Hiaweh:

Anyone has recommendation for hotel/minsu to stay at sun moon lake?

Would like to recommend Laurel Villa 桂月村民宿. Will be staying with them for the third time for our upcoming Taiwan trip. It is very strategically located along the main shopping street and near 水社码头. Round the corner of the street, there’s Nantou Bus counter whereby you can get bus tickets to Taichung HSR station or Taichung Raiway Station. You can also board 台湾好行 日月潭游湖巴士 at the same bus stop.

wpslok:

Hi,

Planning to go holiday with my family in early December to Taipei (Free&Easy). Never been to Taiwan before, want some suggestions and advises.

We have 5 ppl (husband, myself, 3 kids (15,10,5), we want a family room can fit 5. Any recommended hotel (3stars/4stars)? I found one Taipei M Hotel at Zhongzheng district, anyone try this hotel before?
Planning to stay 5 or 6 days. Any places nice to visit and suitable for my 3 kids? and easy to access by the public transport (MRT or bus).

Thank you and welcome all suggestions and replies.
(Sorry! Last mins planning)

You may want to take a look at Y Hotel, it has a family suite, you can email the hotel to request for addition of an extra bed. I also recommended this hotel to my neighbours who are also a family of 5 (parents with 3 adult children). They stayed in Y Hotel during this March school holiday and they were very happy of the big room. Y Hotel is located near Taipei Main Station (an integrated hub with metro, railway, high speed rail, highway buses all under one roof), nearest exit M8. There are many eateries, convenient stores in the vicinity. To those who dread the stinky tofu smell, you may find this a concern as there is a stinky tofu stall just across the road, opposite the hotel. To us, we don’t find it a concern as we like stinky tofu, even my children who don’t eat it are fine with it too and they say they don’t even notice the smell.

As for places of interest, you may consider Leofoo Village, it consists of a mini safari and a theme park which has both thrill and family rides. Try the Maokong Gondola and can visit Taipei Zoo on the same day too.

TTBCOOL:

:thankyou: Gisten for your reply. Are they allowed to change the group?

According to DD, they are not allowed to change their assigned PW group.

TTBCOOL:

May I know does the student choose their own project work group members or the school will assign the project work members for them?

The groups will be randomly assigned by the school. So within a group, it may not be necessary that all the members have chosen the same topic. The members have to discuss and thus decide whose idea to adopt, or totally come out with a brand new idea. The PW teacher will usually advise the groups which idea is more feasible to work on.

Based on the PW handouts given to the parents by my DD’s JC last year, the components and the weightage of each components are as follow:

1. Written Report (WR) ~3000 words: Individual (0%), Group (40%) Soft copy deadline mid September, hard copy deadline 3rd week of October
2. Oral Presentation (OP): Individual (30%), Group (10%) Early Nov after A level MT exam
3. Group Project File (GPF): Individual (20%), Group (0%)
a) Preliminary Ideas (PI) Deadline 3rd week of April
b) Group Project Proposal (GPP) (not graded)
c) Evaluation of Materials (EOM) ~600 words. Deadline early August
d) Insights & Reflections (I&R) submit after OP exams

Total : Individual (50%), Group (50%)

Hope the info helps.

janet88:

Gisten:

As for those who have already done very well in 'N' Level and choose to opt for PFP, they still have to report to school as Sec 5 when school reopens and the PFP application form will only be given to them after 'O' Level result has released. They also have to attend normal lesson till end of January before they are officially \"graduated\".

so even though students who score 11 and below for NA still have to report to Sec 5.
it's still early to find out all this but at least get some idea what is going on. thanks.

According to my DD, when she went back to school to collect her O level result last year, she met her CCA captain who was a NA student and had scored 9 points in her N level. That captain told my DD that even for those who are going for PFP, they still have to report school on the first day of sch as Sec 5 students, attend normal lessons and do homework as per normal. However, their hearts are no longer there, but just have to bear with it. They can only be officially \"released \" at the end of January. Only those who have opted for DPP will be graduated at the end of the year as the DPP students have to follow ITE's calendar whereby school reopens in early January.

The reason why for those PFP eligible Sec 4NA students have to wait till 'O' Level result is released in January is because some Sec 4NA students may have also sat for 'O' Level in a few subjects. They could combine their 'O' Level and 'N' level results to compute their eligibility. My good friend's son sat for his 'N' level last year, at the same year he also sat for 'O' Level English paper. His teacher encouraged him to sit for 'O' Level E Math paper too, but the boy wasn't too confident so he didn't take the paper. When 'N' Level result was released, his score was eligible to apply for DPP, i.e studying a 2-year Higher Nitec course in ITE before proceeding to Poly to study the course that he has chosen, but he didn't make it for PFP as he missed out by 1 point, he got 12 points. So, this boy had 2 choices. He could either just continue to apply for DPP, which the deadline was about 2 weeks prior to the release of 'O' Level result; or he could take a risk by waiting for his 'O' level English result and hopefully he had done well enough than his 'N' Level English and made it to PFP. The boy after much consideration and discussion with his teachers and family, chose to opt for DPP instead. Well, luckily he made the right decision because when the 'O' Level result was released, he didn't do any better than his 'N' Level English, still couldn't make it for PFP. Anyway, I last heard from my friend that her boy has done pretty well in his Higher Nitec course. His GPA is 3.7 and is even awarded scholarship.

As for those who have already done very well in 'N' Level and choose to opt for PFP, they still have to report to school as Sec 5 when school reopens and the PFP application form will only be given to them after 'O' Level result has released. They also have to attend normal lesson till end of January before they are officially \"graduated\".
Here's the link to see how 'O' Level grades are being converted for use in PFP aggregate computation. Please scroll to the bottom of the page.
https://pfp.polytechnic.edu.sg/PFP/pfp_eligibility.html

phtthp:

hi Gisten,



if a child is currently studying in Pathlight primary (P1/P2), but at end of P2, wish to go back to Mainstream school starting P3 (before the academic curriculum get harder, to catch up & with new subject Science coming in) : any idea how is the procedure like ?

what minimum marks, must the child score at end of P2 in Pathlight for (English & Maths) or what other criteria required, before can be considered transfer back to Mainstream school ?


second question (Psle)
out of Total number of P6 Pathlight students who sat for Psle last year (2015) : are there more students making to Mainstream school for Sec 1, or more students tend to go back to Pathlight Sec 1 ?
perhaps, can share some stats ?


third question (Secondary school)
if child did not transfer to Mainstream school, but choose to remain in Pathlight Secondary school : for current Sec 1 intake, how many \"O\" level classes are there, & how many N(A) and N(T) classes ?

each type of Sec 1 class : roughly how many kids to Teacher ratio, per class ?


Thank you very much, for kind advice.

Hi phtthp,

Answers to your queries:
1) I believe there is no criteria to withdraw from Pathlight, it's solely on parents' decision and I doubt that school will challenge that decision. It's more like whether the mainstream school of your choice wants to accept your child's transfer. Once the child is accepted into a mainstream school, I think the parents need to write an official letter of withdrawal to Pathlight School, or perhaps to get Pathlight P or VP to sign and endorse the letter of transfer, just like how the transfer among mainstream schools takes place. The concern is not how to withdraw from Pathlight, the point to consider is that once the child is out and in future should he/she wish to rejoin Pathlight, he/she will have to queue again, no priority given to ex students. I heard from a parent that she has a friend whose girl was in Preparatory Programme with Pathlight but was withdrawn to join mainstream school P1. P1-P4 everything was quite manageable but nightmares came when the girl couldn't take the stress in P5 and also there were other social issues with peers. The mother appealed to come back to Pathlight but was put on waiting list. The girl finally joined back Pathlight secondary after getting her PSLE results. So far not many transferred out of Pathlight, instead each year we are seeing more students from mainstream schools joining Pathlight.

2) For my boy's cohort taking PSLE in 2015, let's do some calculation here.
No of pupils taking PSLE: 89
No of pupils failed PSLE: 7 (they will have to decide whether to repeat P6 or go V Track)
No of pupils promoted to Sec 1: 89-7=82
No of students in Pathlight Sec 1 2016: 75 (no new student from mainstream join Pathlight)
Therefore, no of students left Pathlight to join the mainstream: 82-75=7
Heard that a few actually successfully DSAed into NUS High School. Highest score of the cohort is 258.

This is what will take place on the day of PSLE results release:
a) for those who passed, there is an option form to indicate whether to stay in Pathlight or leave Pathlight.
- For those who chose to remain in Pathlight, placement will be automatic based on the eligibility stated on the result slip. There is no cut-off point for Pathlight secondary, if on the result slip there stated eligible for Express, the child will automatic goes to an Express class, like wise for N(A) and N(T). If the child is eligible to choose between Express/N(A) or N(A)/N(T) (like my boy), child will receive a different option form to indicate what course to choose. There will have school's recommendation, so parents need to indicate agree or disagree to school's recommendation, parents have total say in this. Let's say if school management feels that the child is more suitable for N(A) course but parents disagree to it and want Express, the decision will be respected and the child will be placed in an Express class in Sec 1. The forms are to be handed in to the General Office within the stipulated period of time. Those parents whose children chose to remain, will receive via email and also hard copy the placement of the class and book list in the beginning of Dec and can buy books and uniform during the first week of Dec.

- For those who chose to withdraw and leave Pathlight, they will follow the exact procedures of S1 school choosing. Since Pathlight does not come under MOE S1 system, the parents are unable to go online to submit their 6 school choices. Instead, they need to get the option form from the General Office and fill up the form of their 6 school choices, and return the form to the GO manually, Pahtlight will then submit their option forms on their behalf to MOE. When choosing the schools, the parents need to consider if the child's results can match the cut-off point of the schools of their choice. School posting is now totally under MOE's discretion and Pathlight has nothing got to do with it. On the day of school posting result is released, those parents will also not received the posting result via sms at 6+am like the rest of the national cohort. Pathlight will call to inform those parents of the result at around 9am. Child is to report to the posted school on the very next day morning just like any others.

3) For current Sec 1 intake 2016: 75
1 Express class (1 class coach with 10 pupils)
4 N(A) classes (1 class coach with 8-9 pupils)
3 N(T) classes (my son's class has 10 pupils and 1 class coach, the other 2 N(T) classes each has 2 class coaches with 10 and 11 pupils respectively)

Do not think that those Express students who chose to remain in Pathlight are with low PSLE score, I know a boy actually scored 238. The parents let him remain in Pathlight is because after talking to the principals of those schools of their choice, the schools apparently don't have Allied Educator who is well trained in handling ASD pupils and somehow \"hinted\" the parents not to send their son there. Kind of sad to hear that...

ImMeeMee:

Gisten


I may have been biased, but I hear reviews about ITE being a harsh environment. What is your take?

Of course we are worried if our boy will fit into the environment, but if he's given a chance to pursue further education beyond N levels, we wish to give it a try. Hopefully by then at 19 years old, he would be matured enough to adapt and \"survive\". Anyway, we still have 5 years to think about it. Turning to E2C for training and employment is also one of our options.

Yes, NT leads to ITE. If the results are good enough, one can always pursue a course in poly after ITE. It’s a much longer path to attain a diploma compared to those Express and NA students who can go directly to poly right after their O levels. At this juncture of time, we have yet to have anything planned out for our boy after NT, hopefully he can continue his studies in an ITE. My boy likes public transportation very much and has always told us he wants to work in SMRT when he grows up. He learnt from his senior that ITE College West offers a course in Rapid Transit Technology which is jointly developed by SMRT Institute and ITE, and he is very interested in it.