Scary:

Hi embel, please see my edited post. Think you saw the one before I edited. Actually the info was in the slides that the HOD showed us that time. When we asked the Sci Tr initially, her reply was, \"See the briefing slides.\"

Scary - appreciate your effort to re-type the slides.
I realize it is my fault for not paying attention during the briefing, my fault that I didn't check the website everyday for updates, my fault for not taking the time and effort to check with other parents, and most importantly, my fault for putting blind trust in the teacher's email.
Thanks for the valuable lesson.

Some parents do have a lot of time and resources to dig out info, and have the good fortune of having more forthcoming and responsible teachers who provide up-to-date and accurate info. Would be great if these parents can be generous enough to share the info here with other poorly-informed parents beforehand.

cool_hi:

I feel so suffocated..now being parents really tough..we are expected to deduce!! like we are expected to do comprehension inference quetions, even in our daily lives??! If we not capable of deducing for our kids' sake, then too bad??! Gosh!.

Cool_hi - yes it is indeed tough to be a parent in PH.
Some parents advise to trust the school/teachers, while some parents seem to suggest have to clarify things, check with other parents, cannot anyhow believe the teacher, etc..
Sigh....How? Really tough, man! :scared: But never mind lah, no one said it would be easy; one step at a time... SA2 next...

Scary:

Actually the topic was quite clear if we had attended the briefing at the beginning of yr. Since it's toy making, it had to be materials. The unclear part was the way it's being conducted. Supposed to be individual making the toy, followed by group's evaluation of the toy. It was subsequently changed to a written toy making test in asking the kid to choose the materials they would use if they were to make a xXxX.

We were not sure at first if it's the same as the briefing slides, thus decided to text Tr with some emailing her. To make things easy, she emailed all parents to tell us the change. I guess the change was due to time constraint. Too time consuming to make individual toy and also, may not be fair for the kids to evaluate one another's toy.

Knowing parents in different classes do help if they are willing to share. I have frens whose children are in other classes asking me too and I even share the compo and oral info with them.

I guess I'm a stupid parent. I can't deduce that a supposedly toy-making project would end up to be a written test about Materials. When the HOD announced that there would be a project and will provide more info later, I just take it as it is. When there was no news about it later, I also take it as it is. When the teacher informed us 2 days before the test that it would be on Diversity, I still take it as it is. I trust the teachers and let them do their job. But then.... Stupid me. No wonder my kids are not in top class.

But never mind lah, I am not one of those parents who place academics as top priority. I am working, with 2 kids, and no maid. I can't be bothered and have no time to hound teachers for this and that info, much less hound them and argue with them to give additional 1-2 marks for tests/exams. In fact, I don't even know this silly Materials tests was MCQ, short answer or what, because the teacher only returned the paper to the students to take a look, and collect back, and didn't do corrections..

Overall, as long as my kids are happy in the school, that's all it matters. Just that once in a while, something crops up due to miscommunication and is irritating.

Sure, we can definitely seek clarification from the teachers when we have doubts. But the point is, why can't the teachers give clear and correct info the first time round? In fact, my child's teacher even admitted that she decided to inform the class about the test only because she received some queries whether there would be a project (because in term 1, during parents' workshop, the HOD announced there would be a project in term3, which will constitute 10% of the overall.) Meaning to say, if those few parents didn't approach the teacher, she would not even mention about the test? Then mention wrong topic some more! My child did badly, but I didn't confront the teacher or did anything. Just take it as our fault for not doing consistent revision.


To share another experience-
My child won the first prize in one of the school's competitions. My son's work was clearly displayed near the general office with the other prize winners of all the levels. But during the prize-giving ceremony, another student was announced as the first-prize instead. After getting over the initial surprise/shock, I told my son \"never mind, it's not about the trophy, as long as you know you did win; anyway your work is already displayed\". But my son said, \"it's my first time winning something and it deprived me of the chance of going on stage\". So I approached the HOD. Took them about 1 week to sort things out. i asked whether they can at least announce my son's name and give him the trophy on stage during assembly. But of course, they just quietly asked that student to return the trophy and then quietly gave it to my son. A school not courageous enough to admit its mistake publicly, and a school not caring enough to consider a child's feelings. To adults, a trophy is just a trophy, but to a young child, the chance to walk on stage to collect a trophy means so much more.

I am a hands-off parent. I trust the school and teachers to do what they are supposed to do. I trust their teaching. I trust their marking. I don't re-count the marks when they return the exam papers for checking. I just sign blindly and return. I trust them - I do. But when it concerns my children's emotional well-being/self- esteem/self confidence, I can't ignore.

The above is for sharing only. No attacks please.

Having said that, there are indeed many responsible and caring teachers in the school too. Especially this Children's Day. A number of teachers made a tremendous effort to make meaningful gifts and pen personalized notes of encouragement to the students. My kids appreciate them very much.

For me to name a teacher, sth serious must hv happened. I named for the benefit for sharing, definitely not intended to cyber bullied.

For parents who do not hv the time to read my sharing from page 1, I like to repeat the following:

1. HOD - with administrative duties, HOD can be absent from teaching. What then happened? Either the class is given silent reading or a stand in teacher will give out assignments.

2. HOD Science Mr. Woon - he has the knowledge but lacks the ability to reach out to the pupils. Has he improved over the years? I do not know. If anyone has better feedback, do consider providing.

3. HOD Maths Mr. Koh - it was after CA1 that I realised my ah boy did not understand the order of operations. When I raised this issue, another parent came forward to confirm her child had the same prob. During the PTM in March, I find him a soft person that can be bullied by pupils.

4. Ms.Teo - I advise parents to pay more attention to what the child is learning if she is their teacher.

I named the above, for sharing purposes, never intended for shaming purposes.

If doing so, leads to setting a bad example for other parents, I will stop posting in this thread about teachers.

Exactly. It is for sharing, not shaming. Therefore parents do appreciate the sharing and benefit from it.

The parent who posted the email describing her child's serious class situation and containing the teachers' names also clarified that she posted for sharing purposes only.

Doubt parents would really want to shame teachers and be disrespectful on purpose.

I believe the most notable open discussion about PH teachers was that of a certain ex-subject HOD. I believe those "senior" parents can still remember. No one objected to this teacher being named. Many parents shared about their children’s experiences with this teacher.

Quote -


I re-read the page 1943.

But I do not understand what you meant by No objections were raised during those times.

Kindly please clarify. - Quote


As in, no objections from parents here to name the teachers. Which could lead to other parents assuming it is ok to name teachers for sharing purposes.

Previously, there have been open discussions/talk about the teaching competences (or lack of) of PH teachers, clearly identifiable either by their names/surnames, job title (e.g. Subject HOD), teaching level, or a combination of these identifiers.


The latest case was on 2 Jan 2014, on page 1943.

No objections were raised during those times.

For those parents whose children were/are taught by those teachers (myself included), I believe we appreciate the frank sharing and advice, to take certain pre-emptive measures, to be more involved in our children’s learning.

For the named teachers, they can take the opportunity to improve their teaching competences, for the benefit of the children they teach (ultimately, this is what we parents are concerned about, isn’t it), so much so that parents can turn around to compliment them.

On the issue of communication (or lack of) between school and parents - an example:


Just a few days ago, my child came back with a consent form to attend a programme during the March school holidays. Apparently only some students are selected to attend. There was no cover letter to parents regarding what the programme was about. The subject teacher who gave the consent form to the selected students also did not inform/elaborate to the students what it is for, just a consent form showing the title of the programme, the date and time, and venue.

Without proper information, parents may not be able to make an informed decision whether that programme is important enough to, let’s say, change March holiday plans to allow the child to attend. Surely it is only right (or dare I use the phrase, "common sense") to provide parents with adequate information, in the form of a cover letter attached to the consent form? Otherwise, parents would then have to individually contact the relevant teachers to enquire, if they are interested enough to do so.

If the email had been a complimentary one, thanking the school for the wonderful things the teachers had done, then perhaps no one would object, even though it is private?


In any case, if any post contravenes the terms and conditions of this forum, we trust that the relevant personnel/authorities would politely ask the forummer to take it down. For the rest of us parents, no one is above another, to intimidate and question another, his/her intentions for submitting a post; much less have the authority to tell those who feel intimidated to remain silent.

Given the longstanding lack of communication between school and parents, if parents shy away from sharing information or alerting other parents to what is happening in school, then we would have to work even harder to obtain such information.

FQW:

embel:

Exactly!

Therefore, the intentions of parents who post here should not be questioned in a hostile manner. Otherwise, who would want to post anything in future, to share with existing and/or would-be PH parents?

Especially, working parents may not have many opportunities to interact with other parents.

Ok, time for me to \"let it go\"...

If one feels intimated when questioned about one's post, then one should remain as a silent reader.

Ok, time for me to \"let it go\"...

Yes, evidence that some (or, one?) parents/parent are/is indeed hostile and trying to silence others from posting in a free and public forum.