Category Archives: School

LEAPing your way to success in school

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Secondary school is a whole different ball game compared to primary school. Not only do you have to navigate the onset of puberty and its attendant issues, you are also expected to do between eight and nine subjects, all of which you need to do well in to score well, but you also need to pay attention to Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs).

In Primary school, CCAs are not compulsory, more of a nice-to-do activity and it is not unheard of parents pulling out their child from CCA in Primary 6. But in secondary school, CCAs are taken on to a whole new level with LEAPS!

LEAPS which stand for LEadership, Achievement, Participation and Service is the framework to recognize a secondary student’s holistic development. Students get points in each of the four components of the system with the points being added up the four or five years they are in school. Why it becomes important is that the year they take their O Level exams, if they manage to get an A1 in their CCA, they can shave off 2 points from their raw O level score. This is very important as this then becomes the means where students can make the difference between a good or great junior college or even if the student can make the cut off point for a particular course, especially when he is in the borderline!

The LEAP domains are as follows:

Leadership: This domain recognises students’ leadership development. Recognition is accorded to students’ ability to take charge of personal development, work in a team and assume responsibilities in service of others. In addition to formal leadership appointments, participation in student leadership modules/workshops, the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) and leadership positions in the school, CCA or student-initiated/student-led projects will also be recognised.

Achievement: This domain recognises students’ representation and accomplishment in co-curricular involvements beyond the classroom. Opportunities for representation and accomplishment present valuable learning experiences for students to learn discipline, resilience and develop their character. Students may represent the school or organisations endorsed by the school. Recognising external opportunities better caters to students’ diverse interests and talents. It also recognises the community’s role in developing the child.

Representation refers to being selected and endorsed by the school or an organisation endorsed by the school (e.g. the community club or national association) to contribute, perform or compete. It need not be tied to his/her CCA in school.

Accomplishment refers to attaining accolades and awards at competitions, festivals, performances, exhibitions, conferences and symposiums where the student represents the school or other organisations endorsed by the school.

Participation: This domain recognises students’ participation in one school-based Co-Curricular Activity (CCA). Recognition is based on the number of years of participation and exemplary conduct and active contribution3 to the CCA. Sustained engagement in the same CCA allows for progressive development of character, skills, knowledge and friendships, and will be accorded higher recognition.

Service: This domain recognises students’ development as socially responsible citizens who contribute meaningfully to the community. Every secondary school student will contribute at least 6 hours per school year to the community. They can choose to embark on a Values-In-Action project (VIA). Students will be recognised for the time they put into planning, service and reflection, when participating in a VIA project.

So it becomes very important that the student chooses a CCA that interests them in the first year itself as points gained in a CCA cannot be transferred if the student changes their CCA. Also important is that the student tries to get some sort of leadership position within the CCA to get points in the Leadership domain.

It does goes without saying that too much emphasis on the CCA will definitely result in 2 bonus points, but if this does not result in a good O level score, then all the effort put in for the past 4 or 5 years is in vain. The best outcome is of course to balance studies and CCA together and try to get the best score possible!

Memories: My First Day of School

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I was struggling for something to write today when I came upon this prompt – the first school memory. I have a really rich memory of my first day in school and thought of writing it down before I get real old and forget it!

This is also apt as this India trip, I am going to take my kids down and show them my school, which I have never done before – shame on me right!

In Mumbai, we start school either in Nursery (age 3) or Junior KG at age 4. When I was three years old, my sister was an infant and so I was not sent to school then. However, I remember pestering my family to be sent to school and probably thinking my mum will have some peace with me away for a couple of hours a day, I was sent to the school next to my house for a ear. This school put me in a class one year above my age which worked to my favour later. My father studied in another school which was literally 50 steps away from our home, but my mum was adamant that she wanted to send us to my school, which was a girls school and which other children in my building went. This was against my grand parents wishes who wanted us to go to the school my dad, uncle, aunt and assorted cousins went to, especially as the school was a Tamil school and the school my mum had zoomed on in was a Parsi school! Anyway, my mum got her way and I was soon taken to the school for an interview. I don’t really have any memory about the interview, but according to my parents I aced it and got admission not only in my school, but in another convent girls school nearby. Usually for Junior KG, the children are interviewed with things like name, what is this (insert object), alphabets, numbers etc. Since I had already done a year of this class, it was a breeze for me!

Also, when we were studying, we’d enter the school in kindergarten (Nursery or Jr. KG) and only leave after grade 10 which is the equivalent of the O levels. So most of my classmates have known each other from the time we were 3 or 4 years old, which make for very old friendships!

The first day of school in my memory is noisy! Some of the children came in from the nursery, but most joined with me. I remember a particular friend who cried non-stop for almost a week before she settled down. I also remember my neighbour who was in grade one when I started school would come down during recess to make sure I ate what was in my snack box! I mostly remember my teacher – Mrs S. She was already old at that time, maybe close to retirement (really and not from the perspective of a four year old! She had white hair) but was such a gentle and sweet lady! She made sure all the children learnt their three R’s and was so soft spoken that we still remember her, so so many years later!

School used to be half day for the kindergarten class and we would be dismissed at lunch for the primary and secondary sections and I remember queuing up for the bus, holding the bottom part of the uniform of the girl in front of me!

My school changed the kindergarten or the Infant department as it used to be called uniform some years back. When I was there, everyone, from the littlest infant to the school head girl, all wore the same uniform – the only difference being the shirt collar. In kindergarten and primary, it used to be a peter pan collar while secondary used to be shirt collar. Oh and the Friday uniform too – in my school in term 2 or the term after the Diwali holidays, we wore a special uniform on Fridays. Infant and Primary students used to wear something like a dress or frock and Secondary students wear their school uniform shirt with a white skirt. We didn’t wear it in term 1 as that term coincided with the monsoons in Mumbai and imagine wearing white and getting wet and dirty in the rains!

I am getting real nostalgic about my alma mater while writing this post and am really eager to meet her as well as my friends from school! I am super excited to introduce her to BB, GG and my sister’s kids next week!

I hope you liked reading this post as much as I did writing it!! More from India….

Parenting done right or wrong?

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Every morning this is a familiar scene to us when we drop BB & GG to school. Parents carrying their children’s school + other bags.

Now this would not bother me so much if this was the younger lot – kindergarten to P1/P2, whose bags are sometimes bigger than themselves, but when I see this with older children, some of them wearing a prefect and/or school leader badge, I get really angry! Can’t a 10 year old and older carry his/her own bag to school? Does this service have to be carried out by (insert appropriate care-giver here – parent, helper, grand-parent)?

I remember during GG & BB’s orientation in school, during the first week of Primary 1, the school principal, in her talk to the parents of the incoming cohort told the child this, and I paraphrase as I can’t remember the exact words she said: “Your parents go to work and when they do, they carry a laptop and a bag. This is related to their job and so they are responsible for it. Your jobs are to come to school and learn, so you need to carry your school bag yourself and not ask your parents to do that!” So many parents who were in the school hall that day seem to have forgotten these words…

And we wonder/make fun of when memes of the NS man whose helper seems to be carrying his backpack goes viral like the picture above. Aren’t we all responsible for this in some way? What is to say 10-12 years from now, it will not be our children being made the butt of jokes like this?

For those interested in what we do – GG & BB have been always encouraged to carry their own bags, right from Kindergarten. Neither S nor I like to carry their bags, school or otherwise, without a solid reason.

School year (or “The Madness” as I’d like to call it) begins

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School started yesterday and BB & GG enter a new phase – they will give their Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE) at the end of this year and leave the safe, secure and, perhaps a little too comfy world of Primary School and enter the independent world of Secondary school. This, along with grappling with the trials and tribulations of being a teen!

My posts this year may be a bit too much about the PSLE, but since it’s such a major exam in Singapore, and with two of them taking it together, it’s quite understandable, me thinks!

Also, this is probably the last year, the two of them will be together in the same school. Who knows what the next year will bring, although I am praying with all that I have that they get admissions into the schools of their choice (should I actually reveal it here or is that tempting fate?)

While dropping off GG & BB at their school yesterday morning, I saw all the fresh faced Primary 1 children and their parents, all crowded around the children in the school foyer and this took me back six back when me and S were one of those parents. We huddled around our children and followed them to their classes. Parents are not allowed inside the classroom and we were all outside, our eyes searching for offspring and clicking away to glory! After a few minutes, they ask you to go down and wait in the canteen so that teachers can bring the class to order and also get to know the children. We waited till recess and then again a mad rush to see our children. Most of the children buy food, but we’ve always sent BB & GG with home-cooked food to school, be it recess or lunch! Then another wait till school dismissal. I think I went home and came back at dismissal.

Their school also has a tradition of giving every incoming Primary 1 child a medal on the third day of school (the last day of the orientation and before the teachers start  the real teaching) and parents and their seniors (aka Primary 2) are invited for the ceremony. The Principal usually gives a nice speech about the school, it’s values and how they hope the children imbibe these values and make the school proud of them….

Now it’s my children’s turn to do well in their PSLE and make their school proud of them….

Speaking of which, BB is getting an Edusave Merit Award this Sunday for doing well in school – he came in the top three in his class for Maths, Science and English and if not for his pathetic marks in Hindi, will be in the top class! GG is jealous as she got this award last year, along with BB, but P5 proved too much for her. I’ve consoled her that if she gets the marks and the T-score she is aiming for in the PSLE, she will definitely get the award next year.

End of School Year

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BB & GG’s school year for Primary 2 is coming to an end. Tomorrow is the last day of school and Friday is the awards for top performers. BB missed the top slot by a few marks, but hopefully he realises this and bucks up next year. They will be going to school on Friday though as they are part of the choir which will be entertaining the parents and the prize winners.

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They brought their year-end reports home yesterday and BB managed to get Band 1 (85% and above) for both his school subjects but Hindi brought his total score waay down. So this year has been an eye opener for him. As for GG, she really needs to work on her Math. She scroed Band 2 (between 75 to 84%) for English and Band 3 for Maths. Hindi also brought her total scores down. Here is what their teachers wrote about them in the year-end report.

GG: With her gentle temperament, GG gets along with her classmates. She  is a helpful girl who is always ready to offer her assistance to the teachers. She is diligent and has shown keenness to learn. Keep up the good work attitude.

BB: BB is an independent worker but needs to put in his best effort to complete tasks assigned by teachers. He clarifies his doubts and has a natural flair in communicating his views. To improve his collaborative skills, he will need to be patient and listen attentively to the views of his classmates. If he exercises more discipline in his studies, BB can achieve even better results. Strive harder!

Now on to conquer Primary 3…Wish us luck…