British Council - Discussion

[MMM]

EN:

Hi


I'm keen to hear if there are different feedback on BC from the ones I received in the Learning Lab thread.

Hi, yes sure hope to hear more about BC as that thread doesn't tell much except it is learn thru play? Which I personally think it is good if it is effective. It's boring if everything is done in a serious manner it will kill the interest.

[ChiefKiasu]

MMM:

EN:

Hi


I'm keen to hear if there are different feedback on BC from the ones I received in the Learning Lab thread.

Hi, yes sure hope to hear more about BC as that thread doesn't tell much except it is learn thru play? Which I personally think it is good if it is effective. It's boring if everything is done in a serious manner it will kill the interest.

Just like we want Beijing teachers to teach our children Chinese, do you know if BC provides real British teachers to teach English? That would be a real plus for me. Other than me having a fetish for the British accent, I guess there's nothing better than having a native teacher for teaching a language.

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Hi VooVoo


MASC stands for Morris Allen Study Centre. The teachers are either Aussie, NZlander, Brit or American.

[VooVoo]

EN:

Hi VooVoo


MASC stands for Morris Allen Study Centre. The teachers are either Aussie, NZlander, Brit or American.

Thanks! From my reading of this thread...it seems that MASC is a little better than BC coz at least, your child's work is assessed? :roll:

[ashley]

ChiefKiasu:

MMM:

[quote=\"EN\"]Hi




Just like we want Beijing teachers to teach our children Chinese, do you know if BC provides real British teachers to teach English? That would be a real plus for me. Other than me having a fetish for the British accent, I guess there's nothing better than having a native teacher for teaching a language.

[/quote]I send my daughter to BC for a year and all the teachers there are foreign talents from british/ australia/ new zealand, etc. So far my girl enjoys herself tremendously. They also have spelling and creative writing. Overall I am a satisfy customers of BC. Highly recommend.

[MMM]

Hi Ashley,


Thanks for your response.

Just wanted to check if it is fun for the kids but yet does not neglect the academic aspect so they really learn english the fun way? I am looking for a english program that helps build on all aspect of english eg. grammatical rules, etc… as I believe that once that is done then can the creative writing be good. No point having ideas but unable to write properly to bring out the thots when it is plagued by wrong spelling or grammar errors.

Also, my son K2 currently is required to do a reading test for P1 prog next year. Any slightest idea what is required?

[MMM]

Wanted to share that I managed to catch up with a friend who is English HOD in a pri school about BC. She mentioned that some of her students from china attended BC and she saw significant improvement in them.

[Poonie]

TLL, BC, MASC etc. Wow! So tempted to send my kids to all these as they sound like very good classes for them but as I am a working mum I prefer to reserve weekends for bonding. On the other hand I would like to help my kids to up their grades but find it so difficult to find good home tutors (come and teach when I am at work). My kids started ballet when they were very young and lately I have been thinking of taking them out so that the same time slot can be used for academic stuff since their school work is more demanding now. After all the years of training I find it so difficult to ask them to quit. All the years of hardwork (on their part and mine; ferrying them around etc). I’m in such a dilemma! I think kids with SAHM are really lucky as they can have more exposure to more enrichment classes yet have lots of time left for bonding with mummy.

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Poonie wrote[quote]TLL, BC, MASC etc. Wow! So tempted to send my kids to all these as they sound like very good classes for them but as I am a working mum I prefer to reserve weekends for bonding. [/quote]
I'm a working mum too & now maidless. I send my kids to MASC on Wednesday night as weekend is my turn to teach. Dont see much different in my kids results though.

I also agree it is difficult to get quality tuition teacher that can teach while I am at work. My daughter who has a tuition teacher still wants me to go through her work cause she can understand better.

MMM wrote [quote]china attended BC and she saw significant improvement in them.[/quote]I have heard from teachers & friends that China student learn to adapt very quickly. So it is not surprising that they can excel after a few months in BC.

[MMM]

EN:

Poonie wrote[quote]I send my kids to MASC on Wednesday night as weekend is my turn to teach. Dont see much different in my kids results though.

[/quote]You probably need to re-evaluate the course if you feel that it's not making any diff. Unless your kids are already good and they are still consistently doing well.

My girl is currently with J&E creative writing. I don't see much improvement in her. Her problem area doesn't seem to improve so now I am trying to train her myself inorder to prepare her for SA2 in few weeks time. I am hoping that with BC, it will make a diff.

Meanwhile for her maths, she only started to attend mighty maths in april this year. I had some last min preparation with her during SA1 (targetting her weaknesses) and she manage to score 80+. Not ideal IMO. As there are no test so far, I am not sure where she has progressed but hold the view that she is still pretty careless. Then last nite, I let her try those top school SA2 maths paper and to my surprise, she was able to cope confidently and mostly independently so I felt more relieved as I had to travel during the SA2 exams.

For chinese, I feel that molin and her school is indeed doing a great job.

Personally, i realise that i know my kids' problem area when it comes to learning and if I have the time, I am able to coach them well. Unfortunately, I am a working mum with 3 kids (P1, K2 and pre-nursery). Though I've pretty good work life balance in my job and occasional travels since I am holding a regional job but I feel that I really do not have so much time to spare. On the other hand, having been a tutor in my school days and seeing how tuition agents \"screen\" tutors. I don't have much faith in tutor. I rather send the kids to good enrichment classes.

I hated tuition when I was young as I had lots of it. When I was in Sec school, I told my parents... no more tuition. I think I did better in sec school than pri school. A colleague whose son did very well once told me that his son never had tuition. Everything he don't understand something, he will ask his son to ask the teacher himself. He learn better that way as probably he learn to think and not spoon fed.