Hi,

Mentioning about the swimming lessons, I was wondering if the lesson is open to all levels that is from P1 - P6? My DD loves to swim but we have not put her into any swimming lessons so far.

Was hoping she can learn something from the school's CCA programme eg swimming, arts etc.

Just to confirm, YZPS will go single session by 2013?

Anyone had same dillema as me before?
Am considering YZPS cos it's a mixed school.
However, it has no affiliation to secondary school.
My other choices are PLMGS or CHIJ at Lor Chuan.
Any views to share?

Yes, it is confirmed that YZPS will go single-session next year. There was a letter from the school to parents saying this a few months ago.

I enrolled both my kids there, without thinking about sec sch affiliations...

I received a SMS on 4 sep evening from the school that the principal n vice principal are holding a chat session on the 11/9 in the morning from 8-9 am .
And to respond by 6 sep. 1pm if the parents are going for the session.

Hi YZPS
Can I know what is the objective of this chat session. Does it involves the parents of all levels or the specific level only ?

With this kind of 1 hr timing for working parents, how are we going to attend?
Take half day or fully day leave to attend a 1 hr session that don't even know what is the agenda? It is not convenient n not thoughtful for the working parents.
I remember the principal said that the school will adhere to 5 days week for the teachers.Strictly , no activity to be held for parents on Sat n any activity that involve the parents will be on weekdays n will be stated clearly in the school calendar n parents are supposed to plan in advance the leave.

How about this chat session .? Don't think is in the calendar .

The point I want to bring out is that can the school spare a thought for the parents especially for those who are working.
For the convenience of a number of teachers in the school , how many parents have to make an effort to take leave to attend the event such as this kind of 1 hr session. Working parents will likely not come.
Eg. If the activity involve 200 affected students ,the parents affected will at least be 200 or more (if both parents coming) .
If the session is to gather feedback, then a lot of working parents will miss out.
It is not practical for parents to take leave just for 1 hr session which may not be even fruitful.
The school should consider to organize some events on saturday taking into account that most parents are working .
It should be the school to accommodate the bigger number of parents n not the other way round. Eg . 400 parents purposely take leave amist the busy schedules to cater for the convenience of 15 teachers so that the teachers don't have to come back to school on Sat.
I know many schools hold events involving parents to be on sat morning. Why must this school be the exception .
Can the school comment ?
Alternatively, why not have a online forum or link for the parents to log on n chat where the school can seek feedback n parents to respond at their home comfort n know what is going on .

Thks

On the school work, my daughter is actually is 'quite free' with hardly any homework to bring back to do. Even if there is one, it wont take more than 15 mins to finish. Actually I don't even bother my girl's homework including spellings. So far, the only assignment i have to help her is the ' show n tell' My colleague is surprised to hear what I told her as her daughter ( same age)brings back homework to do everyday n some time even work till close to mid night.
I was shocked when she told me her girl's classmates parents asked her whether her girl have tuition for math n which enrichment centre did her girl go as she was one of the 3 who answered a math question correctly when most of them got it wrong. Wow! Parents can even know such details of what's happening in a math test.
Comparatively, I don't even know of a class math test that my girl took . She forgot to tell me. She told me she dozed off after finishing the test as she was too tired. Luckily, she still managed to score 46/ 50.

My girl didn't attend any academic enrichment classes at all. I taught her phonic ,hanyu pin yin , chinese and math when she was in k2.

She spends most of her free time reading. I coach her when I ' m not so tired. I don't intend to send her for any academic enrichment class as I find it stressful on the traveling . I rather teach her myself which is more relaxed n have better bonding.
So in a way , I m glad that yangzheng didn't push so hard n my girl can enjoy her school life . But I do wish that the school can offer more enrichment courses within the school by eg. bring in external service provider to conduct Chinese courses to boost up the Chinese standard n also let the students appreciate chinese culture . School like NYPS which is already good in Chinese is doing that . So hopefully , the yangzheng can do that too.

Dear Parents

1. The school leverages on various platforms to engage our parents eg. Meet-the-Parents sessions, parents’ briefings, Letter from the Principal, parents making appointments to meet up with concerned subject teachers, emails & telephone calls / sms-es. In addition, for the past 3 years, the school had also been conducting informal chit chat sessions with invited groups of parents to allow them to clarify school matters as well as provide feedback to the school. These sessions had generally been held in the early mornings so that parents may go on to work after attending these sessions. These sessions had been well-received by parents who participated in the programme over the years as it allows them a more informal platform in which to engage the school leaders in a smaller group context. Hence, the school has continued with this practice and have already conducted 3 such engaging sessions with parents this year.

2. Yangzheng Primary is committed to providing a grounded holistic education for our pupils. As such, over the years, we have reviewed our programmes and enhanced them to better suit the needs of our pupils. As of this year, we have introduced the multi-cultural programme where interesting and engaging programmes have been integrated into the Mother Tongue curriculum. In addition, we have recently also engaged a well-known calligraphy instructor to teach calligraphy to pupils whose parents have opted for the programme. These pupils have already participated in some national calligraphy competitions this year and have won commendable prizes. Please refer to the past Letter to Parents from the Principal to read more on the multi-cultural programme.

Regards
Yangzheng Primary School

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
For the chit chat sessions, can the school share what is being discussed or feedback by the parents. This will help the parents who missed the sessions to be updated with the information. Possible to provide a Q & A updates on the school website for such chit chat sessions for the benefit of other parents that can't attend the sessions?

Another area is can the school show a analysis of how it's pupils performed for each of the subjects in PSLE . Eg what is the percentile of student. scoring A* n A for math . I couldn't find this kind of information in the website nor is it shared during the parents' briefing.
Other schools shared this information on its website. This wil help the parents to see which subject is the school strong in or weak at as compared to national level. Parents can then know how much emphasis to put in for a particular subject.eg . If the school is strong in Chinese with a higher % than national level scoring A & A*, parent know the child will likely to do well in the subject as the school has strong foundation in it. Another area is can the school also show the scoring range of the PSLE result. Eg . The absolute number n % of students scoring 250 n above, 235-249 220-234 etc. It is more meaningful n useful than to show only who are students scoring 260 n above which is based on personal performance n not the over all performance of the school.

Thks a lot.

Dear Parents

1. The purpose of the informal chit chat session is meant to get to chat up with parents in a relaxed setting without parents feeling that every point that they mention is being noted down by us. Hence, no notes of the session are taken as it’s not meant to be a meeting.

2. The school leverages on a range of statistics in our internal analysis of our annual outcomes. However, we are mindful that presenting a whole assortment of data out of context to parents may only serve to confuse parents than enlighten them as each set of data must be seen in relation to many other parameters (for example standard deviation) in order to arrive at the right analysis. We also do not publicize specific subject analysis as our focus is on holistic education at YZPS and do not wish to over-emphasize academic achievements by publicizing subject analysis publicly. Hence, we have been sharing with parents generic information on our progress made each year. We’ve been making very good progress year on year in our PSLE , surpassing that of the national in all our subjects as well as that of the mean PSLE T-score. The mean PSLE T-score is a very good indicator of the overall performance of the pupils in the cohort versus that of focusing only on the top scorers in the cohort. Having a mean T-score above the national also means that in general, pupils at YZPS perform better than the average cohort of P6 pupils at the national level.

A school may have a few top scorers but the mean PSLE T-score may be below that of the national. This means that only the top pupils benefitted from the education in such a school. At YZPS, our focus is on ensuring that every child performs to his/ her best abilities at the PSLE. As such, we are happy to say that we’ve made good progress year on year, and this in turn has motivated our teachers to ensure that each child under their charge is given the best opportunity to do as best as he /her can.

It must be noted that placing a child in a school strong in a specific subject area does not necessarily guarantee that the child will definitely perform very well in that subject in the school as many other variables like the child’s aptitude & disposition, & the involvement of parents in the child’s education matter just as much.

Regards
Yangzheng Primary School

Magic Castle,

I think you touched on a very valid point. The school actually runs many parents related sessions like Meet-The-Parent Session, Learning Fiesta, etc on Mon - Friday as they need to protect the teachers' rest time.

While I respect that teachers' should have their protected time, I tend to agree with Magic Castle that a large majority of parents have to sacrifice for a small no of teachers which does not seem to make sense. Imagine there are say 100 teachers (a high enough figure, I believe) in Yangzheng. There are say 40 children/class x 6 classes on average per level = 240 children x 6 (P1 - P6 ) = 1440 children. Say half of the parents are not working, so it means about 700 parents, which is 700 x 2 = 1400 mothers and fathers have to make sacrifice for 100 teachers??

Imagine, the school can have day off (staggered so as not to disrupt operatons) for teachers' for that sacrifice of 1 or 2 days in a year against parents have to take leave, where there can be no compensation. Shouldn't the school be more creative? The teachers do not have to lose and the parents do not have to sacrifice, win-win isn't it?

A school is set up with 1 most important group of customers - children and not teachers. Teachers are like the parents working in a company and yet the school is making parents of the most important customer sacrifce?
Without the children, there is no need for the school.

On homework, I hope the other parents can voice if they have similar concerns. Somehow, the children are stacked with a big pile of homework periodically that is almost impossible for them to clear. Better still, they have to finish uncompleted assignments not given in time after exams?

I heard the principal work around the school with a cane. Did your child see that?

Hi beautiful day,
Ya. Thks for supporting my view point.
I know many schools normally organize events on the sat morning especially if it involves parents. If parents are working in a organization that have annual leave of only 14 days or difficult to take leave , the parents are going to miss out a lot of the school events. With 6 years in school , the parents have to take quite a number of leave just to attend to the school events.

With frequent meetings at work , I find it hard to attend those sessions . I have also missed out meet the parent session. I merely spoke to the form teacher over the phone regarding my girl's progress .

On the homework , may be she is in lower primary , hardly any homework or worksheet given for her to complete at home. Unlike my elder boy who was from another school, he used to have ton of worksheets to complete even when he was in pri 1.

On the school performance , I find it meaningless for the school to show just the mean T- score of the cohort . If the T score is 211 , it show only that most of the students can only go schools that take in such score .Actually, will this kind of score , not much choice of good neighbourhood schools. Can't even get in zhong hua at all which is just next door . it make the parents worry even more.
I also don't agree with what the school said that the school performance in a certain subject is not reflective of the individual student performance. It is reflective in general . For school that is strong in Chinese eg. Pei Chun, the students in general will have a higher std n that will translate to better result for Chinese in PSLE for the students in general . Parents know the school std is higher than that of PSLE.
I m not sure will YangZheng share the details of the school performance to the parents of the cohort taking PSLE . Any parents can share?
If the school is so secretive , it is not assuring . It will make the parents more worry. Will take the assumption that the school dare not share as result no good. Hence,parents need to ensure the child to be the top 10% to get in to the better sec school .