Tag Archives: GG

2016 Sec 1 Week 9 Update

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This was exams week for BB. His first Secondary school exams in the form of his Common Test. The Sec 1 children were tested on English, Mother Tongue (not for BB), Maths, Science and English Literature. BB’s target scores was to get an A1 (above 75% marks) in all the subjects and he says he will definitely get that for Maths, but not sure about the other subjects. We’ll know starting tomorrow exactly how he has done as the teachers would have finished marking the papers by then and will work out the answers with the whole class then. Normally in primary schools, the children will know their marks when the teachers passes out the papers to be solved in class and then once they’ve worked through the whole paper, they send it home to be signed. I am guessing that secondary schools, especially for the lower secondary will be similar.

BB’s school also had the annual cross country running at the West Coast park, which was a bit far..Boys had to run almost 4 km and girls slightly less. There was also a competitive run portion and interested parents and all teachers ran with the students. BB, along with his bestie left home at 6 am…I became a worried mum and kept texting him to track him till he reached the station where the school had provided shuttle buses.

GG’s school is celebrating 30 years and so they are commemorating the occasion with a dance and drama show at a nearby auditorium. Since GG is in the choir, she gets to participate and we decided to show our support for the school by purchasing six tickets! That the three of us, plus S’ mum and aunt and my helper R!! I need to go with GG out one of these days to buy some clothes for her which she can use for the show. Since her school is transitioning to a show choir, the girls (and 2 boys) will be performing a song and dance routine and GG says she’s front and centre for the routine! Super excited for this….

Other than that, nothing really happened!! So that’s the school update for the week….

 

2016 Sec 1 Week 8 Update

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Where are the days going? We’re already in week 8 and the end of term 1 is staring at us!

This was a usual week for both GG and BB with nothing really of note happening in school. 

GG’s school concert is coming up and she is expected to go on Saturdays for rehersals. So on Monday I called the school for a formal letter from the school about this. But the person in charge of the concert was not around nor was her choir in-charge. I then wrote them a letter and it’s been almost 5 days, but no response from the school. I’m going to try calling the school again and if there’s no response, I have to escalate this to the principal. This was what the principal told us to do at our tea with him last month!

Contrasting this with BB’s school, I find both the school, teachers and the parents support group so responsive!!

BB has his first common test from Monday and I’ve given him targets to achieve…. He definitely needs to be on the ball and not slack at all if he wants to get his favoured majors (triple science)…but will he understands? Let’s see… 

2016 Sec 1 Week 7 Update

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This was a short school week for BB & GG as Monday and Tuesday were public holidays in Singapore for the Chinese New Year celebrations. 

Wednesday morning was a bit of a drag to wake up for school though!!

School was as usual, with BB’s first common tests the week after next. GG’s school does not have the first common test to give the incoming secondary 1 students time to settle down in school. They do have class tests though, which will be counted towards the final marks. 

GG’s school celebrates 30 years this year and they are celebrating with a musical dance and drama show in April. Being in the choir, GG is also part of the show and this means that some Saturdays will have to be sacrificed for rehearsals.

BB surprised me last week by bringing home the nomination form to become the school councilor! I didn’t think he would do this. The children have to fill in things like why they want to be a school councillor, what are their strengths and weaknesses and a short advert selling themselves…Whether he makes it or not, I’m glad he has taken this first step. After all, you need to get out of your comfort zones and this is the first step!

2016 Sec 1 Week 6 Update

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Since we were reaching GG’s school on a touch-and-go basis last week with her screaming she’s late, we decided to leave a bit earlier this week and see if we were reaching schools in time. So we started leaving home around 6:30 – 6:35 am daily against the 6:45 am of last week. The 10 minutes did seem to make a difference and most week we reached BB’s school before 7 am and dropped off GG latest by 7:10 am. This meant I was at work latest by 7:20, making me perhaps the first person in, after the cleaners! The new timings work and this will now be our default timings daily.

BB had a school ‘Big Breakfast’ on Friday. He and a bunch of classmates, who make up the class committee went to the shopping centre last week to buy food items for this communal breakfast that their school does each year. They got NTUC Fair Price coupons and I think they went $1 above that which someone paid.

Class tests for both are on and BB also has his first common test in two weeks’ time, so need to push them a bit for this.

We also went through the cut-off points for some of the junior colleges as well as some of the polytechnic courses that the kids are interested in. It was a bit of a shocker for them as some of the courses have such low cut off points! Hopefully this will spur them to do well in secondary school. Stress levels start to rise again!

Monday and Tuesday are off for everyone in Singapore for the Chinese New Year holidays. So it’s time to chill and have some fun before we start working on the first exams of secondary 1!

2016 Sec 1 Week 5 Update

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Wow! January just flew up in the wink of an eye!

The children have settled down in their schools and the honeymoon period that incoming Secondary 1 students have has now ended.

GG did get Choir as her allocated CCA, so no surprises there! But unfortunately she will not be able to perform for the Chinese New Year festivities in school as her choir teacher told her since it will be unfair for the other new choir members if only she was allowed to participate as she was the only one who went for practice even before the official allocation. She does say that for one of the competitions later this year, she will be singing solo. I am not too sure about this and I will take it with a pinch of salt as I am not too sure if the other choir members will want a new secondary 1 student to take the limelight!

BB is attending an environment event and representing his class and school today. This is the first event he is representing his current school. This came out because he is the class Environment rep.

Other than that, this was been a more-or-less usual week!