Methodist Girls' School (Secondary)

[mumoftwo]

Original Title: MGS SBC Programme


Hi,

Are there any parents or past / existing students or anyone who can share what they know about MGS Sophia Blackmore Programme. I have some basic knowledge, but I would like to know more, in terms of the student's response to the programme, development, curriculum, pros and cons. The reason is that my hubby and I are undecided between 2 schools for our dd and we hope we can have more input before the submission of the School Preference Form next month.

Thanks in advance for all your help. I appreciate it.

[d.011610l.011610nofair11.011610gmail.011610com]

presuming you’ve looked up the mgs website, etc.


you can’t really generalize the sbc student response to it. most would rather be in the programme, some think it’s too stressful, others think it’s exciting. response varies accordingly with student aptitude, creativity, and love of and drive in learning. students in it come to learn to balance the singaporean style of education and the ib style as expectations of them are firmly and somewhat eclectically rooted in these two.

curriculum subjects are generally the same, except sbc students have philosophy classes and iso periods - the effectiveness in teaching of which is dependent on the teacher assigned and the group dynamics (for the latter). higher weightage is placed on graded assignments, class tests and daily work, however.
students take different exams and tests from the mainstream in sec 1 and 2, and have more creative approaches to subjects - such manifest themselves in projects and presentations which require depth of thought and much thinking out of the box.
in sec 3 and sec 4, though, students begin to have similar assessment weightages and exams as the mainstream. students who lack the experience of the element of fun, and do not see the beauty in the sec 1 & 2 segment of the programme begin to question the need for existence of such ‘segregation’. but they come to learn.

pros:
- development of creativity and resilience to cope with the requirements of projects and balancing in priorities
- engagement of mental aptitude and desire to learn
- better teachers (who though have higher expectations, are more willing to teach students resilience and force them to widen their boundaries of comfort)
- objectively, and generally, better scores

cons:
- students too used to singaporean style of education will find extra work redundant and stressful, some lose their drive.
- fatigue in students
- even though given a special programme and environment to learn in, they are still working for o levels.
- students do not necessarily need to enter it to do as well in o levels. (some. dependent on student ability.)
- not necessarily as good as GEP/top ip school programmes. - student dynamics and restriction in educational freedom/flexibility



hope this helps

[mumoftwo]

a:

presuming you've looked up the mgs website, etc.


you can't really generalize the sbc student response to it. most would rather be in the programme, some think it's too stressful, others think it's exciting. response varies accordingly with student aptitude, creativity, and love of and drive in learning. students in it come to learn to balance the singaporean style of education and the ib style as expectations of them are firmly and somewhat eclectically rooted in these two.

curriculum subjects are generally the same, except sbc students have philosophy classes and iso periods - the effectiveness in teaching of which is dependent on the teacher assigned and the group dynamics (for the latter). higher weightage is placed on graded assignments, class tests and daily work, however.
students take different exams and tests from the mainstream in sec 1 and 2, and have more creative approaches to subjects - such manifest themselves in projects and presentations which require depth of thought and much thinking out of the box.
in sec 3 and sec 4, though, students begin to have similar assessment weightages and exams as the mainstream. students who lack the experience of the element of fun, and do not see the beauty in the sec 1 & 2 segment of the programme begin to question the need for existence of such 'segregation'. but they come to learn.

pros:
- development of creativity and resilience to cope with the requirements of projects and balancing in priorities
- engagement of mental aptitude and desire to learn
- better teachers (who though have higher expectations, are more willing to teach students resilience and force them to widen their boundaries of comfort)
- objectively, and generally, better scores

cons:
- students too used to singaporean style of education will find extra work redundant and stressful, some lose their drive.
- fatigue in students
- even though given a special programme and environment to learn in, they are still working for o levels.
- students do not necessarily need to enter it to do as well in o levels. (some. dependent on student ability.)
- not necessarily as good as GEP/top ip school programmes. - student dynamics and restriction in educational freedom/flexibility



hope this helps

Hi a,

Thank you very much for the detailed information. It is certainly very helpful to me (and I believe other parents as well). I will consider your input very carefully. My daughter loves to read (this is an understatement really), into general knowledge and not really into the typical singaporean style of education, has strong opinion about quality of childhood, against tuition all these years and believe in doing what she believes she will enjoy. As a parent, I find myself in conflict most of the time but so far it has been most rewarding for us. I do prefer a girls school as I came from one, but my husband and I promised her that we will review all the input that we can get from others and make a collective decision. Thank you once again and have a nice weekend.

[turquoise]

a - thanks for the indepth view into the SBC program. I’m sure many parents appreciate it.


mumoftwo - do you mind my asking which other school your dd is considering?

Thanks!

[mumoftwo]

turquoise:

a - thanks for the indepth view into the SBC program. I'm sure many parents appreciate it.


mumoftwo - do you mind my asking which other school your dd is considering?

Thanks!

Hi Turquoise,
Not a problem. The other school is NJC, my dd's 1st choice. She has voiced 2 concerns with regards to NJC 1) co-ed, she prefers an all girls school 2) HMT as her MT is not great, just average. We are non-chinese but she takes Chinese as MT.
Rgds

[turquoise]

mumoftwo:

turquoise:

a - thanks for the indepth view into the SBC program. I'm sure many parents appreciate it.


mumoftwo - do you mind my asking which other school your dd is considering?

Thanks!

Hi Turquoise,
Not a problem. The other school is NJC, my dd's 1st choice. She has voiced 2 concerns with regards to NJC 1) co-ed, she prefers an all girls school 2) HMT as her MT is not great, just average. We are non-chinese but she takes Chinese as MT.
Rgds

Thanks mumoftwo. Not an easy decision because the two schools are so different. IP vs non-IP, co-ed vs all-girls, HMT vs non-HMT. Also, NJC requires the students to stay at the hostel for a few months every year I think. That discouraged some of my friends from letting their dd apply for NJC because they were uncomfortable with the idea of having their young girls stay at the hostel with older boys, even though accomodations are separate.

[csc]

Before this IP thingy , I've always wanted to place my gal in MGS. But the idea of skipping \"O\" levels is too attractive from my perspective, so IP will have a higher weightage in my decision making process.


I've always wished that MGS - especially those in the SBC program will somehow tie up with ACS(I) in year 5 and year 6 to do the IB program and thereby skipping the \"O\" levels.

[MdmKS]

csc:

Before this IP thingy , I've always wanted to place my gal in MGS. But the idea of skipping \"O\" levels is too attractive from my perspective, so IP will have a higher weightage in my decision making process.


I've always wished that MGS - especially those in the SBC program will somehow tie up with ACS(I) in year 5 and year 6 to do the IB program and thereby skipping the \"O\" levels.

CSC, do you know whether students (whehter taking CL or HCL) need to sit for GCE 'O' for CL at secondary 3? Otherwise what is the practics now?

Thanks.

[Mandarin]

I was told by my son in ACS(I) that boys taking CL will take ‘O’ level in year 4 and those taking HCL will take ‘O’ level in year 3.

[MdmKS]

Mandarin:

I was told by my son in ACS(I) that boys taking CL will take 'O' level in year 4 and those taking HCL will take 'O' level in year 3.

Hi Mandarin, I know ACS(1) has IB and 'O' path, do they practics the same for CL and HCL. Wonder what is the practics in RI , HCI, RV, DHS and NJC?