spring:

Hi,


Can anyone tells more on this school's curriculum? Do they prepare your child enough for Pri 1?

Seen from their website on their school fees, quite exp. So do they conduct quality teaching in accordance to the school fees being collected?

Hope to hear from parents whose kids are in this school esp those who are in k1 and k2 and provide some insights.

Thanks in advance.

My son is 10 this year and benefitted greatly from an LSK education.
He started off school in LSK not knowing Mandarin as my dad who babysat him speaks no Mandarin. The teachers got him very keen on learning the language and he improved very quickly. In fact, thanks to the foundation he received, his Mandarin has always been 90+ from P1-3.

He also grew in character and discipline. I felt that the LSK teachers and principal really love their charges and inculcate in them such wonderful values. DS loved going to school everyday which was totally diff from his first schooling experience in a Cambridge kindy.

LSK is able to balance pupil development with enriching them in their knowledge required for Primary school. Some church kindys do the first but cannot manage the latter. And PCFs seem to be able to do the later but not the former.

DS is now in P4 and was streamed into the GEP. He is now in ACS Primary. We are still in touch with his LSK form teacher and principal. They are really such wonderful people. Hubby and I are not from LSC but are Christians.

Our DS2 is now 11mo and we are very keen to send him to LSK although we have moved to TPY from Hougang. Can't wait for him to don the cute LSK uniform.

Miss those adorable days where DS1 would come home singing all his songs learned at a school and \"enlightening\" us on the water cycle and recycling etc.

ezmummy:

actually I won't say that the GEPpers are top 1% of the cohort. Son wasn't even top 10 in his school, he still got in.


I personally find that GEPpers are naturally inquisitive and driven in the search for knowledge. If your child is already such, you probably don't even have to send him/her to any courses and he/she will be selected base on his/her own merit.

OTOH, sending courses and too many enrichment classes may actually backfire, quenching his natural thirst to learn.

That's jmho.

Oh, btw, I didn't send son for prep course.

I agree with ezmummy.

If anyone asks me, I personally feel the GEP is catered to kids who are not just bright but who have a different style of learning. In the mainstream they might feel bored or unmotivated which is why some of them were in the top
and some were not in their previous schools. The way they are taught in the GEP benefits those who, as ezmummy pointed out, are naturally inquisitive and who are able to read, comprehend & interpret what they have learned. Not just about regurgitating memorized data.

They need to have self-discipline to do self-learning. They need to have that motivation and interest. It has to be an internal desire. It has to be a good fit btw them and this new way of learning, not just about (pardon the metaphor) of stuffing the shoes with tissue and hoping that helps the shoe fit better.

I used to be an advocate of why can't they make the GEP style of learning accessible to all kids? But now that we are beginning the journey and having taught primary school kids before, I am starting to understand it is a system that benefits these kids but not those kids. You can't have a cookie cutter education system. Some kids do better this way and others another way. Ultimately, they benefit if they are learning at their pace, within a style that suits them. Perhaps it is us adults who make such a big deal of everything and give birth to the elitism associated with certain streams.

We did not hothouse our son either. He never had to attend tuition for any subject. He only started to attend a Chinese Compo class to help him in that subject by exposing him to more Mandarin as no one else but me speaks Mandarin in our family. Lol. And Mandarin isn't one of the subjects they eat for the GEP qualification but is a subject we hope he will have a passion for as it is part of our cultural identity and so key in communicating in the working world.

Anyone going for tomorrow's celebration? I am trying to and if I do, will be there with the baby. It all depends on the little one's mood.

Ezmummy- DS brought back stuff about creating his own numeral system?

Nebbermind:

shalomger:

I prob cannot make it to the GEP briefing in school on Friday as I have to be in Beijing and will be there until the 16th. Might have to ask everyone here what transpired. I will also arrange to meet his teachers.

Daddy can't make it too??

My hubby is in Beijing for a film shoot which is why we flew up. He has been away for quite a while.

coast:

ezmummy:

[quote=\"coast\"]
Interesting ... thanks for sharing

How about his savings? Does he get to decide what he can do with it or are there some rules? It defeats the purporse if he decides to spend all his savings away after accumulating it for a while?

I think it all depends on what you want to achieve. For me, at this stage, my purpose is just to teach my children to learn to have a lifestyle to allocate what they have, ie, don't spend every single cent given to them, and learn not to be tempted by what they see.

Eg, Son has been wanting to go watch the F1, I refuse to spend so much money on it, but told him he can save up for it. Which he did so last year and already have enough to buy pretty good seated tix for this year, and have some more. During the process, there were stuffs he was tempted to get, but many times, he overcame those temptation, cos he wanted to save up for the tix.

So although he is going to spend a big bulk of the savings, but, thru' the process, he learnt to be focused, to allocate what he has, learn not to waste money on what we chinese call, 有的没有的, which the bookshop has plentiful.

I will monitor how he want to use his savings this year. I may continue to teach him not to spend all his savings, but to keep for 'rainy days', or, learn to invest them 1 step at a time.

Personally, I'm quite a spendthrift, and can be totally lack of control :P, sometimes I do wish someone has taught me all these money management skill when I was younger. That's why I want to teach my kids early.

(wow, deviating a lot from ACSP topic :P)

Hi ezmummy, thank you so much! Sorry for making you go off topic. What you have shared is very useful to me and hopefully there will be other parents that find it informative too. For the other parents, please accept my sincere apologies for asking something off topic.[/quote]
It's ok la. For me, I feel it is when they have to save their own money to buy stuff that they understand how easy it is to spend it and how saving the amount takes time and discipline. I get DS to run by me what he wants to buy before I give him thr go ahead. I try to get him to think about his purchases carefully and not to be frivolous just because he has moolah.

He is quite a saver. So not too bad. And if a purchase he wants to make is v good but too $$, we work out a deal eg 60:40 - he pays 60%, we sponsor 40%. The splitting of the bill depends varies with each item

ezmummy:

shalomger:

I prob cannot make it to the GEP briefing in school on Friday as I have to be in Beijing and will be there until the 16th. Might have to ask everyone here what transpired. I will also arrange to meet his teachers.


Quite disappointed as I was looking forward to meeting everyone here.
For those whose boys are in 4H, shall we grab a bite and meet up one day?

was looking forward to seeing you on Friday. It's ok, I'm sure there are more opportunities. Will keep you in the loop on what was transpired.

Same here!! Thanks for offering to keep me in the loop. Super appreciate it.

I prob cannot make it to the GEP briefing in school on Friday as I have to be in Beijing and will be there until the 16th. Might have to ask everyone here what transpired. I will also arrange to meet his teachers.


Quite disappointed as I was looking forward to meeting everyone here.
For those whose boys are in 4H, shall we grab a bite and meet up one day?

ezmummy:

phtthp:

i find the food sold at ACS canteen not cheap. in fact is ex for students.

Quite similar to St Andrew's actually. Probably that's why I wasn't too shocked by the food price.

I think if the food's good and the portions are good, the prices are reasonable. Canteen operators need to make a living too.

In his former school, the canteen food was cheaper but v v miserable.
We had to tabao stuff for him if we wanted to make sure he had a decent meal.

ezmummy:

shalomger:

[quote=\"ezmummy\"]ALLOWANCE:

How much do the parents here give to your son(s) in ACSP?

$3 - normal day
$6 - CCA day

Room to spend or save.
It is quite a bit but oh well. God will provide.

Btw if the PE swimming isn't subsidized, what will we have to pay?

Thanks shalomger. Pretty similar amount since ds always set aside $ for savings before putting the rest into his wallet.

For me, I teach him principal of savings, tithing and giving to parents since P3. So I 'purposely' give him more, so that he can put 10% tithe, 10% parents, 20% savings, and still have > $2 to bring to school.

So this year, it's $4 per day, after deducting everything, bring $2.4 to school.[/quote]
Yep. Similar. We taught DS to tithe his first fruits when he has an allowance and when he receives cash prize or red packets. The saving part came naturally to him. He doesn't spend recklessly and that's good.