For parents who want to enrol their children in international school do think twice. Not sure about other international schools but my best friend’s daughter was enrolled last year with HCIS (sec 1/year 1) and was totally disappointed with the system. The attractive scheme they have is to let the students have a through train to IB but think carefully what if the child did not do well in IB? What other certificate do they have? They don’t offer IGCSE anymore but why? Do you know majority of the students are foreigners and the standard will be compromised if all the Singaporean and foreign students mixed together in a class? My friend’s daughter (local) who came from a good primary school scored well at first in the 1st half of the year. However, her study attitude seemed to lack off when she saw how other classmates seemed to be so ‘relax’ in their studies. Her standard had dropped too. No longer was she that conscious in her studies and the whole moral of studying seeming to be going down hill. Finally, my friend decided to withdraw her daughter after a year and now she is happily and diligently studying in a local secondary school. The only regret my friend has is to have wasted a year letting her daughter to even pick up some vice habits and in turn need to help her daughter to ‘unlearn’ them. Luckily, now her daughter is picking up in her overall standard of studies again and most importantly having a good learning environment is vital to a growing child especially in the adolescent years. So hope the parents will really find out more about the international schools before making any decision of enrolling their children.

Psbeh:

Anyone know what is the different between HA class and Achiever class for Science and English? Are they using the same material? Thanks.

Hi. My daughter is in HA class and her friend is in Achiever English. There is no much difference in the material given and sometime the worksheets are exactly the same! Guess the difference is in the different learning pace.
Just to share my daughter's experience in her P5 HA Creative writing and English classes at Bishan. Over this year, she has improved greatly in her English and composition results at this end of year exam. To be frank, the credit should go to her MS English teacher who is ever so patient and encouraging. However, we are sad to find out that she will not longer be teaching in the centre next year. We do not know the reason but possibly there is something behind the scene...anyway, we wish the teacher well and hope the centre/management can find teachers who are good because last time my daughter had a few MS teachers who are just mediocre and only when she met her MS teacher this year then she improved and wanted to stay on.
So now, with her leaving, wondering should my daughter go and try other tuition centres...
NB. Pls don't be fooled by any advertisement or being persuaded that a teacher must be good if he or she is an ex-VP/P or from a 'posh' school because real good teachers are those who are unassuming and patient and don't go around bragging!

My child is in P5 HA Writer’s toolbox and English class during weekend at Bishan. My other friend’s child also under the same teacher but he is taking P6 class WT on Sat. My child is able to follow the class well as she is a conscientious person and will also take the initiative to do her own revision after the lessons/concepts being taught to her. Indeed, one must consider multiple factors as to what work best for our children.

All the best in your search for a suitable one for your child!

Just sharing my thoughts and experience.

At the beginning of this year, I was deciding about whether I should enrol my child with Mindstretcher at Bishan for English and Writer’s toolbox so naturally I would like many other concerned parents to gather feedback and made enquiries with the counter staff. I didn’t have a good experience talking to them as I found them to be impatient and sometime even rude. When I enquired about who the teachers would be teaching for English and some feedback on them, they would just say ‘if you want stricter teacher then go for Teacher A’ so that what’s everyone will think it is good, right?..However, my child’s feedback was that the teacher was so strict that nobody dared to ask him any questions even when they were in doubts. My child didn’t improve much at all but towards the end of this year, I’m glad to have a new female teacher teaching my child (changed my child to a new timeslot and class) and even though the teacher doesn’t seem that ‘strict’ (which I think this term is very subjective) but I could tell that she is a very responsible, diligent and approachable teacher. As according to my child, she doesn’t teach like a robot to simply cover all the worksheets but she will explain the concept well and she is firm with the class. Thus never judge a book by its cover. My child is motivated to learn much more now and doesn’t complain about ‘copying’ or the ‘frustration’ of learning English or Composition etc.
All I can say is that everyone’s expectation is different, as parents, we have to be wise in making decision for our child whether which teacher is good or not, time will tell. As for the centre staff, I do hope that they can improve on their customer’s service - not to be so calculative, be more friendly as they will leave the first impression of whether we should or not to enrol our children in. Most importantly, I’m looking for the quality of the teacher and not an overly strict/fierce robot to teach my child!

Just sharing my thoughts and experience.

At the beginning of this year, I was deciding about whether I should enrol my child with Mindstretcher at Bishan for English and Writer’s toolbox so naturally I would like many other concerned parents to gather feedback and made enquiries with the counter staff. I didn’t have a good experience talking to them as I found them to be impatient and sometime even rude. When I enquired about who the teachers would be teaching for English and some feedback on them, they would just say ‘if you want stricter teacher then go for Teacher A’ so that what’s everyone will think it is good, right?..However, my child’s feedback was that the teacher was so strict that nobody dared to ask him any questions even when they were in doubts. My child didn’t improve much at all but towards the end of this year, I’m glad to have a new female teacher teaching my child (changed my child to a new timeslot and class) and even though the teacher doesn’t seem that ‘strict’ (which I think this term is very subjective) but I could tell that she is a very responsible, diligent and approachable teacher. As according to my child, she doesn’t teach like a robot to simply cover all the worksheets but she will explain the concept well and she is firm with the class. Thus never judge a book by its cover. My child is motivated to learn much more now and doesn’t complain about ‘copying’ or the ‘frustration’ of learning English or Composition etc.
All I can say is that everyone’s expectation is different, as parents, we have to be wise in making decision for our child whether which teacher is good or not, time will tell. As for the centre staff, I do hope that they can improve on their customer’s service - not to be so calculative, be more friendly as they will leave the first impression of whether we should or not to enrol our children in. Most importantly, I’m looking for the quality of the teacher and not an overly strict/fierce robot to teach my child!