All About SAP Schools

[Working_Kiasu_Mum]

so i guess non-sap schs are also getting competitive. They are going to prove more to parents out there. So they offer HCL to pupils, but I am not sure how they are going about doing it. Gonna ask some of my ex-colleagues who are teaching in non-sap schools soon.

[Imp75]

If what you guys said are true, then I wonder what is the attraction of SAP schools and are they slowly losing their competitive edge?

Also, how can I find out which neighbouhood schools offer HML from P1 onwards?

[Vanilla Cake]

Imp75:

If what you guys said are true, then I wonder what is the attraction of SAP schools and are they slowly losing their competitive edge?

Pls take note of the academic performance of top PSLE students in SAP schools (highlighted in blue colour) based on PSLE 2008 results.

Wee Yen Jean / F 黄彦静 Nanyang Primary School 287
Wong Hong Zhe Gabriel / M 黄宏哲 Catholic High School 285
Yang Yixuan / F 杨艺璇 Nanyang Primary School 284
Tee Yan Chyuan / M 郑晏铨 St. Hilda's Primary School 284
Foo Jie Min, Jamie / F 符杰敏 Yew Tee Primary School 284
Dee Pei Fang / F 吕培芳 Nanyang Primary School 284
Tan Ming He / M 陈明鹤 Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) 284
Ho Jin Yang / M 何槿阳 Nan Hua Primary School 283
Douglas Tan Chang Yang / M 陈长阳 Tao Nan School 283
Heng Yi Xin / F 王翊馨 Maha Bodhi School 283
Ching Hui Qi / F 庄惠棋 Poi Ching School 282
Nicole Tan Su Yee / F 陈思翊 Rosyth School 282
Huang Yu Wei, Chery / F 黄昱玮 Nanyang Primary School 282
Qu Xinyi / F 曲心怡 Elias Park Primary School 282
Oen Qi Xuan, Kellynn / F 温奇璇 Ai Tong School 282

[corneyAmber]

I believe the non-SAP schools just started a few years to be kiasu in offering HCL at lower primary level…so gotta see the PSLE results in another 3-4 years before we know if SAP schools loses competitive edge.

[Fairy]

Vanilla Cake:

Imp75:

If what you guys said are true, then I wonder what is the attraction of SAP schools and are they slowly losing their competitive edge?

Pls take note of the academic performance of top PSLE students in SAP schools (highlighted in blue colour) based on PSLE 2008 results.

Wee Yen Jean / F 黄彦静 Nanyang Primary School 287
Wong Hong Zhe Gabriel / M 黄宏哲 Catholic High School 285
Yang Yixuan / F 杨艺璇 Nanyang Primary School 284
Tee Yan Chyuan / M 郑晏铨 St. Hilda's Primary School 284
Foo Jie Min, Jamie / F 符杰敏 Yew Tee Primary School 284
Dee Pei Fang / F 吕培芳 Nanyang Primary School 284
Tan Ming He / M 陈明鹤 Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) 284
Ho Jin Yang / M 何槿阳 Nan Hua Primary School 283
Douglas Tan Chang Yang / M 陈长阳 Tao Nan School 283
Heng Yi Xin / F 王翊馨 Maha Bodhi School 283
Ching Hui Qi / F 庄惠棋 Poi Ching School 282
Nicole Tan Su Yee / F 陈思翊 Rosyth School 282
Huang Yu Wei, Chery / F 黄昱玮 Nanyang Primary School 282
Qu Xinyi / F 曲心怡 Elias Park Primary School 282
Oen Qi Xuan, Kellynn / F 温奇璇 Ai Tong School 282

Do you know that the top PSLE girl this year scored below 250 for her Prelim and was not even the top 5 in her class? Anyway, I understand that the top score in NYPS' Prelim was only 261. The other 3 top scorers from NYPS are among the top five in their respective classes. I wonder how Prelim results can be so different from PSLE results. Wonder why MOE don't just stick to raw score instead of using T-score which may not be that fair unless the level of difficulty of the various papers are the same between subjects and across years.

Take the case of someone who is very good in Maths. Even if he/she scored very high in the subject, he/she will not get a very good T-score if the paper for that year is easy and even the not-so-good ones managed to score well. One will have to pray hard that the subject you are good in will be a difficult paper that year and the subject you are weak in will be an easier paper. It has became a game of 'heng suay' when comparing one's results against another who may actually scored a significantly lower raw score than oneself but got a higher T-score.

[Vanilla Cake]

From first hand experience as a PSLE 2008 student, those that scored A* in Chinese would have better T-scores when their raw scores in PSLE Chinese were transformed.This might be possibly due to the large % of students scoring A*/A for PSLE Chinese over the past few years at national level.


PSLE Chinese A*/A at National level
2008 - 81.4%
2007 - 81.1%\t
2006 - 81.0%\t
2005 - 80.9%\t
2004 - 79.4%

However, not many out of this A*/A lot were able to score A* in PSLE Chinese and also few students scored between B to U grades for PSLE Chinese. This in turn made an A* in PSLE Chinese precious.

PSLE 2007 Chinese at National level
B - 12.0 %
C - 4.8 %
D - 1.4 %
E - 0.6 %
U - 0.1 %

The conclusion is therefore that a good grasp of PSLE Chinese resulting in a good T-score is needed to have a good PSLE aggregate score.

Below is the list of SAP secondary schools that I know:

Anglican High School
Catholic High School
CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School
Chung Cheng High School (Main)
Dunman High School
Hwa Chong Institution
Maris Stella High School
Nan Hua High School
Nanyang Girls' High School
River Valley High School

If I am not wrong, some SAP sec school/s may allow some of their students to take Chinese instead of Higher Chinese at 'O' level.That's what I got from their students during my recent visit to some of these SAP schools' open house.

[MMM]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


Hi parents,

What would be your preference in this case?

Just 4 days into P1, a mum came to speak to me about this. They did PVwork and move closer to school to get their child in the SAP school. She has the sudden realisation recently that it's probably better for her child to be in a reputable affiliated school. So she said that probably they should try to groom their child to be top 10% of cohort and then do the transfer after SA1.

[schellen]

I don’t really care about what "kind" of school it is ("kind" = SAP, affiliated, aided, neighbourhood, etc.). As long as I know the school has achievements (both academic and non-academic), the children are happy, the teachers are passionate, the non-teaching staff are committed and the school facilities and premises are well-maintained and adequate, I am satisfied. I think the only "brand" I really care about is "value-added award".


All the schools I went to were all neighbourhood schools with no affiliation. However, this didn’t mean that I received a horrible education. These schools now are reputable enough so this means that from way back, they were already aiming high and working towards that target.

However, if some parents believe that being in reputable schools give them some assurance, then they should go ahead and send/transfer their children there. I just hope that they prepare their children for the transition from kindergarten to elite primary school or from neighbourhood school to more elite school and help them to adjust and adapt. It is unfair if the parents do not do their share and expect their children to wing it on their own. Or worse, prepare the child, and once confirmed got place in the new school, leave child to handle everything on his/her own.

If the children miraculously get in but obviously cannot cope long term, then best is to leave child where he/she is.

Sorry for long rant but I’m quite peeved by parents who "force" their children to get into such schools and stay there, and then brag about it when it’s obvious the children are unhappy and/or struggling.

[wiimum]

As a parent with a P6 last year going to Sec one this year, I realised that if we had been in an affiliated school, perhaps I would not have been so stressed because with affiliation, you get better chance to get into the sec school. So I guess the parent in question must have gotten "wiser" because of some "sound" advice from P6 parents?

[karmeleon]

wiimum:

As a parent with a P6 last year going to Sec one this year, I realised that if we had been in an affiliated school, perhaps I would not have been so stressed because with affiliation, you get better chance to get into the sec school. So I guess the parent in question must have gotten \"wiser\" because of some \"sound\" advice from P6 parents?

Our kids are in SAP schools that are affiliated. But ds1 wants to work on getting to another sec school. So still need to work v hard this year!!!! All his extra school classes hv started this week already, and 1st prelims start in May(?!)