Hi fellow parents,


I walked my eldest through our family's first DSA journey two years ago. Before that, we had always viewed DSA, rightly or wrongly, with much skepticism as a 'backdoor' method for parents to game the system, and we just didn't buy into that for our children. Until a veteran educator friend who had watched my children grow up and understood their learning dispositions and interests well made us reconsider our bias and understand the true intent for DSA.

We were very fortunate that despite having no interest in DSA at all, we had been 'preparing our children for the road', to be future-ready - for my eldest since he was in P4. So despite COVID closing schools and cancelling CCAs/competitions/events etc, he had enough opportunities that he was dabbling in outside of school, for us to cobble up a full list of relevant 'achievements/projects' for his application form on the closing date itself, and subsequently for his portfolio when he was asked to submit it. Nonetheless, I recall many of our conversations in the months waiting for shortlisting results, prepping for interview, etc. We adopted a chill attitude ourselves, encouraged him to focus on his PSLE revision, checked in with him from time to time if he was still certain about DSA, made sure he truly understood the commitments that would come with the offer, if indeed he was offered.

Two years on, I am now walking a similar journey with my #2 who's in P6 this year and has exhibited an interest and aptitude for another DSA domain since he was much younger. With the benefit of hindsight, we started our conversations earlier last year, with him as well as his relevant teachers. We also did our research with a few schools that we shortlisted, emailed them to ask questions, visited their Open Houses last Nov, etc. He continued pursuing his interest and we took care not to add pressure on him about it, assuring him that he didn't need to rush to decide on his commitment until end May. As much as possible, we want the decision to be his, and we want him to weigh the pros and cons himself, with our gentle coaching. He has appreciated being given the time and space to explore and figure out what he wants and what he doesn't want. I am glad that as a family, we are going through our second DSA experience as calmly and level-headed as our first time, and that our children know that the DSA, just like the PSLE, is neither the end nor the means to an end. We have also learnt so much about our two boys through walking the journey with them.

If your family's DSA experience so far has been fraught with doubt, anxiety, worry, confusion or even stress, may I invite you to join me for a free online fireside chat on 11 May, Thu, 8,30pm where I will be sharing what I have learnt as a two-time DSA parent (once in STEM, once in Visual Art)? I will also be offering some pointers based on a child-centred approach that could be useful in helping you frame your conversations with your child, frame your/your child's thought process, and reframe your perspective about your child's long-term holistic development.

Please note the following disclaimer and disclosure:

- I will be sharing in my personal capacity as a parent (coupled with my work experience as a youth coach/mentor in education and career guidance). We regret that domain-specific questions (beyond my family's experience), school-specific and track-specific (IP/IB) questions fall outside the scope of this chat. I am not a teacher and do not represent any school or MOE. All opinions expressed will be entirely my own.

- This fireside chat will be hosted on a tuition centre's tech platform. We are coming together to do this without any commercial returns, as a form of community service to raise awareness among parents and students through sharing info and personal experience. This is our way of playing a part in helping to ease some of the DSA-induced stress and frenzy we have observed between May and September every year. I am neither affiliated with nor compensated by the tuition centre for my sharing.

If the above resonates with you, please visit https://learn.kainetik.com/24s1dsa for the programme outline and to reserve a spot for yourself and also share the link with other friends with children in upper primary levels. Some 250 parents have already signed up since registration went live yesterday late afternoon.

Thank you for your patience with this long post, and I hope to be of service to you through my sharing next Thu.

There is no Literature and FCE subject in SST. And for Geog, teachers use their own notes. No textbook.

limsatine\" post_id=\"2084488\" time=\"1664776888\" user_id=\"122933:

Hi cmeilim & tambourine lee,

Thanks much for your replies. My younger old, though 12 years old, wants to be a vet. My hubby and I are prepared to send him overseas if this is what he wants when he is much older. (Hub and I wont be able to retire early if we send him overseas but if he wants and if he has the means, we will support him all the way.)

I was hoping that the curriculum would prepare him for his ambitions. Looks like SST would be a right fit for him. Thanks for the rich sharing.

Your child is blessed to have you and your hubby's support in his aspiration! :rahrah:

Statistically, on a national level, the majority of O' level cohort each year go to poly than JC. What's more, ST reported last year that nearly half of those who went to poly actually qualified for JC but still picked poly.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/half-of-o-level-holders-taking-poly-route-0

In short, poly is no longer some poor cousin of the JC. That era of our time is long passe.

Why? Because the world today is very different from the one we grew up and studied in. Today, a poly diploma has far greater value than a JC certificate. In the poly, they pick up the latest industry-relevant, employment-ready skills, as well as lots of soft skills, problem-solving and 21st century competencies because of the applied learning pedagogy (similar to SST). A poly grad is readily employable. An A-level cert holder on its own, has no employment value in the market, unless he goes onto the uni and earns his uni degree.

Do also note that after poly, if the kids wanna go to a related course in the uni, they get a year off and enter uni at Yr 2 directly. So there is no trade-off in time taken to get to uni. In fact, I'd say the poly grad going to uni in courses with credit exemption probably has a headstart than the JC grad in many ways.

As SST's applied learning approach is similar to polys', it is small wonder that a significant proportion of their grads picked poly as a natural choice. It's a natural extension of SST compared to JC, isn't it? I don't really think it is so much due to peer pressure. It's also a good opportunity for our kids to learn to make informed, well-judged decisions themselves (with some guidance from wise, neutral adults), regardless of peer pressure, isn't it?

Our kids' lives are very long ahead of them. University (or otherwise) is not their final destination, and we shouldn't give them the wrong impression that it is. Besides, it's all about lifelong learning these days. Continual reskilling and upskilling even after you have gotten your first uni degree.

Finally, I'll leave some food for thought here. In the rapidly changing world we are living in now, where the jobs today did not even exist 5 years ago, do we really think that a uni degree that takes 3-4 years to earn will still remain that valuable and relevant by the time it's our kids to head into the workforce? Can google around a bit regarding the existential crisis that many universities worldwide are facing.

I went to one of the top unis in the world, have worked in tertiary education for a decade before venturing into tech industry and the world of startups. I am VERY impressed by SST's applied curriculum - it's very updated, relevant, plugged into the contemporary world. Specifically, the kind of skills my S1 kid has learnt and been applying in all his school projects and performance tasks the past months were what I picked up much much later at work in my adult life. I am really glad that my kid can relate to me on those skills (collaboration, design thinking, user experience, product design, etc) over dinner when we discuss his projects and my work. Yesterday, he sent out his first 'application' for internship for this coming Nov hols. He already made up his mind he wants to go to poly, and I cannot be happier with his choice.

I often tell my son, I wish there were SST around when I was schooling. I would have picked to go there in a heartbeat. I also wish there were more SSTs around in Singapore, really. Singapore needs to have more schools like SST.

chocolatemom\" post_id=\"2079389\" time=\"1661211155\" user_id=\"198613:

Can I check if the school environment is very competitive and stressful?

I think competitiveness and stress are dependent on nature (ie depending on the child) and partly environmental. My child isn't competitive by nature, and he isn't affected by the larger environment, although there are still adjustment that he had to make transitioning to Sec 1, double the subjects, and a lot of team collaborative project work. It's like a whole new way of learning, standards can be high and juggling between concurrent tests and project deadlines is demanding on discipline, focus, time management etc.

But the teachers are not pushy; they give a lot of time and space for the kids to try, make mistakes, try again, adapt and grow into their niches. The teachers don't stress on grades, but focus more on holistic development and the learning/thinking process. In this sense, nope, I don't think it is an academically stressful environment.

SST does not look at the students’ grades. The school leaders have said so themselves at various public webinars. So grades is not part of the evaluation rubics for their DSA process. Instead, through their own two rounds of aptitude tests, they sieve out those who had demonstrated a preference and disposition towards applied learning, problem-solving and STEM. It is thus unlikely that an offer would be made to someone with top grades but did not demonstrate interest in any of these three aspects.

i am not sure what the criteria for getting shortlisted for SIE are. i only know my friend’s son did well for maths n science in PSLE. perhaps you’d like to give SST a call on Sat/Mon to enquire on the status.

SST website says interviews are conducted from 26-29 Nov for shortlisted applicants. On 30 Nov they will let applicants know the outcome.

they received the email information today. fyi.

my friend’s son got informed abt SIE interview next Monday.