Maha Bodhi

[jsmum]

Haha...the underwear flashing is very familiar...it happen to my P2 boy too now :oops:


Thank you so much on the info abt the new uniforms. Glad to know the new PE tees are of better material. I bought 4 PE tees end last year because the material seems to look good for half a year, after that it looked very \"old\". My boy also have unremovable stains on his shirt after 1 art lesson last year..instead of bleaching or buying those expensive stain remover, I just bought another new shirt.

Do note the kids will be streamed to different classes in P3 with 40 kids in each class. You will get to know which class your kid is posted to when she brings back her report book after SA2. Think most schools in Spore will have 40 kids/class in P3 I think. As for CL class, my gal is still in the same CL class as last year.

P3 is a big transition from P2 (with additional Science now). My gal CL teacher did caution me that grades do slip (a lot) in P3 and P5. I guess it is the same with most schools too.

[baong]

Hi,


Thanks for posting the uniform contact. Just to check how many sets of uniform you purchase per kid? Is 3 sets enuf or I should get more?

[MMM]

Yes... the current materials suck... I was wondering if it is due to my maid's washing skill or the material is really bad. It looks very old and dowdy after a few washes. The new material is better BUT I still don't find it good eg. not like our polo t-shirt that last after many washes. Anyway, the lady advised againt bleaching. BTW, the issue with getting a new PE t-shirt is only the name tag.... Need to sew it.


Which class is ur P2 boy in? My girl is in 2B and she is in CL9 I think. I get mixed up with the CL number. Eg, my P1 just got posted to his CL class due H1N1 and he is in CL8, my girl was in CL7 last year so we can't tell which \"level\" he belongs now. I guess he is in the average class. He came back telling us that his CL teacher is very very fierce. We congratulated him and was happy that he gets all the fierce teachers this year :lol: So that he will pay attn in class.

My P2 girl's result deterioriated in SA1 despite that this year we put aside time every evening for study. It was a big disappointment for us that I had to come to terms with I wonder how is she gg to catch up in SA2. I am \"leaving it to her\" for now and not gg to stress myself over it as I will probably end up stressing her in return. Probably she will perform \"better\" if we don't \"stress\" her? Haha still trying to trial and error. But it is definitely a concern.... Her english and chinese compo writing remains a big challenge and tend to pull down her scores.

Maybe I am too demanding. I always feel that as you move up the grade, it's more and more difficult to get good scores. So if at P1 and P2, you can't score then it will only become worse.

[MMM]

baong:

Hi,


Thanks for posting the uniform contact. Just to check how many sets of uniform you purchase per kid? Is 3 sets enuf or I should get more?

Hi, for us we got 3 sets of uniform and PE t-shirt (to cater for CCA, PE and school events). For boys, they wear the same pants for PE and with shirt.

[jsmum]

Hi MMM,


Compo writing is a great challange for my kids too. Most MBS parents that i spoke with are concerned with their kid’s compo writing too. My boy is struggling too. He gets 7/10 for EL compo writing in class lately and I wonder is it ok or not. For CL compo, he just write the HYPY for words he do not know. His CL teacher last year told me he will not be penalised if he has not being taught that word but i wonder P2 is it same too? And he writes very short CL compo (only half a page). When I ask him why, he tells me since teacher ask them to write 8 sentence, he counted and write exactly 8 sentence. It is obvious chinese is not his cup of tea. For EL compo, he can write very long essays. He is very imaginative but there are many grammar mistakes in his essays and his handwriting is horrible. Fortunately he has a strong phonics foundation. I do not have a problem with his spelling.

My gal likes the new premise at Ubi. Unfortunately my boy miss the old site at Circuit rd and complains the new premise is too big for him to walk from 1 place to another. How abt your kids?

[MMM]

Hi,


Yes.... my P2 girl has the same issue too.... Before SA1, she actually scored 7/10 range for her written expression and I thot finally some improvement as I sent them to british council for lessons but I guess she probably scored around 5/10 for her SA1. It's always a challenge grammatically. She tend to get good score on content but tenses really sucks. Another problem is that she kept on writing and writing without proofreading so sometimes what she write doesn't make sense to the reader.... Personally, I feel that should keep to the guideline of 8 sentence, otherwise the more you write, there wll be more mistakes and more marks deduction.

I sent them to literacy circle for june holiday writing program and the teacher said she is very creative and gave her very good review. I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that and I told him about my observation in school and he was telling me that it is common problem for most kids grammatically. Sometimes even at secondary level, they are still making those mistake. He said there is no quick fix. It's only through reading and more reading then can the child improve. This is consistent with what my girl's MBS english teacher said. We are trying to get her to read consistent and again, it is not going to improve overnite....

We are so lucky that P1 didn't have written expression for SA1 but they are starting in SA2. I spoke to my boy's teacher and it was a conscious effort by the school to delay that as most kids aren't ready. I applaud that decision.

Meanwhile for chinese, my P2 girl actuallly attended compo tuition with her CL teacher during term 2. It helps but again I feel that it is due to the proofreading issue again. For HYPY, my girl told me that they are not allowed to use that. If they don't know how to write the word, they should try to use alternative words that they know how to spell. I observed in chinese kan tu xie hua that they are required to use expressive chinese sentences so kids are \"encouraged\" to memorise those.

Both of them love the new compound and are fascinated by it. Though they sometimes miss the \"old\" MBS. They definitely prefer the current toilet though I still find it dirty more becoz of the way the kids use it. I mged to volunteer during lower primary games day and managed to finally visit the school. :lol:

[jsmum]

How lucky to be able to get a peep at the new school for the lower games day. I think I would have to wait till end year when I go to the school to buy their 2010 text books.


My kids are at BC for English enrichment. Previously they were at LW (K1 and K2). I felt LW has done a great job for my kids phonics foundation. The teachers at LW also praised my kids for their compo writing even though there were many grammar mistakes. I only switched to BC this year. Learning language is a long term process. At least they look forward to their BC class every week. As long as they enjoy the class, it will be beneficial to their learning.

[MMM]

My girl encouraged me to PV as she said it will allow me to see the school :lol: I also enjoy it as it was my alma matter so I wanted badly to see the school. But only the common area and never get to go to classroom but my son's class happened to be feature in the ppt on school website so I got to have some idea how it's like. BTW, how did your kids get into MBS??? I am always curious about it as i realise it's usually the following 1) ex-students 2) SBF member/ those with religious leaders recommendation 3) lucky parents.


Do you intend to go to school to buy textbooks???? The operator is now popular. Besides exercise books, buddhist books,etc... I was thinking of buying from nearby popular (I did that last year) to avoid the queue or out of stock situation.

Which BC are ur kids at??? My kids are at Napier and does sat 8.30am class. My girl is keen to change to literacy circle next year. All native teachers as well but smaller class size so more attn and teachers are definitely very encouraging. But my hubby felt that BC is still a better choice and also felt that for literacy circle teacher to make such a comment, it's something that my girl has build over time and not becoz of few days at literacy circle. We shall see as we signed up for 1 yr class.

But I like literacy circle's approach to creative writing as they introduce more structure. I am planning to send them again for dec hols.

During pre-school my kids only did phonics enrichment for english at Jan & Elly. When I looked at how well my girl's P1 classmate can write a grammatically perfect compo during P1 SA1, I do have some key learnings. Currently, I've started my nursery child on phonics that is supposed to last till she is K2. My P2 girl only did that when she is K2 so I always feel that her phonics is not as strong as my P1 who did up to advanced level. I also plan to let my nursery do a english program at literacy circle when she is K1. I saw their materials and typically by K2, their students would have covered writing, comprehension,etc.... For BC, their pre-school seems to be centred towards reading and S&D only.

How about chinese? Do you send your kids to any? My kids are with Molin. My P2 girl only started in K2 as well... I was a relaxed mum But key learning again, my nursery going started this year and is starting to recognise quite a no. of chinese characters. I hope by P1, she has that \"chinese power\" and will do better than her siblings.

BTW, I just started my kids on chinese speech & drama at the recommendation of my girl's CL teacher. This teacher is ex-MBS teacher who taught there for 10+ years. I enrol them as I hope that they can speak proper chinese, develop an interest for the language and also at the same time help them for oral exams. So they do alot of rou kou ling,etc... i observed that in the process, it encourages my P1 boy to recognise more chinese words as no hypy is provided for most of the worksheet.

So much things to share :lol: How about science for your P3? Is it tough? We got no more slot for enrichment lessons as our weekends are really packed with that..... I hope I do not have to slot another science lesson :? I let my girl attend the discovery science camp during dec hols last year. Also get the young scientist mag to get them interested in the subject. So they enjoy readng those. OMG.... hope I am not scaring all the 2010 MBS parents with all these comments. Pls view me as the more extreme/ ks type.

[jsmum]

I am ex-student. Was studying at their very old site at Geylang lor 34 then.


My kids are at BC Tampines. I also know 3 other MBS kids studying there. I also sign up for a year at BC (6 mths x 2). See how it goes. If my kids enjoy the class till end of term 4, I will consider extend another 6 months. There is a $100 discount for signing 1 year but I did not sign for a year this year because I did not know if classes are enjoyable. My gal stopped LW in the middle of P2 because she did not find the class enjoyable (reason: most of her friends left that year). So I have to withdraw my boy who was in P1 then. He was so sad when I withdraw him. No choice because I do not wish to run 2 centres for english enrichment. Luckily found a slot for P2 and P3 at BC this year.

For chinese enrichment, my kids are with Hua language ctr. I have not seen any MBS kids there yet. For my boy his results was close to 80 marks which I felt is very good since he started chinese enrichment only at P1 and could not even speak any proper mandarin then. Hua weekly in-class papers and even ting xie are similar to MBS. Mock exams and mock oral are given to the kids prior their school exams (heard tsien xia also does that).

My kids do not have science enrichment. My weekends are already \"burnt\" ferrying them to just their language enrichment. My P2 boy just told me his classmate is having science enrichment now and he is interested too. Science sounds interesting to him and he always takes his sis P3 science text to look. Science lesson is only twice a week in school (1 lesson 2 periods). General knowledge, English understanding and common sense is impt I feel. My gal enjoy science because it is something new to her even though she gets band 2. Band 1 is very hard to achieve now .

I am kiasu too but I am very lazy. There are no enrichment on weekdays because weekdays are my work days. Lucky the school do not have much homework. I seldom coach them study. Even though sometimes my boy bring back chinese compo to do at home, I made him do himself (I do not check mistakes for him) so that I know his marks if he write it himself (he only can get 5 or 6 out of 10). Only closer to their exams I will coach them at night.

[MMM]

Hi,


Which year did you graduate? I graduated in 1986. This year, I saw few other class/ school mates whose kids are in P1 as well.

Is the trend similar for P3 whereby there are little homework???? My nephew who is in P3 rosyth this year see a sudden surge in amt of homework. It was little at P1 and P2.

Yah... our weekends are just as bad. 8.30am - 5.30pm on sat and on sunday, they just have speech & drama and piano. Fortunately they are not complaining so far as they enjoyed their lessons.

On the band 1 thing... I am just amazed by those kids that did well in PSLE. I suppose they must have scored consistent band 1 results even in upper primary. It's scary to think about it.... Now my kids are only in lower primary and though stressed to ensure they do well, it's only lower primary. In few more years time, I would be stressed abt PSLE... Was told my by my hairstylist whose kids are in St Nic and CH that the kids must start preparing for PSLE when they are P5. Also heard of many kids who did well in initial year but results deteriorated signficiantly in upper primary.... it's just so challenging.

We decided that Manjusri is definitely out of picture for the kids. If they fail to do well, then the girl will go to a convent school while the boy to a saints school. :roll: