As a parent and someone who has many friends working in the education sector. I would say no as you might set your child on a path where he/she does well in the subject but risk losing them in sustaining their interests in learning overall. I would think a better approach is to let them enjoy going to school and providing them with the necessary support if the situation calls for it (Eg. failing the subject for two consecutive formal assessments.


And yes, it depends on your expectations of the following trade-off which is quite possible. You want to push your child to master the subject via tuition but at what cost to the child’s overall well-being and possibly passion towards the subject and learning in general? Just my 2 cents worth.

Hi Alan,


Sounds like a good decision you have made there. I’d imagine that if your son finds the NA stream very manageable and does very well, he would definitely be offered to cross stream to Express or take subjects at a higher level via SBB.

If he finds that he is struggling or barely managing with the NA stream’s rigour, then he would have been in the right place to begin with. In the end, it is not so much about ego but what learning pace/environment would suits your son best.

I think it’s important right now that you find out with the school what is their promotion criteria in order for your child to cross stream to Express. I think every school differs. If I’m not wrong some school’s requirements are for the student to score an average of 75 to 80% for subject average in order for him/her to cross stream.

I wish you all the best!

Newbie here but I have many friends working in the education field/sector and this is what i learnt so far.


Go for Normal Stream and Apply to Cross to Express Stream via Lateral Transfers or Subject Based Banding (SBB). But first please check whether the school offers such an option. I didn’t know such options were available until my friends in the education sector shared them with me.

Also I heard that you may want to consider whether your child will be posted to the top class or last class of the respective stream. You might want to consider that because i commonly hear that schools deploy their most experienced teachers to the best classes of the respective streams. So personally, I would rather send my child to the Normal Stream’s top class than be in Express Stream’s bottom class. The school environment/profile of students also matters alot in my opinion.

Hope my 2 cents helps!