What happened to freedom of speech?


Actually, there may be positive comments if the discussion is allowed to go on. And why does KSP forum have to accede to their request to be blocked? I am sure more parents will request for the discussion to continue but sadly, we don’t even have that opportunity to voice out such request.

Yes you are right. The thread has disappeared, and I realise Mindchamps is now on the list of blocked service providers.


http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/conte ... -providers

Can Chief or someone please enlighten on why Mindchamps is now \"blocked\"?

Thanks.

Thanks so much both for your very helpful insights!

Thanks nansk and marlinsons for your very helpful replies!


nansk - may I know what you think of Andrew Er? I have been using that for pri 3, honestly more coz of lack of knowledge about other assessment books and I keep seeing the name popping up in forums. But I will also check out those books you had recommended. Thanks too for the heads-up on the Suntec Popular sale.

marlinsons - I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to locate the chinese assessment thread you had mentioned. May i know if i can get the 画龙点睛 series at Popular? Based on your experience, what is the main difference between Normal Chinese and Higher Chinese? Is the latter very much tougher on the child? How should I help my DD? I’ve been trying to get her to read more Chinese storybooks but not sure if that’s enough. Her P3 Chinese teacher had said if by P5, the child is struggling to cope with Higher Chinese, they will recommend her to drop it. But this makes me wonder if I should even make DD go through it at all. Does Higher Chinese count much for PSLE? I like the Chinese language myself, but I have come to realise that sometimes too much overkill of something at a young age puts one off that something for a very long period after…

Thanks so much for all your sharing of experiences.

Hi, I’m also interested to know what are the good assessment books for Pri 4 for Eng, Maths, Science & Higher Chinese. Will be very grateful if parents can share your experiences here. Thanks in advance.

Hi,


Does anyone know where will BabyHaven be moving to? And when? I’ve been calling the school to ask since last year but they kept saying they still don’t know.

Many thanks in advance.

Hi Einstein,


I've just PM you.

Thanks.
Onyva

The school has a School Family Education (SFE) program, which is an intiative by MCYS. So all these daddy bring kids to school events are actually under this SFE intiative of MCYS. FYI - this daddy bring kids thingie is not an everyday affair.


During the orientation in first week of school, a parent actually raised this same concern to the principal - that she is a single mother, she feels such bond-with-daddy events makes her feel left out. The principal said there are other events for the whole family, but they feel it is important for kids to have a male figure in life as (he said) studies have shown it is important. So he suggested that single mothers ask an uncle or male friend to take the kid to such dad-bonding events.

Don't be too mindful of your single mother status. Like I said, I've just been to the SFE family bonding camp over the weekend. There were single parents on both the organisers and participants side. Everyone just still had fun together.

Yah, there's still a student care within the school but I don't know much about it as my girl goes home after school.

When I was assessing the school, I did have concerns over whether they can produce decent PSLE grades. Till now, I still have no answers - we'll only know when the first batch graduates this year. But in the end, I still chose the school coz I like that it is more focused on giving the kids an all-rounded education, and not just pure academic-focused. For now, based on the homework and materials that my girl brings home, I don't think they slack in their teaching. But coz I never go and compare what kids in other school are studying or taught, I cannot say that NVPS is the best, same with other schools, or not. But I can say my girl is happy going to school at least.

I suggest that you personally go for the openhouse and check out the school. Best way to find out about the school.

My girl is in P1, so I’m not sure about the other levels. But actually, how does one define when the student is "well trained enough" for PSLE? It is really subjective. Some parents send the kids for endless tuition but still deem that’s not well trained enough.


All I can say is, every morning, most parents and children gather at the bistro (their name for the canteen), coz the school starts at 8 am to encourage parents to have breakfast and spend time with their child everyday. I can see some of the older kids (should be the upper primary) sitting together at the table to discuss their homework coz they all lay out their worksheets on the table and are talking animatedly. To me, that at least shows that the kids in the school are focused and interested in their studies.

My girl is in P1 at NVPS. Have enrolled her in NVPS, our first choice, after almost 2 years of checking out the school via this forum and going for open house and seeing the school for ourselves.


She's only into her 2nd mth in the school so I can't claim to speak for the school, or that I know enough about the school. My comments are based on what I know and I would like to share, as I know in the past 2 years I really wanted real-life accounts from real parents from the school.

About the point on kids being the 3rd teacher, and learning to respect the voice of the child, which is what the Reggio approach embraces - I can give one example. My girl has to write weekly journal - to train them on spelling, sentence forming, essay writing. The kids get to choose their topic, so last week's was \"My birthday celebration\". I guess this way, the kids are more motivated to write about something they chose themselves. In any case, I don't see any problem with teachers teaching out of syllabus sometimes. Gives the child an all-rounded education.

In terms of discipline, I have to say the principal is indeed pretty stern and firm. But I feel that is needed to instil some discipline in the children. The school has a system of shushing the kids down during assembly. Witnessed this during the CNY celebration where parents are invited. All the school teachers apparently practice this system, not just the principal. They don't scream at the kids to keep quiet, they will raise a finger in the air and ask, using the mike, the kids to look at them and follow them to raise their fingers as well. This is their signal to the kids that they have to look in front and keep quiet. I have to say, it worked. The kids were silenced without much fanfare and shouting from the teachers. I think they drill this into the kids since day 1 as every kid knows it, even the 2-month-old primary ones. Personally, I prefer this system to shouting at the kids to keep quiet.

I'm not aware of the principal caning the student. I don't initiate conversations with him, but through observation, I feel he is indeed stern, and firm, but not nasty. I think he has no qualms telling a kid off if he does something wrong, but I've seen the softer side of him as well. Last weekend we had a family bonding camp and he came by in the evening. Saw him holding a P1 boy's hand and leading him to the toilet, so the parents can continue with the games.

In terms of school syllabus, they do use largely the same kind of textbook and materials as other schools. I know the PAL Maths materials they use is the same as ACS (my fren's son is in there). They have no exams for P1 and P2, but there are regular assessments. Every week they have the usual spelling, ting xie and mental maths (teacher read out the sums, child has to listen and write down answer). There is a ting xie list. But there is no spelling list, coz the school believes in learning spelling through phonics, and not rote memory. So most of the words are not the normal \"apple, pear, red, blue\", but they have words like \"vicar, vivid, stung, hung, plain, waist\". They believe in teaching the kid to spell by listening and recognising the letters through phonics, so a child should be able to spell plain, rain, main, gain, chain, etc by learning about the \"ain\" sound. No spelling lists mean we cannot prepare the child in advance very much, coz they learn easily 30-50 new words per week. Which is why, the school asks parents to focus more on doing reading with the child instead.

Well, hope my comments have been useful.