I have only heard of students not clearing their exams and was asked to retain or to leave. I hv a friend’s son, a senior, who for his Y1 and Y2 was reminded to buck up or be asked to leave n his mom had to appeal to the school’s Principal.

Faun:

ksi:

From people I know whose kids are in SOTA, they are all pleased with their choices. Though they specialise either in Art, Music, Theatre or Dance, they have a choice of moving back to mainstream studies. However, they do about 16 subjects in order to achieve the ability to keep their mainstream choice open.

As far as I know the MOE does not help the SOTA kids to move back into mainstream like it does for Singapore Sports School students. All Sports School kids make the S1 option for their choice mainstream schools after PSLE and they can return to that mainstream school when wish too. I was told by the SOTA admin, their kids have to go appeal for mainstream school to take them if they should decide not the stay there. I think this is because the SOTA academic curriculum is not under the MOE jurisdiction.

Yes, it's true, the kids who go to sPecialized Independent Schools are
mostly very happy to be there. It's a very conscious choice. Some of them had to fight hard to convince their parents to agree with their choice.

What are the 16 subjects that you mentioned? I'm really surprise about this. The problem with SOTa is that they're not very forthcoming with info
during the symposium. If you don't know what detail to ask, they will not
give you the detail.

We are interested in SOTA but we have many questions with regards what they do in their music curriculum. It'd be most helpful if someone can let us know eg:

What kind of music exam do they take?
Are there music competitions
WhAt performance platform do they have for the students.
How are the kids challenged musically other then taking music exam
How many instruments must they do?
aRe they kids allowed to be attached to an external orchestra while in SOTA?

Hi i assume your child is auditioning for music.
My child is in Yr 1 - music

Exams -internal assessment and they are assessed both in theory, music history, performance (solo), performance (chamber), practical and interestingly confidence. (My child lost marks cos when he did his scales tho he got them all correct, he did not display certainty when playing his scales.)

No competitions, yet, not sure if he'll be good enough for competition.

At this point, my child performed in school's lunch time concert, where student peers attend. Parents and visitors can go too. They have lunch time concerts every Wed.

Every child will do 1 instrument, the one they auditioned for. Some do 2 instruments, with the 2nd instrument going really 'slowly'. Not every student does 2.

External orchestra - Know of few violinists who are with the Youth Orchestra. So that means they can.

Hope that helps

pinkapple:

btw, what're the school hours at SOTA?


do the students need to go back on Sats?

Long hours!
Generally, most days finish 4.30pm with some days almost 6pm.
No curriculum on Sat.

Lots of hard work....but they are enjoying the learning process

Hi Bentan


In every cohort, in every school, you have a mix of students who are strong as well as weak in certain subjects. Even in top schools, you do have students who are struggling.

It is prejudice of you to say SOTA students are weak in math.
Many have A* in math and science and there are a good number of students who went in with scores of 26_ plus and even 27_. My son has a score of 252. Many of his friends has scores of 24_.

Your students are probably weak and that’s why you have them as students…otherwise why need tuition.

The expectations of a SOTA student is high, their curriculum is rigorous. And they don get "talked down", they really don.

They are such a happy lot, eager to learn and to take up challenges academically as well as in their artform. A very motivated lot.