Hong Wen
-
Receievd letter from HWS yesterday, and orientation is on 20 Nov, 1pm, and to bring along our child.
Can experienced mummies here share what to expect on the orientation day itself? Anything we need to prepare in advance?
In addiiton, for recess, do all the students (P1 to P6) have the same recess timing, or is there a scheduled time eg. P1 and P4 at xx timing, followed by P2 and P5, and then lastly will be P3 and P6?
Worried that the queuing time for food might take pretty long, and my DS will not have sufficient time to finish his food! -
addy08:
Congrats addy08.Receievd letter from HWS yesterday, and orientation is on 20 Nov, 1pm, and to bring along our child.
Can experienced mummies here share what to expect on the orientation day itself? Anything we need to prepare in advance?
In addiiton, for recess, do all the students (P1 to P6) have the same recess timing, or is there a scheduled time eg. P1 and P4 at xx timing, followed by P2 and P5, and then lastly will be P3 and P6?
Worried that the queuing time for food might take pretty long, and my DS will not have sufficient time to finish his food!
I think they tweak the program so what happened last time may not hold. But typically, your child will be grouped (may/not be in his real actual class so dun think too much) and brought to classroom where they may play games. The purpose of which is unclear till this day. Parents will sit and attend talks from school, psg. I think the highlight will be registration for BASC, school bus services and also to hand in some forms as well as money for makan (and can't recall what) for first 2 weeks.
Last time there were bins where parents who were keen can help themselves to donated old schoolbooks. Not sure if still in place. Also, there may be queues for kids to try out the school uniforms (may/not be enough stocks to buy on the actual day), school shoes (non compulsory, can go outside and buy as long as is all white). I can't recall if can buy school books on that day, maybe can. Bring cash. Note that anything that is OPTIONAL is likely NOT to be used in school no matter what your child fears. So far haven't gone wrong. The old school bookshop auntie was very kind to tell us then, nowadays Popular take over, I dun think they tell pp that.
Typically the am of that day is prize giving day in the am, and pm is the orientation/welcome for the P1s.
Food is catered for P1 during the first 2 weeks. Can be fried beehoon or something. After the 2 weeks, there will be buddies assigned to your child (may be 1-1 or 1 to a few) - these buddies are supposed to help your child queue and acclimatise to the system during recess. I think P1s get to go recess a tad earlier so no worries on the crush. -
Thank you so much for the valuable information.
So looking forward to it, and yet, like so many uncertainties ahead, and many things to prepare like schoolbag, stationeries, water bottle, etc.
Do you buy those ergo bags for your kids, and is it really good? How about pencil case and water bottles? Are they still into those cartoon character types, or just normal plain ones?
Paisey, seems to have a list of endless questions… -
No matter, first time kid in school mah.
Yes, my kids use ergo bags. there is a thread on stationery and what not in ksp (sorry lazy to go dig that thread out). Bascially it all boils down to your child size and needs. My kids used SPI bags, and lately they've transitioned to Dr Kong's. The bags lasts quite well despite the 'abuse' - my kids carry rocks to school. If you go to HK or China, note that bags are cheaper there (my bags all sourced from these places). Else look out for isetan or other sales - no hurry really. For bags, I recall school said no trolley bags cos too heavy but I still see pp lug. Don't think they are really all that particular.
cartoon or what again depends on your child. Mine is more utilitarian so they don't quite care as long as it's not bright pink (mine boys) - actually they never tell me, I guess nia. First couple of years will be pencil time so don't bother with pens. LABEL EVERYTHING esp for P1 where kids may be a bit clueless - put in the name and class so things can 'walk' back to your child. DS2 has lost his water bottle N times and managed to find it back consistently. When kids in P1, I think I even labelled their pencils, colour pencils. What I do is just copy and paste their names/class (font size 6 for the small items, going up as you go along to wallet/water bottle) onto excel, print and use scotchtape. Cheap and good, nonid to buy labeller (my hubby went overboard and bought one...a bit of a waste, but it's up to individual).
School shoes must be white. You can either buy from Bata (errm, I don't find their quality very good), sport shoes (addidas/nike/reebok have very plain types) or Mustafa (not that much variety but it's very cheap, so I buy and buang). Socks also must be white - kids been wearing those bit higher than ankle type. NOnid to get school socks.
For water bottles, there are water coolers around. Note that the bigger the bottle, the heavier it will be when fully filled up; then again can't be too small that the child goes thirsty. That said, there are days when my kids' bottles come back fully intact (I suspect mine are part time camels).
Errmmmm, any more?
-
Hi hquek,
Thanks so much for the tips.
Have started looking around for his school bags. Even brought him down to the ergo shop at Marina Square to look at the bags. The sales person recommended an Impact bag, but I find it very boxy for him. And my boy, being small size (he is only about 112-113cm now, and one of the shortest in class!!!), with the Impact bag, cmi! lol
I have made some cartoon labels for him previously too. Hee. Pasted on his lunch box cos he will bring some snacks to his Kindergarten class, and boys being boys, can really forget to bring the lunch box home!
Hows the Chinese standard in HW? Is it tough for someone who doesnt speak Mandarin? He is a potato boy. Preferred English to Mandarin, and never like to watch Cihnese programs!
-
hi addy08,
let me kpo a bit… my kid is very small size too… bot a smallest size SPI bag for kid as i got old SPI for trade in (some discount)… kid "dumped losta books under the desk" so her bag was like:- water bottle, recess box, pencil box, a clear file, story book… she also no bring h/w back coz she completed whatever work during the lesson, recess time… so basically kid’s bag is light… -
kids are allowed to put their books under the desk?
-
Eh, on reiner’s reply, may apply but depend. My DS bag swings from light to heavy depending on whether he gets to keep stuff in school,if he goes library, if he remembers to unload stuff. So nonid to buy too big but don’t get too compact either. this not helpful - my apologies.
On Chinese, HWS does higher chinese so theoretically it’s tougher. But academically I don’t feel HWS is very tough. you won’t see scary looking tingxie, i haven’t seen moxie in a while (DS now in P3). I hear that kids in HWS these days also gravitate towards speaking english more - sign of times. -
addy08:
kids are allowed to put their books under the desk?
yes these days. But be careful, this year DS2 class got lost stuff - not sure if its theft but it's really disturbing. I have heard of lost stationery (compo pads didn't come back), exercise books/workbooks (came back, I think cos these were labelled) storybooks (that didn't come back). After hearing the stories, I only let him bring stuff that I can label. I have never 'disfigured' books as I am doing (writing his name multi times on books, exercise books, compo pads (I colour these so it's very clear who it belongs to).
BUT, this is the first time I am hearing of such instances. I not heard of this in other classes. Not sure what is going on, I hate to think the worst but having labelled stuff, things don't go missing. -
Will definitely not get him a bag that is too big. Imagine a small kid carrying an oversized bag, so poor thing. And that is why I am pretty concern about the load of their school bags!
Its a relief to hear that Chinese is not too tough. That is also one of my concerns when I enrolled him there… Will he be struggling with this subject, and indirectly, kill his interst in Chinese!
Any reviews on Pro-Teach?
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login