hocknlim:

Hi,


We live in Woodlands and my 6 year old son has been going to Greentree montessori in Sembawang.
I am just wondering if there are any Montessori inspired primary schools in Woodlands?

If not, for those parents who sent their children to Montessori pre-schools, how does your children coping in mainstream schools? :thankyou:

My girl studied in Greentree Montessori too since 20 months old and she's now in P5. She has no problem in adapting to the \"classroom format\" during P1. At her time, Greentree provided bridging session for the kids to get use to traditional P1 classroom style. Half a year before P1 school start, they would have to sit at the desks for lessons (versus previously just sit and gather around on floor for teaching), have to raise hands for speaking (versus previously can just voice out for opinion), have fix lessons and time table, have to do homework and tests (no homework and tests before).

It's a shock at that time when I first saw her test results during the bridging class (couldn't complete and low scores), so I set the correct expectation when finding her the primary school. Instead of top branded schools, we looked for a good disciplined school above average. She wanted girl's school, so we got her a girls' mission school at the end.The primary school did help the girls to adapt to primary class in the 1st and 2nd terms, so no issue in transition from Montessori kindergarten to primary school.

Hope this information is useful to you

Shirotan:

We are considering PLMGS( Phase 2B) or St Magarets Girls school( phase 2c< 2 km) for daughter next year. Any feedback if PLMGS is a good school, and how does that compare with SMGS? Thank you. :thankyou:

Hi Shirotan, my girl is in PLMGS P5, so I can give my options on PLMGS.
I found this as a good school. It's not a top brand school in the public ranking but to me definitely a hidden gem.
The students there are of good discipline, they like the school and teachers. They would bow and greet the principle and teachers even from a distance.
School strongly encourages parents to work together to help in the girls' growth and character build. We have chart groups, Class Dojo, etc... for close communications with teachers and parents.

I also found the academic performance is good for this school (beyond my expectations since it's not in the top brand). I judge from comparing my girl's academic performance when she took some public exams, she would rank in the distinction (<10% of the national cohort) and merit range (~15% of the national cohort), and she is above average in the good classes, not even a top student. During my girl's P3 time, school arranged for 2 big school buses to ferry those students who have passed GEP screening test to do the final selection test, so that also tells something...

elmo80:

Anyone know what is the high score for 2017 PSLE in PL?

See in parent chat group a top score of 281, but I never go to verify....

kiasuparents_2010:

Dear All:

Anybody can advise, which classes are best classes in P3 in PLMGPS, there will be no change for class banding till p5 who score well then can move to best class based on P4 S1 S2 result? Is that right?

During my girl's time there were 3 better classes for P3 - Charity, Faith & Joy. School would not say which are better classes, but parents can see from where the top students of the class are allocated. Not sure if it's the same way of class assigning every year... And school would still try to mix around the students, so it's not 100% average or lower score students can't join a better class, but majority of students from better class are of higher scores, that's our observations so far....

You can also easily see how academically good is your girl's P3 class when comparing her class mean vs level mean results. For better class, we are seeing at least 10 marks delta per subject compared to other average class (can even easily go to 20 marks delta in highest score per subject in better class as to level mean score).

The girls would then continue in the same class for P4 (no change in class). Chinese class streaming starts from P2 and there would be streaming every year based on Chinese results. So P3 Chinese class can be different from P4.

For P5, besides overall new class assignment, there would be per subject streaming. For a better class, most of the students would stay in the same class for individual subject streaming, but there may be some students need to go to other classes for different subjects depending on the score range...

heavenzstz:

Hello parents! My girl will be going to the school next year and we have just gotten the booklist. Will you be buying everything from the booklist or selective? It seems a bit excessive to have so many things for eg art class itself.

I bought almost everything in the booklist for P1. The art stuffs would be used eventually, even if not in P1, can use in P2 and so on. It would be better than last minute you need to go around to source for the correct art tools for the lesson. Then you can select only those you don't have for P2 and onwards.

For reference books, I bought everything in P1 & P2, still got time for the girl to do assessment. But for P3 onwards, I bought only 1 or 2 for selective subjects. School has sufficiently daily homework and assessment, no time to do extra.

Orb:

[quote]
For point 2 above, if last seat called out at ballot, all siblings get in; there'll be a reduction of seats at next phase.

[/quote]Orb is correct. I experienced these years back. I was at phase 2C, monitoring closely on any vacancy left from phase 2B. At 2B, there was ballot and last ball drawn was for a pair of twins, so the extra space was taken from phase 2C. So I was at the time unhappy that there was 1 vacancy less in phase 2C.

At phase 2C, there was 1 over subscribed at the end and there were pairs of twins in the applicants, so the Principal called off the ballot and got approval from MOE to increase 1 seat (initially 270 seats, then became 271) to accommodate all applicants in phase 2C. It's a narrow escape from balloting at that time .

mc_007:

Does PLMGS do Higher Chinese since P1?


Any news on PV for next year registration?

Higher Chinese only in P5 for recommended students with good grades in Chinese and other subjects.

However from P2 onwards, there would be streaming in Chinese class, better class would do enrichment course, still same textbook.

elmo80:

Hi understand that there will changing of class from p3 onwards. How are the classes group? Will there be an increase in school workload from p3 onwards?

Hi elmo80,

I don't know if different every year, but this was what happened during my girl's time.

Streaming of P3 classes based on P2 SA2 results. There were 3 \"better\" classes, Students with good results would spread across these 3 classes and at the same time there would be some average students mixed in, so it's not so obvious to the parents on the class streaming.

School/teachers never mention any \"better\" classes, but if you ask your girls who's the classmates and their usual ranking/academic performance, you would have a feeling if this is a good class, and the parents would talk about that as well. And during parent's briefing in term 1, you can also sense from the teacher if the expectation from this class is higher. The girls would also be streamed into different Chinese Language class based on the results, so in a \"better\" class, 80~90% of the girls go to the best Chinese class (enrichment class), that is another indicator.

Finally when you receive the SA1/SA2 report, it would be very obvious for \"better\" class average score much higher (in band 1) than level average score, and the highest score per subject in level reflects as highest score in the \"better\" class as well. So it would be trivial then on being a \"better\" class. You would also see more senior teachers or level head, subject head in \"better\" class.

The class size also changes from P2 9 classes of 30 students to P3 7 classes of 40 students. Workload definitely increases, especially for \"better\" classes.

My DD feedback both days GAT papers are easy, test logical thinking. Such as a picture showing folding the paper multiple times and then cut holes in it, when unfold the paper, what pattern would be seen? I think test your instant response and direction of thinking, since you would not have a lot of time to deduce.


DD said English paper was sort of OK (not so difficult, though she not dare to put it as easy), can complete the paper and got a lot of time left for checking. Math paper was more difficult compared to English, still managed to complete and check.

jkids:

Hi hi


seriously, i don't even know there is such a thing as gep prep course until i was being told.
i told my ds not to take the screening test too seriously, same for selection test, coz i want him to focus on his sa2. jus take it as a learning process since he still want to go try out. whatever the results, he will stay put in his current school.

but the timing is so early n not near home. still tinking whether to take bus or mrt there. is it very strict to be there by 815am?

I think it's critical to be on-time, extra time is allocated to ensure all the kids are seated properly in the exam hall.

My girl's school arranged for bus to ferry from school to the exam venue, we have to be at own school at 7.15am though the exam venue is like within 15min driving distance.