Tag Archives: Updates

2018 Secondary 3 Week 22 Update

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The children are still in the school holidays with GG going back to school almost all days whether it was for CCA or even as a student guide for her seniors at the Former Ford Factory. This place is a national World War II museum, which was the place where, on 15 February 1942 (commemorated as Total Defence Day now), the British army led by Lieutenant-General A. E. Percival, the British General Officer Commanding (Malaya), met Lieutenant-General Yamashita in the Boardroom of the Ford Factory, and surrendered unconditionally to the Japanese, effectively sealing the fate of Singapore for the next three and a half years.

We also went to one of the local polytechnics for parents talk about the polytechnic education for our children as well as the Early Admissions Exercise for Secondary 4 students. The biggest draw for us was the tips given by the registrar to ace the EAE process. You need to have two write-ups, a 600 character one which is a more general write-up on why you want to join this particular course and a 1000 character write-up in bullet points on why you should be chosen. The larger write up is where you get to toot your own horn about the courses you may have done, the competitions attended etc.

Next week, GG has an intensive CCA schedule of almost 6 hours of singing each day, broken into two parts with a lunch break in between. BB also goes for his much-awaited field trip to an RSAF camp.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

2018 Week 21 Update

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Another week is done and we’re almost at the end of May.

This was the last week of school and the children are now on their mid-term break. I have written all about their Parent Teacher meeting yesterday.

Yesterday evening, we also decided to make an impromptu visit to the Ramadan market at Geylang, the place to go to during the fasting months! I had been there a couple of times, but this was aeons ago, even before GG & BB were born. The place had changed beyond recognition and was filled with hipster food and the crowds! Oh dear, it felt like pretty much a significant proportion of Singapore’s residents had the same idea as we did, which was to visit the market. We walked around for about an hour and then decided to go someplace for dinner as it was close to the evening call for prayers.

That was the highlight of my week. Hoping that this week is much better than the last week.

2018 Secondary 3 Week 21 Update

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This week marks the end of term 2 in schools across Singapore and yesterday was the start of the four weeks of school holidays for primary, secondary school and junior college students.

On Friday, we (S and I and this was a first time for S since the children started secondary school) went both GG & BB’s schools for their mid-year Parent Teacher Meeting. BB’s teachers were all fairly unanimous in their assessment of him. They all mentioned his appalling handwriting and also said he is a bright and very smart and intelligent boy, but he needs to stretch himself to reach his actual potential. He has been dozing as well as reading books in class as well as not paying attention because he is getting distracted as well as talking to his friends. His teachers also showed me his classwork and it is really bad, sometimes he doesn’t hand in assignments and at times they need to chase him before he hands in work. Also, teachers mentioned that though he does not do work in class, during major exams like the mid-year exams, he really pulls up his socks and manages to do well! I really need to sit down with him and give him a good talking to so that when he goes back to school in term 3, he is much better and changed person.

As for GG, her teachers continued to praise her work ethics and conscientiousness in class and how engaged she is in class. She does have problem subjects, especially Science and when the school did not provide her with a bridging programme, I brought this up with her science teachers who have promised that she can consult them when she has any difficulties in understanding concepts. Oh, one of her teachers also didn’t realise until I told her that she had transferred laterally. She didn’t know till then and thought until then she was a normal student of the same stream. So this is a plus point in GG’s favour.

So that’s our highlight of the week. GG has to go back to school for the next two weeks for CCA and BB also has his CCA field trip which I will post about soon. Then there’s our Malaysia road trip to look forward to!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

2018 Week 20 Update

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This week was so mind-numbingly boring that nothing that I did this week comes to my mind.

This is the last week of school, so I am looking forward to spending some quality time with the children and then there’s our Malaysia road trip to look forward to next month.

The other thing I want the children to work on during the holidays is to work on the subjects, especially those they did not do well in the mid-year exams.

Then there’s the perennial cleaning of rooms and clothes which both (and to an extent me) have to do.

That’s pretty much our plans for the next month.

2018 Secondary 3 Week 20

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This was pretty much results week for both GG & BB

GG first. As expected, because she moved streams, she has dropped a few points in all the old subjects (aka subjects she has been taking from Sec 1). Principles of Accounting, a new subject which she took this year was a good one for her, probably the only one where she really scored well. But I think that’s fine, since it was expected and she should be able to catch up by the end of year exams.

BB also didn’t do as well as expected. With the exception of his two math papers (Elementary and Advanced Maths), he did not do as well as expected in his sciences and other papers. I have also set up appointments to see his subject Teachers this year to see what we can do to improve for the year end exams.

Parent teacher meetings happen at the end of next week, which also will be the last school day of the term before their month Long break.