BTPS is having open house cum fun day on this Sat from 8am to 12pm. The pupils and teachers will be there as every class will have at least a booth. be there to have a feel of the school culture and also a chance to expose yr kid to primary school environment.

Interesting. May I know how you arrive at the conclusion that BTPS does not prepare the students well compared to other schools? Were you a primary school teacher formerly and have taught in many schools? What are the areas that BTPS has failed to deliver or delivered inadequately at P5/P6? \"Push hard\" meaning a lot of drilling homework, exams with difficult questions which failed many students at P5 in other schools?


And if you don't mind, could you please share how other schools start PSLE preparation at P5? I kept reading on the forum that PSLE preparation starts at P5. But how do they do it when the students are only beginning to study the relevant topics?[/quote]

Well...I am just a SAHM. Being a Kiasu parent, we will share info and tips with others on the schooling matters. I understand that P6 syllabus will have to be completed by May or latest July. Some superkiasu schools will target to complete by March , afterwhich the next few mths would be solely revision and drilling for PSLE. This is understandable as PSLE covers topics from P3/P4 to P6.

I felt the preparation is insufficient as the school focuses mainly on textbook syllabus, with some supplementary workbook or worksheets for each topic.
Some parents had mentioned before, that PSLE is testing ar 70% from textbook. Henceforth, the kids are not well exposed to other 30% components. To fill this gap, we will have to turn to experience tutor or tuition centre who understand the PSLE requirements and able to help the kids to focus on the missing piece.

If you can get hold of the extra materials given by some schools, you will understand my viewpoint. I have seen some chinese oral package compiled by other school teachers. The THICK package consists of pictures, the vocab to master relating to the pictures as well as the \"model description for the picture\".

To score better in Chinese, I was told that it's important to focus on oral and listening comprehension which add up to 70marks( out of 200marks). I guess this are part of the strategies implemented by the schools that enable them to score abv national average.

Another 40marks come from compo, there's also limited material given to supplement this area. Of course, this require additional efforts from the school to compile the phrases for opening, ending and description of the emotional/appearance etc. I have feedback to school teachers on the current tin xie format. The list of words do not really value add to the kids. I suggest that they shd consider to give good phrases as tin xie. Well...my suggestion was not considered at all.

Currently, the school focuses on textbook which is just 90marks (or even less if we remove the comprehension ). Unfortunately, this component is difficult to score for most kids. Thus, I would expect the school to do more for the other two components.

I feel that Science is another subject that the kids are not well prepared. Currently, they are using SAM as the core learning tool. I like this idea as the kids are given opportunity to write down their own thoughts and learning. Having said that, it also depends on the kids' ability. Not all kids are able to grasp the key concepts and write down relevant observation. Thus I have difficulty to understand the learning outcomes or maybe to be able to get much info from my kid's SAM. This approach is very diff from the exam format in PSLE. With minimum practice on paper 1 and paper 2, the kids will not be able to do well. Esp for paper 2 which require certain answering technique. Again to fill this gap, we have to depend on tuition centre to guide them on paper 2.

I do not like to push kids real hard by drilling them to score well in exam. What I hope is my kid is able to go to a better second tier secondary school. To achieve this, the kid has to get at least 228 for the T-score. Will my kid able to reach this target? well, this is currently a uphill task but I will try my best to help my kid.

Personally, I feel those short courses such as Music , one day Chinese learning day did not hv great impact on the kids’ learning. The collaboration should be on-going and it must fit into the strategies developed by the respective departments. Some egs of the collaboration b/w vendors and other schools:

1) Chinese programmes - the on-going chinese class is conducted jointly by the teacher from the vendor and school teacher. The ratio b/w student and teacher is now lower. They will incorporate the textbook with other activities for each lesson. In addition, they will hv 2 extra days which students will learn typing chinese compo / poems through software (using HYPY) and other activities. For this programme, parents pay $360 per yr through Edu acc. This neighbourhood school has achieved 90% A and A* for their PSLE chinese.
2) Aesthetics Dep by a well-known girls school - objective of the dept is to inculcate lifelong appreciation and participation in Visual and Performing arts. Throughout the 6yrs of the primary school edu, the students will be exposed to techniques of drawing, painting,shaping,colouring, dooding, ceramics programme as well as other music programmes. I was so impressed by the art works done by my friend’s kid . All these programmes are taught by vendors who are professional in respective areas, outside curriculum time. If I am not wrong, the students do not have to pay for it. This school has many other programmes with the vendors in academic areas as well such as Maths, science which parents pay only fraction of the normal course fee.

Back to Chinese teaching in BTPS, I was shocked to know how han yu pin yin is being taught. It is no longer word blending, the kids learn it in the way like they r learning a English word. The teacher told me that the way of teaching was based on MOE’s latest guideline. She also mentioned the method was ineffective and it was reflected by the poor performance in HYPY of the lower primary levels. However, I did not see any action taken to help the kids. For the past 6 mths, we are trying very hard to teach my kid using the word blending so as to master han yu pin yin. I try not to engage tutor for the subject at this moment.

I realized btps does not have HODs in many depts. Perhaps this is holding them back. Without the middle management it is not easy to get things done, or results tracked. There are level heads and subject heads, but it's not the same. Somehow it reminds me of another thread where someone suggests that the HODs from good schools can be rotated to other schools, and it can well be applicable to btps. But of course, it is a very simplistic way of looking at things.


I am sure if there is one core batch of high performing Psle students, things will be different.[/quote]

I believed there's no guideline / requirement on the rotation of HODs. However, the schools are supposed to hv new principal in every 5 yrs. I feel this is essential as good leader will be able to bring the school to another level.

Comparing to many schools that I came across, the school does not prepare the kids well for PSLE. The PSLE preparation starts from P5 and I would say that the P5 kids in BTPS r still having \"relaxing learning pace\". Other schools push the kids real hard in P5 so that they have ample time for revision in P6.

The school does not believe in collaborating with external providers except for Maths Olympiad which I think the class is only available to top students. They should change their mindset as external courses benefit the school and parents.They are able to bridge the learning gaps for the students and parents only pay a fraction of the normal course fee (as the providers charge school rate). it also save us the trouble on the logistics portion.

Another area of concern will be their PSLE chinese result which was below national average. During the meet-teacher session, I had raised this issue and asked abt the strategies the dept would implement. Unfortunately, I did not see any changes to the way they are conducting the lessons.

lastly, they should remove CA1 and CA2 .

Hi all,

My ds in p2 n p5. Need to be in pe attire for days with pe , pal and fitt. As for buddy system, my p5 Ds mentioned that they were with p1 buddy for only 4 days. Parents r allowed to go to bookshop after most kids r released out fm school gate. Thus it will take ar 15 mins after the dismissal time.

Hi all,


1) Admin Day
If I remembered correctly, I spent less than 1hr there to fill up all the forms.

2) School bus
for single trip, fee is 80% of the two way. The rate includes the rtn trip for days that they hv to stay back for remedial/cca.

3)Remedial class / homework
Supp class is for P3 onwards. Usually just one day. CCA will take up another 1 day. The homework load is managable.