Dear Kiasu parents,


My daughter got the confirmed offer from SOTA. We are very happy about it. But our family is still struggling to select the secondary school between SOTA and UWC ( current school ). My DD likes to have major options of visual art, design, architecture, design technology and dentistry for university. We need the current SOTA’s family or student’s help or comment whether the SOTA can provide a good option for dentistry as well with the IB double science of chemistry and biology those are common pre-req for dentistry. My DD really likes visual art and design, but we hope to open the opportunity toward dentistry or some engineering majors for university. I just got the PR and the school fee for SOTA is much lower than UWC to our family, but UWC is one of the best schools in Asia. So we are hesitating for the final decision…

If you were my daughter, which school will you go??

Thank you so much in advance and look forward to your kind comments!

Oldgal:

Thanks rivervalekid and taubear for sharing. Sad that people can take it so personallly. It's always good to keep an open mind.


I DD has CO in SOTA. I have no doubt that IB is a good Programme,. But I have a nagging concern. I read from the feedback from some students in Reddit that there is a general dissatisfaction over the management of SOTA ... which has caused good Teachers to leave and lowered the morale of the students and remaining Teachers. Has anyone heard anything or feedback on the current calibre of the Teachers and the environment there? Thanks.

I also hope to know the current situation. Whenever I have visited SOTA, I have felt that the school administration is not organised. Hope to hear the latest students and parents. One thing I like is that the smart students are not just sitting on this problem and they are trying to fix this by performance actions.

Any comments??

Hello Kiasu parents,


My daughter got the confirmed offer from SOTA and our all family is two options. One is SOTA and the other is to continue UWC, an international school. If you were my daughter, where would you go? SOTA or UWC? ( We got PR ).

Any comments are really appreciated.

VitoRelax:

Startz:

SOTA students admitted via what they call TAlent Camps or Talent Auditions ( Theatre/Music/Visual Arts/Dance) .This is conducted twice - once in March / the other in June.


I'll relate my experience to tell you how my kid got into SOTA.

I went for one of their talks when she was in P4 or P5 to find out their requirements for admission(I had already read it on the website but wanted to hear it from them)It was then I learnt I had to prepare a portfolio of my kid's art works(Visual Arts) and I had to sign up for one of their talent auditions in her P6 year(mine was in June 2009 this becos I heard it's better for them to be well rested- June got one month break compared to March which has only one week)In addition, I learnt that if your child is confirmed a place after the Talent Auditions , in this case applied under DSA, whether in the end the kid gets into SOTA depends on her PSLE results.She must do well enough to get into Express stream .

And the story continues.. :idea:

At the beginning of Jan 2009, I signed her up for Talent audition via website of which my kid was allocated an admisssion number. Her form and payment of $150 had to be submitted via post or by hand by a certain date.( The $150 is refunded via first month's fees of the first school tem when she child becomes a SOTA student)She was given a date to come for auditions.(this letter comes later ,2 weeks before auditions)

Then there was an OPen House by SOTA (can't remember if it is in end of last year 2008 or beginning of this year 2009) I could not make it on that day as I was working so I asked a friend of mine to bring my child. I needed my girl to find out abot the school and if she liked the 'vibe' - it's a six year prog. leading to the IB diploma and the school days are long (abt 8 to 4pm) Besides the daily training of the Arts fields-3 hrs a day- she still must go for classes in the various academic disciplines. (Whatever I am writing here is what I learnt from their talks as my dd has yet to atttend her first day of school )
My friend informed me that during the Open House, there was a talk given and they mentioned kids must get at least aggregate 230 during their PSLE to get into SOTA.

Anyhow my dd got into SOTA via DSA (confirmed place) and after the PSLE exams saga was over, we all began to worry if she would make it for the COP (as stated above)
Kiasu parents always worry ..regardless...sigh..'personiality' hazard!!

Between the time after PSLEs were over and the time the results were released, just before the end of school term, you have to confirm if your kid wants to accept the DSA offer.At this time,To help us understand SOTA better, SOTA invited the parents to a talk to detail the curriculum and the IB diploma better so that we would know what her schooling years would be like at this specialised school of the arts.At the talk, it was mentioned - whether DSA students get into SOTA would depend on PSLE results-must get into Express stream (Express stream 200 and above?)

Anyhow my dd got aggregate of 240+ (after blood , sweat and tears over her Mother Tongue and Maths!!)

Her classmate who auditioned for Dance (received a confirmed offer for Dance) had 220+ also got in.They will be reporting for school on the 23rd of December.

Hope this information helps..

You can get addititional details on their website.

Thanks for the info but what does SOTA actually stands for ?

School of Technology Arts ?

Sorry for my ignorance

School of The Art in Singapore. Are you successful to send your kid to SOTA? Any more experiences from you?

Flying to Bangkok is just 2 and half hours, and there might be a good camp program from international schools. While your kid are enjoying the programs, you can rent a condo and you can just relax with massage, cheep/good foods and some tours.