All About SAP Schools

[mommyNg]

I agree, mommyoftwo, that whether going to an affiliated or SAP school should ideally depend on where your kids like to go. However my 'frustration' is I don't know if my kid would like to go to the affiliated school when she is P6 or not.... Like what karmeleon said, the son is in an affiliated SAP school but now wants to go to another sec school, so still no easier entry then. I wish I know which sec school my dd1 would like to go to next time so that I can help her plan for it now, but I don't. I suppose as a parent, we all hope to provide the best for our children and our decision for which primary school to enroll them in would be based on many different factors and also the current circumstances. We just have to make our 'best bet'! ':D'


For us, we had a choice of enrolling our dd1 to an affiliated pri school (pretty low cut-off point to the sec school) or a SAP school. In the end, we decided we would like to provide her with an effective bilingual environment with the values that we identify with. I hope I wouldn't regret next time.... ''

[jenniferjoey]

Hi Mummies,


Hmm... i am so sorry to interrupt... As my girl is going to be P1 next year, I am quite new and blur in getting her into a Primary School next year. And with all your SAP, GEP, affiliated terms makes me more panic...

Ever since she is born as our most precious gift from God, my hubby and I wanted to give her the best we have, which including the best school we can get her in. Since she was 1 year old, I start looking for Nurseries, Kindergartens, Primary Schools... But as time goes by, I have been wonder, is the school we choose is what she wants? Is this and that enrichment classes is what she likes... ? But we never force her to stay in any enrichment classes she don't like, in the end it's us who got too tired of sending her to so many classes she wants...

We can try all our ways and luck to get to get her into a very good school, but the rest is up to her. And for which Secondary School to attend is no longer up to us.

Hmm... If she goes to an ordinary Primary School and performs very well, of course she can gets into any sec school she wants. She may be the top few students in school. But if she goes into a damn well school with good reputations which helps her to get into secondary school but she can't scores, I may as well forgo, she may suffer or fail.

My cousin has been persuaded by her JC teacher to quit school as she can't score well, and if she wanted to stay in the JC and take the 'A' levels, she would drag down the school's overall performances. :x She suffered lots of peer pressure from the school but luckily her parents are supportive and encouraged her to finish up the 'A' levels. Just imagine if your child one day jump down from high floors, and you never know why... as we only know that we are giving them the best...

I almost wanted to sue that teacher.... plus the JC's principal... :stupid:

[jedamum]

jenniferjoey:

My cousin has been persuaded by her JC teacher to quit school as she can't score well, and if she wanted to stay in the JC and take the 'A' levels, she would drag down the school's overall performances. :x

Yes, such educators are to be detested - but ultimately, it is the parents who have to 'neutralise' these pressures and be willing to take a step back in their expectations when the going get very tough - i remember my parents telling me to just drop JC (after the initial 3 months) when i was struggling with 4 hours of sleep everyday just to read and re-read the 'impossible-for-me-to-understand' physics and F-math notes. :stupid:

[claire]

My 2children are in a SAP school (affiliated ). The older one will be sitting for PSLE this years. Although fr an affiliated school , we are still worried and really not sure if they would end up in their affiliated sec school afterall. Nowadays, even the cut-off entry point for affiliated schools have increased, depending on the individual school and perhaps the numbers interested to get into that school.

We have therefore, constantly reminding our children not to take things for granted and then be surprised that eventually, they have not been offered a place in their own affiliated sec sch. :roll:

[MMM]

After PSLE, I went to normal stream. WHen we were in Sec 3, our principal (a convent school) limited the subjects that normal stream students are allowed to take. She didn’t allows us to take subjects like accounts,etc… as she said normal students cannot cope. So being a late bloomer even my scores was well for "O", I wasn’t keen on JC and wanted to go to poly. But my course selected were only limited to biz courses as our subject studied was really limited.


The most ironic thing is I am in accounting profession today… If I ever see her again today, I would tell her that she is a bad educator.

[Karpi]

jenniferjoey:

Hi Mummies,


Hmm... i am so sorry to interrupt... As my girl is going to be P1 next year, I am quite new and blur in getting her into a Primary School next year. And with all your SAP, GEP, affiliated terms makes me more panic...

Ever since she is born as our most precious gift from God, my hubby and I wanted to give her the best we have, which including the best school we can get her in. Since she was 1 year old, I start looking for Nurseries, Kindergartens, Primary Schools... But as time goes by, I have been wonder, is the school we choose is what she wants? Is this and that enrichment classes is what she likes... ? But we never force her to stay in any enrichment classes she don't like, in the end it's us who got too tired of sending her to so many classes she wants...

We can try all our ways and luck to get to get her into a very good school, but the rest is up to her. And for which Secondary School to attend is no longer up to us.

Hmm... If she goes to an ordinary Primary School and performs very well, of course she can gets into any sec school she wants. She may be the top few students in school. But if she goes into a damn well school with good reputations which helps her to get into secondary school but she can't scores, I may as well forgo, she may suffer or fail.

My cousin has been persuaded by her JC teacher to quit school as she can't score well, and if she wanted to stay in the JC and take the 'A' levels, she would drag down the school's overall performances. :x She suffered lots of peer pressure from the school but luckily her parents are supportive and encouraged her to finish up the 'A' levels. Just imagine if your child one day jump down from high floors, and you never know why... as we only know that we are giving them the best...

I almost wanted to sue that teacher.... plus the JC's principal... :stupid:

Truly sad to hear that in our education system. Yet many parents still
insist sending their kids into such schools (am referring to pri.)

so i do agree, what we trying to give the best we could to our kids,
are these truly what they want AND suits them or not (be it preparation,
power of learning, etc)?

[mummypumpkin]

Reading comments about affiliation or not etc, then wouldn’t it be better to just shortlist schools around one’s residence and pick the better of the lot, unless you happen to be residing in the popular school zone, but then again, we are all here cos we are kiasu parents! Guess the key is not to stress ourselves thereby stressing the kids out. Singapore schools in general are far better standards compared to other places where the vast difference can be seen in public vs private schools.

[titank]

What if we enroll our kid in SAP School? In the end if they get into Normal (Technical) then would it be a wrong choice in the beginning?


I do not mind to enroll SAP School if there is one next to my house.

[csc]

[Moderator's note: Topics selected for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/choose-most-suitable-primary-school-your-child.]


Hi parents,

Juz sharing my own experience since I've 'been there, done that.\"

I totally agree with the Straits Times article on last Sat that mentioned parents should seek to choose a GOOD OR BEST primary school for your child and not the TOP school.

That's what we did. We chose a good neighbourhood school a short distance from our home. It's slightly beyond 2 km so Daddy has to do PV which in this school, do PV - almost 100% can get in. I remember some of our friends questioned why we didn't PV at a more reputable school then. But distance was a major concern for us - we wanted our young children to have more sleep to have a better quality of life - so that's the decision.

Anyway, we had no regrets - our children love their school a lot -- and they were blessed to be placed in the top class so they got all the BEST teachers in the school. Lots of opportunities for leadership roles, competitions, cca involvement which I think would be more competitive in a more reputable school.

A few of my friends too spent considerable time and effort (like PV, join clan, change church membership) to get their children into TOP primary schools.. thinking their children would benefit from being in that school.
Actually, the opposite happened. Their children were demoralised as some could not cope with the high standards in such schools.

After PSLE, they were channelled into a normal neighbourhood secondary school .
If the pri school has affiliations, some might get into the affiliated sec school but the reality would surface again when they received their \"O\" level results - might end up in a lower-end JC again.

For us, we are more selective about secondary schools. The environment and peer group in a secondary school play a major role in shaping the identity and building confidence in our teenaged children. So we would rather spend more time preparing the children to get into reasonably reputable secondary schools.

However, we will still choose the reputable schools that are nearer to our home. Actually, it's better to stay in the West or Central cos there are more choices of reputable secondary schools/JCs/tertiary institutions to choose from. Just my opinion.

[jedamum]

csc:

I totally agree with the Straits Times article on last Sat that mentioned parents should seek to choose a GOOD OR BEST primary school for your child and not the TOP school.

That's what we did. We chose a good neighbourhood school a short distance from our home. It's slightly beyond 2 km so Daddy has to do PV which in this school, do PV - almost 100% can get in.

However, we will still choose the reputable schools that are nearer to our home..

How do you actually place a tag on which primary school is 'Top', 'Neighbourhood' or 'Reputable'? 'Top' as in produce top students? 'Reputable' as in has several awards? 'Neighbourhood' as in situated near HDB neighbourhood?
There is a lot of misconception when one said that they chose a good neighbourhood school for their kids, but actually is the 'Top in that area' or 'More reputable in that area'.
Pei Hwa is situation beside HDB estate, so does that SAP school qualify as a neighbourhood school?
There are also parents who shifted to their preferred schools years before the P1 registration and then proclaimed that they registered in a school that is near to them - isn't that a red herring?

As long as awards are given, top students are listed, there is no stopping parents of going for what they deemed is the best - most parents nowadays won't usually blindly follow the crowd - those who did should be the minority, so to me, the report is just another report for reading pleasure.