Tag Archives: Education

Education

Secondary 2 Week 4 Update

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This was a slightly shorter school week due to the Lunar New Year celebrations in school on Friday which meant they did not have any lessons that day.

I was really mad at BB this week. Twice in the week, I’ve had to speak to his teachers regarding him – the first was his English teacher who complained that he did not complete some work and had also forgotten to bring his file and a book. The second time was his Maths teacher who told me he had not brought back some homework. I am happy that both teachers reached out to speak to me, because, this more than anything else shows they care about him, especially since this is an important year for him, his streaming year. I told both teachers to punish him as appropriate as he needs to know the consequences of his work. Also I have banned him from using his phone in the morning before school.

As for BB, she had a fairly mundane week, her biggest excitement coming from the Chinese New Year performance in her school on Friday where she was one of the soloists. She also wanted to sign up for the SYF Showcase performance which her teacher asked if she and her choir friends were interested in. I gave her permission on the condition that it does not distract from her studies.

Gong Xi Fa Cai or Happy Lunar New Year of the Rooster to all….

 

2017 Secondary 2 Week 3

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It was a fairly boring school week for GG & BB this week.

GG’s school honoured all students who won the Edusave awards over the past few weeks. GG was one of them and they school also posted photos of the children on their school Facebook page. GG felt quite embarrassed by all the attention she was getting in school!

BB came home from school to announce he has been selected for his school’s math olympiad team again. They will be tutored for around 5 sessions with a test at the end of this which will be some time just before they close for the half-yearly holidays. I was actually surprised that he got selected as his math marks were nothing to shout at. Apparently, the top 17 math students for the level were selected. It was not enough to be just the top 17, you also had to get a recommendation from your class math teacher.

For the past few weeks, when GG has CCA, she has not been eating the lunch we send with her in the morning. Her excuse every time has been that there was no time to eat, sometimes the difference between the class ending and CCA starting only 5 minutes. I got quite angry about this and texted a school leader, the parent-school liaison person who promised to speak to the teachers. I am also going to raise this question at the tea session with her school principal next month if things do not get better by then.

Have a good Sunday!

2017 Secondary 2 Week 1 Update

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School started on 3rd January for children across Singapore. GG was super excited to start school, while BB was ambivalent about it. This year is a difficult year for them as this year they have to choose their subjects they want to specialise in for their O levels. So getting good marks, especially if you want to choose popular subjects is a must.

GG’s school timing has extended by almost an hour most days while BB’s remains the same. Secondary schools in Singapore end around 12:30 – 12:45 pm on Fridays to allow the Muslim teachers and students to go for their Friday prayers. If they have any activity on Friday, it will usually start around 2:30 – 3 pm. This allows the Muslims to go for prayers and also eat lunch.

School work has started for both and so have homework too. I’ve told BB that he should not be scolded by his teachers for anything this year and also do well in school. GG is already mature for her age, it’s just BB I need to focus on this year to make sure he does well enough to get the subjects of his choice for next year. I know he will be completely miserable if he does not get Science as he is set on becoming an aeronautical engineer.

 

 

Secondary 1 Week 38 Update

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This was week 1 of the last term of the school year, which is the shortest of all terms.

Yesterday was also their Hindi year-end exam, the one exam which gives me palpitations each time. As usual, BB will not pass (I swear, I will throw a party the year BB finally passes this exam!). GG said it was one paper was quite difficult, but the other one was ok, so hopefully she has done not too badly here.

This week was also the week when GG & BB turned 13! Sometime in the middle of the week, we suddenly decided to let them invite a few friends for a small party. Both kept waffling on whom to invite and when and then suddenly on Friday, we nailed it to around 6 friends coming over later today. I’ll go to the cake shop and buy a cake and maybe some pastries and order pizzas for thr children as the party is more tea than dinner. Hope the children have a good time later today…

Next week will probably be a less full week and then the exam madness will hit us!

Secondary 1 Week 35 Update

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Nothing much to update this week except for BB once again getting ticked off in school. On Thursday, I got a call from him saying his Geography teacher wanted to speak to me. When I spoke to the teacher, it turns out that Mr BB had not handed over a graded assignment, in spite of the teacher giving him an extra day to do so. His teacher is a nice person who does not want to spoil his overall grades, so even though she was justified in giving him a zero, she will be giving him pro-rated marks based on his classwork, which is around average. I was so mad at him, within the last two weeks, this is the second incident where he has shown zero interest in school!

Next week is the last week of term 3 and then from Friday it’s a 10-day break for the children before they start term 4 or ‘Exam Term’ as I’d like to call it. Both will have to go back to school a couple of days during the term break for supplementary work or CCA or both.

September is a-calling folks!