West Spring Primary

[Blissymum]

Cool 😎 down man.....we always have to listen to both sides of the stories before we turn into keyboard warriors.


I am an active PSG with the school and I would like to share some of my views.

For the stalls, the school had repeatedly post in their website as well as into the PSG chats asking for vendors to come in. I believe they had been trying to recruit for more ppl to come in so that our students will have more choices. In the meantime, as parents, we can prepare simple lunchbox for them to tide over. As for my own kids, they had no problem finishing on time and even I spot them at the parade square with their friends most of the time when I am there for my duty.

As for the Astro turf, the teacher had informed that it will be open during the recess for students when there are enough PSGs supporting. And the school did plan for many activities during recess but there isn’t enough PSG support. I can see the same post almost every day asking for parents support for the same activities. As part of their team, due to manpower shortages, I can only do what we can at times. I believe the school can have more activities with the parents or grandparents supporting.

For the teacher that u mentioned, I did once went swimming duty for my P3 with this teacher. The students love him and find him approachable. He is practically talking to them as though they are friends. During recess when he is doing PE lessons with lower primary classes, I also never see him pulling students.

[LFC4ever]

Want to learn more about the school you may follow the school FB link https://www.facebook.com/West-Spring-Primary-763228920471063/ to get to know the school better.

[ShinH]

Dear parents, need your honest opinion whether this is a good school to place my kid in for upcoming P1 registration. We are considering both Greenridge and WSP. Thanks for the help in advance!

[parentfor2]

ShinH\" post_id=\"1913849\" time=\"1559993959\" user_id=\"169709:

Dear parents, need your honest opinion whether this is a good school to place my kid in for upcoming P1 registration. We are considering both Greenridge and WSP. Thanks for the help in advance!

Please by all means apply to Greenridge Primary. It is an amazing school. :rahrah:

I am a little taken aback and frankly disappointed with WSP.

When the results for the P4 mathematics paper were given back, the paper was set so tough. there were literally classes of failures. I looked through the paper and shocked to see it set at that level. it was just too difficult. many parents were upset. the p5 english paper had a few errors as well. these are exam papers. it should not be like that. in the other schools, the p6 kids r getting ready for psle. i don't know if those kids r ready or not.

i feel like something is off about this school. understand that holistic education is important. being a well-rounded person is important. but that does not mean that academics take a back seat.

there is an arrogance to this sch that i cannot stand. it's one thing to think u r good, it's another thing to actually be good. my suggestion is to consider other schools. not just for the academic but they are doing things for the kids, not for the school image.

[LFC4ever]

I am a parent of two children studying at WPS . my eldest child is the pioneer batch of WPS, this year she will be taking her PSLE whereas my younger child is in P1 after seeing what my eldest child went through her previous years with the school I have decided to place my younger child in the the same school as her sister as I have confident with the school leadership and the staffs. Even if there is a change of leadership I believe the legacy left by the school leader will continue to follow up. As a parent I am obviously concern about my eldest child PSLE but I am equally assure the school are doing their very best to prepare them for their exam I understand from my child for the PSLE oral the school started preparing them as early as Mar where teachers meet students in the morning to converse with them. Even the school's VP, Ms. Sab was part of this I am really very appreciate of their efforts and I always believe give credit when credit is due. This is only part of the preparation to mention the school also have entended curriculum everyday except Tuesday & Wednesday to give the students extra support. I do agree the exam is difficult but on the other hand it is to remind the students they need to put in effort for their exam as it is certainly not a piece of cake. Over the years the school have achieve awards like maths olympiad & other competitions, the school official fb (https://www.facebook.com/West-Spring-Primary-763228920471063/?ref=bookmarks) have highlighted their achievements. WPS also takes great pain to pace student's learing so as not to add unnecessary stress and yet ensure students put in best efforts. Motivation & recognition is given to P6 students to spur them on. In fact next month the school is planning a trip to Legoland for the students to destress but it is also learning trip this shows how far the school takes great effort to manage the well being of the students. Apart from the activities I have mentioned every year there are outing for different level of students such as sand castle building at East Coast, Diary Farm visit(as it is near to the neighbourhood), 1 night camp at Jalan Bahtera, there are lots more to mention but visiting the school official FB will indeed help to understand the activities the school had organised for the students. Every year the school principal organise breakfast sessions for parents to attend and to hear their concern as the door is always open. I would like to stress there is no perfect school not even the most prestigious school can claim they are perfect. At the end of the day both my children are happy and looking forward to school everyday as a parent I also need to manage my expectation for the school as WPS is only 6 years old but as years goes by I am convince the school will learn and progress.

[parentfor2]

Dear LFC4ever,


I thank you for your levelheaded response. However, i cant help but to make a snide remark. As expected, WPS cheerleaders have arrived to this thread. I have bee observing this thread for quite some time and it is truly a unique thing. other school’s threads do not have such defenders, especially since it is a new school as mentioned by you.

I want to clarify some points.

You said this
" I do agree the exam is difficult but on the other hand it is to remind the students they need to put in effort for their exam as it is certainly not a piece of cake. "

I disagree with this. during the ptm and after that, i did ask a few parents about the maths results. To my horror, a few said that there were no band1s! How is this possible? i dont think it is possible. i think surely got one or two. I am not chasing for results here but to me, if hardly anyone can score band1 and most score band3 and band4, that means something is wrong. the paper is too difficult, badly set. A teacher even told one parent that so far every single parent before her asked abt the math. i checked with my other friends in other schools, some are teachers. usually the paper will show who r the top students and the bottom students. it’s funny u know that u mentioned that the school students won the maths Olympiad…yet they cant do a p4 maths paper. means your paper is harder than the Maths Olympiad. lol

Yes i agree we should not stress our kids with unnecessary academic pressure. i agree. However, does not mean we do not care about their learning. where is the push to get better? eng,math,sci is still important. i am not impressed. i tell you another joke: one parent told me that the techer likes to call to tell her to get a child to do chores at home. Aiyo let us worry about that la, you all worry about the subjects can? focussome teachers r good i can see they r trying hard…some teachers r the "cheerleaders"

On that note, if your school has sufficiently trained the students, i can assure you even the vp does not have come down to train. i hope that when my child is p6 such things will still be carried out. i am not at all concern abt the leaders’ legacy. i do not care.

you ask us to manage our expectations. i did not put my child education so that i can give leeway to a school. to me, your school maybe new but your teachers are not. no school is perfect, yes. but i can assure you that some schs just got it right. greenridge…bukitpangang pri… i am thinking of taking my child out. however my baby has made friends and might be sad. for that i am waiting. but this year and next year psle will show.

[OKTEO]

Choose other school.


This school have serious problems. they pick students with high mark for things. They give these kidz extra lessons help them win competition. teachers rush lessons with kids coz no enough time do everything in 1 years. They spend lot time try impress the newspaper. Lots teachers has left to other schools. I hear some teacher no send their kidz there coz they no believe in school. School only interest become famous. If your kidz no get high scores they not select for competition. I took my kidz out and change school last year. Some parent has bad stories about teacher. teacher scream at kidz and use no good words. Make kidz feeling small and scare go school.

Choose greenridge. Good school

[OKTEO]

This school need cheerleaders in forums. Other school no need. This school want only be famous.

[hueychye79]

Dear all,


Let’s all be more professional and ethical when discussing a school. Every school has it’s own way of running it. When feedback is given through the right channel, the school gets to act on it.

As a parent , we have different expectations on the school. We share experiences based on our own expectations & point of view which may not be how other parents feel as they too have their own criteria & expectations. Therefore, if they choose to Express their opinions, it does not make them ‘cheerleaders’. I am glad that the parents who have been talking of good experiences of the school have not chosen to ‘name calling’ of those who have been doing that.

Many of the helicopter & lawnmower type of parents will not be happy if school is strict on character development. However, it is time to start reflecting on ourselves as parents and evaluate what type of parent we are rather than blaming the school in a media which the school has no direct contact. Being a keyboard warrior shouldn’t be the way one gives feedback to a school. It should be through the right medium.

As read in newspaper, MOE introduced students cleaning class when school over in all schools now.This is character education.So, when school encourage kids help do chores at home,this is also building good character from young at home. However as it can be seen,some parents are not happy when this happens.

As a parent when school sets easy paper & many students do well, we are happy but that is not the actual standard of paper.Parents & kids happy when get good marks but that is because paper was set easy.Then when the child does the actual standard paper,they cannot manage.

We ask abt highest psle t-scores in schools.Highest t-scores don’t tell how well students perform as it may be a few getting high scores.Furthermore, I would rather teach my child to achieve the highest score possible to his/her ability. I think most schools have taken away the table of results analysis to stop us from comparing. I hope we do just that. We should be helping our child rather than blaming the school at every turn as it all depends on our child,family support given to the child & school working together to help the child do its best.

We, parents, shd make our own decision as we know our child the best and decide which sch is suitable.

Some parents want holistic education, character education whereas some still focus only on academics which MOE is moving away from. When selecting school for child, it is best that the parent has own right idea of school based on own expectations as each parent sees & expects things differently.

[parentfor2]

I writing on behalf of my wife who posted the last two posts.


Professional? Ethical? The moderators in this site have spoken about this, and as mentioned in this very thread many posts ago when WPS cheerleaders were fervently posting and silencing other parents’ views, this is a public forum. It is a forum not affiliated with the school or the government. Hence, it is only appropriate that parents are allowed to freely express their views about the school – be it negative or positive. And the manner for which opinions are expressed is not in your purview. The “ethical” part disturbed me the most. As if calling out the motives of some of the posters here, as if posting a negative opinion of the school is a crime, morally reprehensible.

And since this thread has hit 141 pages, full of blatant self-promoting or defensive posts generally by the same group of posters, the “cheerleader” terminology is not in any sense an attack. In fact, it is the nicest thing we can say. It is an accurate description of what goes on here with these people. In certain key times, they have been accused of being the school staff themselves, or perhaps deployed by the school itself. My issue with these parents are simple: They stop people from furthering the conversation by immediately jumping to defend the school. They stop and paint a rosy picture of a school that, like many other schools, has room for improvement. I am glad you like the school, but learn to accept people have different views.

Example: A few posts back a parent accused of a teacher of assaulting the children. This is a serious allegation and one I hope is not true. Look at the reply following that. The parent was accused of being a keyboard warrior and that he or she has to cool down and listen to both sides of the story. The reason given was that the teacher was seen being nice to other children and thus implying so such thing happened. Does it mean the crime did not happen because the teacher was nice to other children? Is that really the counter argument? So, I should do crime because I know at least one person thinks I am nice. My goodness! To what extent do parents go to protect this school? I would have asked the parent to contact the school directly instead of downplaying the parent’s concern. This is about the safety of our children.

I would like point out that many other schools’ threads do not seem to engage in such knee-jerk defensive responses. The more you publicize yourself the more people will pay attention and the more people are going to point out the flaws. It is perfectly fine to point out the good aspects of this school. In fact, the school is right on its money about getting children to submit forms themselves. However, when done incessantly and bordering a certain level of Soviet-style correcting of other people’s opinion, it becomes deeply, deeply wrong.

Implicit assumption in your post: Feedback was not given.
My response: Feedback was given during the PTM. I know for a fact that we were not the only parents that did. There were more that questioned the validity of the paper. A poster asked if she/he should send her child to this school and my wife replied, citing her most current reason amongst many other grievances. My wife believes that the neighbouring schools are better. A question was asked and it was answered. Nothing wrong there.

Implicit assumption: I disagree with the character development initiatives in this school.
My response: Nope, I am fine with character development push by this school. In fact, the way I am harsh with this school is the way I am harsh with my child. Point out the flaws and work things out. Funny how my child seems to be able to handle feedback as opposed to adults representing this school.
Our concern is simple: Yes, character development is important. Academics should not take a back seat. Is this school doing its best for the academics?

Implicit assumption: I am not happy with the cleaning up initiatives at home.
My response: I am perfectly fine. But when the teacher hounds and shames my child for not doing chores, when ultimately it is my family’s decision in my house that she/he does something else, it becomes an issue. In fact, if I understand correctly, it is a competition now, pitting children against other children on chores. How about the school focuses on what goes on in the school? Why not send the teachers to the homes as well to check?

Implicit assumption: There was nothing wrong with the maths paper.
My response: It is not about whether the paper was easy or not. It was whether the paper tested the child appropriately. My child and I worked together on his/her mathematics, following the teacher’s advice and really doing the practices given. So when I saw the paper, I was taken aback. I did show it to another teacher from another school and there were elements of overtesting, beyond the child’s ability. An exam paper is supposed to test what the child knows and has learnt and it should display what he or she can do and can’t do. Any paper should show a distribution of grades, some band1s and majority in band2s and band3s, and the rest in 4s or fail. But this did not happen. Why? Why is the school telling parents that it is not their fault but the children’s fault? Or the parents’ fault? Implying that we did not try hard enough.

Please do not set difficult papers for the sake of being difficult. You do not know what message you are sending to the children. Be challenging but not sadomasochistic la!

Implicit assumption: Something about PSLE t-score.
My response: Nobody here is taking about t-scores.

I think my wife and I have made ourselves crystal clear. WPS and its small army of parents have issues with dealing with the many areas of improvement. Rather, the school is more concerned about saving its face than confronting and learning from its mistakes. Instead of projecting itself as a normal school, it has embarked on an aggressive social media campaign to advertise itself as a ‘dream’ school. Dear parents considering this school, I suggest you dig deeper.

That is all we are going to say on this matter. Let’s agree to disagree.