SIS school life

Callas

Dear parents,

The good things that i always heard about SIS are good discipline, strong in math and science.......
Bad things are quite strict and  much homeworks and tests.......
As SIS is one of the international school that i will apply for my daughter, i would like to know more about the school:

1. As they are quite strict in discipline, do  student have  enough 'space' for thinking like other international school?
2. How 'much' is their homework,  if compare with local school?
3. For student P4/5 upwards, do they need to take after school tuition like local school student(i mean generally)?
4. Are student there happy, confident and presentable?
5. I know it is not realistic of thinking to continue university study in hk, but for the graduate of SIS, are student more easy to adapt to local hk university life?
Thanks for sharing!

[ 本帖最後由 Callas 於 10-9-15 18:13 編輯 ]

yyyy

1. As they are quite strict in discipline, do  student have  enough 'space' for thinking like other international school?:strict in discipline regarding behavior not thinking area...
2. How 'much' is their homework,  if compare with local school?: a few a week...
3. For student P4/5 upwards, do they need to take after school tuition like local school student(i mean generally)?: up to you...no pressure from school...
4. Are student there happy, confident and presentable?: My girls are happy and same as most of her classmates...
5. I know it is not realistic of thinking to continue university study in hk, but for the graduate of SIS, are student more easy to adapt to local hk university life?: they can adapt to local secondary..every year there are some students change back to local school for secondary...

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-15 17:56 發表
Dear parents,

The good things that i always heard about SIS are good discipline, strong in math and science.......
Bad things are quite strict and  much homeworks and tests.......
As SIS is one of th ...

Ivylove

My kids are with SIS for years. To shared with all.
1. Good academic performance & absolute strict
school. Overall developement for kids has plenty to improved. Being a chinese,I like about the east meets west approach of the school.
2. Home work given is not as bad as local schools.
3. Going for tuition is an individual need. Hard to say but I know there's good learning centre that can help. My kids goes there.
4. Yes,most students from SIS are happy,well behave & presentable.
5. SIS is going IB. They have the advantage of having the main stream education and preparing for the new as well. Singapore students are well accepted to a lot of good universities world wide.

twinsmummy

原帖由 Ivylove 於 10-9-16 11:17 發表
My kids are with SIS for years. To shared with all.
1. Good academic performance & absolute strict
school. Overall developement for kids has plenty to improved. Being a chinese,I like about the east  ...

Hi Ivylove, thank you for sharing with us.  I'm also considering about putting my kids in this school.  The concern I have is that they jump from S'pore system to UK system then IB system in a very short period of time (in High School).   Do you know if they will change that soon?  Seems hard for the students.  Thanks.

Callas

Thanks yyyy and Ivylove for your sharing!

yyyy,
do you mean that although there are much homeworks compare with other international school, but still a lot less than traditional local school?

Ivylove,
would you please tell me more about the  east meets west approach?
And do you mean concerning kids' development, the school still  have much room to improve?  Can you give some examples?

Thanks again for your help!

yyyy

功課量比一般的local school應該少很多,我小朋友做功課的時間很少,因is的學習不是以功課為主導..但其實做功課都有其需要性的,特別對於那些學習比較被動的學生,如果功課沒有了,測驗沒有了,考試沒有了,有些學生,特別是學習被動的學生,可能學到的東西很少,所以名校,大多是功課量較多的…壞處是慣了被動學習,在沒有家長,老師,學校叫的情況下,很少可以主動尋求有用的知識…

我的2個小朋友,一個讀初中,一個初小,都是由sis的py1開始讀的…2個我都沒有跟她們功課,測驗及考試,我主要做的是配合學校,鼓勵她們看課外書,給她們空間及時間,小朋友大部份的課外活動都在校內進行,今年小的一星期4天,節省了很多在外課外活動接送的時間,星期六日盡量不安排學東西,family day,主要是帶她們去圖書館,飲飲茶或有些戶外活動…我覺得安靜的時間對一個小朋友的成長亦是很重要的…

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-17 10:03 發表
Thanks yyyy and Ivylove for your sharing!

yyyy,
do you mean that although there are much homeworks compare with other international school, but still a lot less than traditional local school?

Ivyl ...

Bib

Hi Callas,

Both my children are in SIS, one in P2 and the other in PY2. They enjoy going to school very much. Homework in PY is minimal. As yyyy said, the amount of homework in the primary school is incomparable to local schools. My P2 child gets homework about 2 or 3 times a week and can usually finish it on her own within an hour. There is Chinese test and Eng spelling test every week but I don't need to revise with her cos she can handle it herself. I give her a free hand to deal with her work as much as possible to train her independence.

As far as discipline is concerned, most SIS children are pretty well-behaved (of course, there are always exceptional cases). They are free to express their views and feelings at school. As long as my children are happy, I'm happy!

There are children who attend tuition classes but this really depends on their needs. As long as my children can manage, I will stay away from these classes to give them more time to relax and play.

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-15 17:56 發表
Dear parents,

The good things that i always heard about SIS are good discipline, strong in math and science.......
Bad things are quite strict and  much homeworks and tests.......
As SIS is one of th ...

Callas

Thanks Bib!

The more i know about the school, the more i like it, one of my friend told me that singaporean education is very well designed, but quite tough. I think SIS in hong kong is already a modified one, so not as tough as studing in Singapore......
Any specific thing that the school did to encourage the student to be presentable, outgoing?
Do they have something like 'show and tell', presentation in front of the class, or performance on stage(anything they like)?

Callas

原帖由 yyyy 於 10-9-17 11:35 發表
功課量比一般的local school應該少很多,我小朋友做功課的時間很少,因is的學習不是以功課為主導..但其實做功課都有其需要性的,特別對於那些學習比較被動的學生,如果功課沒有了,測驗沒有了,考試沒有了,有些學生,特別是 ...

I hope my daughter will be independent like yours, and no outside tuition is needed is very attractive!

compsognathus

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-15 17:56 發表
Dear parents,

The good things that i always heard about SIS are good discipline, strong in math and science.......
Bad things are quite strict and  much homeworks and tests.......
As SIS is one of th ...

I am a P3 student studying in SIS, not a parent. According to my opinion, SIS is not too strict, and my fellow students feel good in school. I have homework almost every day (usually one to two pieces) but still fairly easy. There is show and tell for the earlier levels and many people get to go on stage. P2+ get to go to camp. In fact, I am already looking forward to the P3 camp in December. My P2 camp memories are extremely good. I feel really happy to have SIS as my current school.

Callas

原帖由 compsognathus 於 10-9-18 21:30 發表


I am a P3 student studying in SIS, not a parent. According to my opinion, SIS is not too strict, and my fellow students feel good in school. I have homework almost every day (usually one to two piec ...

Hi compsognathus, thanks a lot for your sharing!
So good to see you enjoying to go school, it  must be a very good school......
Could i ask you something about maths teaching in your school, I heard it uses special way to teach math......is it difficult?
How is the sports and music teaching at school, do they have gym and swimming class? Are they compulsory?
Thanks!

compsognathus

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-19 21:43 發表


Hi compsognathus, thanks a lot for your sharing!
So good to see you enjoying to go school, it  must be a very good school......
Could i ask you something about maths teaching in your school, I heard ...

Callas,

I do not know about the "special method" but it is easy. About half of the class think it is easy. There are music, swimming, dance, speech and drama, art, french (but only for P1-P3) and PE. "Gym" is student talk for Gymnastics, which is not a lesson, but it is actually a Co-Curricular Activity (CCA).

Ann0805

To existing SIS parents - I have no doubt about the quality of education in SIS.  The only thing I'm worried about is the potential Singlish problem.  Are the teachers in SIS speaking fluent English (i.e. no Singlish?)  Any observation on this?

JJsMama

The answer is NO.  Singlish is Singapore's colloquial English formed by a hot pot mix of local dialects, eg. Hokkien, Malay, Tamil, Teochew,  and used mostly in social occasions.    It is frowned upon in the academic environment.   Teachers in SIS do not speak Singlish.   From my four years experience at the school, I've never heard an ounce of Singlish from anyone.   As for Singapore accent, yes, many teachers do have an accent.   And it does filter down to the kids somewhat.   However, none of the kids I met have a prominent Singaporean accent, nothing close to what you'd hear in Singapore or their TV programmes.  At most, perhaps intonation here and there.  Definitely no 'lah' and 'loh's.   I used to have the same concern as Ann particulary before my son joined SIS, but after years of "eaves-dropping" on the kids, this no longer poses an issue to me.

JJsMama

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-19 21:43 發表

about maths teaching in your school, I heard ...

Perhaps I could help to elaborate on the Math front (ok, but up to P3 level only).

SIS uses modeling to teach kids maths.   This method helps children to visualise mathematical concepts and understand their logic.   For example, children are not asked to recite the multiplication table.  Instead, teachers use modeling to help the children understand the principle and how to work out the numbers.   So even though kids only learnt up to the muliplication of 5 in P2, they can easily figure out the product of bigger numbers.     I agree with Compsog that most children don't find Math hard.  The average score in the exam are in the high 80s and that reflects that they can quite competently handle the standard that is set out by the school.

ngmyan

I want to apply SIS for my girl as well, does any one know that it must start from py1, or I can let her apply for year 1, is it  a thorough train for py class? Any hit for interview, will singaporean get advantage in securing the seat? N the class size for primary school?  Sorry too much qns. Thanks a lot.

Callas

原帖由 JJsMama 於 10-9-21 17:15 發表



Perhaps I could help to elaborate on the Math front (ok, but up to P3 level only).

SIS uses modeling to teach kids maths.   This method helps children to visualise mathematical concepts and under ...

Hi JJsMama,  

Thanks a lot for your elaborating on the math teaching format, it seems very special.......
May i ask if parent can follow easily? Do student of upper grades generally need any extra tuition?
If i let my girl learn some maths course start from K2, say Enopi(or any Maths course recommendation?) will it be helpful for the foundation of maths, as they have totally different approach?

一條毛

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-23 21:00 發表


Hi JJsMama,  

Thanks a lot for your elaborating on the math teaching format, it seems very special.......
May i ask if parent can follow easily? Do student of upper grades generally need any extra  ...

Hi Callas,

I am compsognathus's father. In my son's case, he does not have any problems in Maths although he is not at the top of the class. He never has any private tuition or outside academic course. I think learning Maths outside the school is not a good idea since the Maths teaching in SIS is quite unique. Doing so may confuse the kid. It seems that SIS does not encourage private tuition. My son once said that those classmates who had private tuition did not pay attention in class. So better off give the kid more free time to play and read.

一條毛

JJsMama

原帖由 Callas 於 10-9-23 21:00 發表


Hi JJsMama,  

Thanks a lot for your elaborating on the math teaching format, it seems very special.......
May i ask if parent can follow easily? Do student of upper grades generally need any extra  ...

Perhaps I could share with you my experience.   I unwittingly jumped into the bandwagon of Kumon when my son was in PY1 and he spent almost one year religiously churning out pages and pages of drills everyday.  Result?  He ended up hated Math, I mean HATED, and despite progressing well according to Kumon's target, he really didn't learn much.   After studying SIS' Math syllabus, I decided tuition was not neccesary.   However, the 'after-shock' of Kumon lasted a good 2 years.    Thank goodness my son got over that and doesn't resent Math anymore, in fact, he quite enjoys it.    I think, as parents, many of us get too anxious to put our children into private tuition or tutorial classes too early too soon.    We either want them to get ahead, or worry they may fall behind.   But in the process, we could be causing them to undermine their own ability to learn by themselves.

Going back to your question, there will always be people taking tuition, at all levels.   Personally, I will not let my son take tuition unless it is a dire situation.  Children learn at different paces, the key is to be patient and not to compare with the Chans and the Wongs.   I believe it is more productive to help my kid identify his area of weakness and work on them together than to have a consistent reliance on outside help.   Anyway after a long day at school, it's better for the sanity of the children to have some time to themselves and do the things they enjoy.

SiuSam

SIS parents,

I know study simplify Chinese in SIS, is there need to arrange Chinese private tuition to your kid? is need, in Simplify or Traditional ?