmes as what you said, these are short programmes and difficult to see progress. Also, like I mentioned, without HODs, there would be no one to drive these initiatives. It needs to be minimally a departmental focus, if not a school focus. Every school is different, and every child too.


At the end of the day, we will need to ask what is the school’s niche or focus area, and what is your kids interest. My previous teaching school niche was in aesthetics and IT, and much resources was pumped into these two areas. The children benefited (or we would like to think that they did), but the teachers and HODs had to work doubly hard.

I am very surprised at the way you described HYPY was taught nowadays. Would ask my boy tomorrow. We signed him up for HYPY classes in K2 and he had a good foundation. He is able to "read" most HYPY but is fairly hopeless when it comes to Chinese characters (though he has improved slightly this term).

[huaywenandkenneth]

For Chinese, perhaps you may want to email or speak to the subject or level head (I can’t remember his name offhand, but he presented on the school’s mother tongue dept stuff during P1 orientation last year), if you have suggestions on how to improve the Chinese standards.


Schools are usually more receptive if you position yourself as a partner in education, wanting to improve matters, rather than sounding like comparing them with other schools. Just my two cents, hope you don’t mind. State the observation simply, and offer suggestions. At the end of the day, if the school does not take up the suggestions, the least they can offer is an explanation why they didn’t, or that they are looking into it. Bear in mind they do not have to take up all our suggestions, and rightly so.

Also, due to the small intake, it is possible that the school has less funding ( it is based on per child), and if they want extra funding, they would need to write in to secure (from cluster etc). Unless parents are willing to pay, some of these vendor programmes can be costly.

[metz]

HappyLYX:

[color=#0040BF]


Comparing to many schools that I came across, the school does not prepare the kids well for PSLE. The PSLE preparation starts from P5 and I would say that the P5 kids in BTPS r still having \"relaxing learning pace\". Other schools push the kids real hard in P5 so that they have ample time for revision in P6.
.

Interesting. May I know how you arrive at the conclusion that BTPS does not prepare the students well compared to other schools? Were you a primary school teacher formerly and have taught in many schools? What are the areas that BTPS has failed to deliver or delivered inadequately at P5/P6? \"Push hard\" meaning a lot of drilling homework, exams with difficult questions which failed many students at P5 in other schools?

And if you don't mind, could you please share how other schools start PSLE preparation at P5? I kept reading on the forum that PSLE preparation starts at P5. But how do they do it when the students are only beginning to study the relevant topics?

[jeanieg]

Hi Parents


Have your kids in P1 this year mentioned anything about their Music lessons?
My daughter came back and have been telling that they have been watching TV/DVDs! Yesterday they watched some video on the National Day songs. She said the teacher allowed them to watch only if they were good (well-behaved).
I was pretty shocked cos this is not the first time. Previously they had watched some other shows too!

What has become of Music lessons? I thought they were supposed to learn something or at least lessons are related to Music somehow?