Urgent Enquiry on SIS?

sisimammy

Any SIS parents here?

The school has offer my 6 year old daughter a place in P1 rencently, and I need to make a final decision before 30 Dec 2008. So I need your advise on the following questons desperately in order to make the right judgement.

1. Is this school very demanding in terms of homework? Do they have daily homework? If so, what is the amount of their daily homework in P1 or early years? And how long does it take them to finish?

2. Do they have dictation and quiz every week? Does it require a lot of parent's support at home for revision?

3. Is it true that they don't have any homework on the CCA days?

4. Is their Chinese standard one year slower than local school?

5. Is their Maths a lot more difficult than local schools?

6. Overall, is this a happy school for kids and parents?

7. Do the kids speak Singlish??

Thanks

Janice

sisimammy

Thanks so much for your prompt response. Your input is very helpful to our decision. Can I ask you further questions?

1. Have you compared the amount of homework with local schools? Is it also consider demanding? To quantify it, how much time does it take your kids to finish homework everyday in different grades.

2. You mentioned that your other kid is no longer with SIS? May I know where is she/he studying now?

3. Will the school give lots of pressure to parents if the student's test or exam performance are below average?

4. BTW. If you don't mind, may I know where are you from? Just want to understand if you are comparing SIS with overseas education system.

bristol

I Hope my inputs below help in your decision making.

1. Is this school very demanding in terms of homework? Do they have daily homework? If so, what is the amount of their daily homework in P1 or early years? And how long does it take them to finish?

>>>  I don't think there are a lot of homeworks at SIS. At P1 & P2, there is not much homework at all and students will have plenty of time in developing their interests such as reading. Teachers usually give out homerwork over the weekends and long holidays. At P3 and above, my kid spends about 30 minutes a day on homework.  Sometimes, there are projects (such as research on a topic like global warming, powerpoint preparation etc) which require more time to complete and my kid enjoys doing these projects very much.   

2. Do they have dictation and quiz every week? Does it require a lot of parent's support at home for day on homework. In fact, there isn'trevision?

>>> There are spelling tests almost every week and each test has about 10 words or a short paragraph. These spelling tests are very easy and could remind students to revise their homework. However, the marks are not counted towards the exam results.  At P1 & P2, students have one exam per year whereas  students have 2 exams per year at P3 & above.   

3. Is it true that they don't have any homework on the CCA days?

>>> Students do not have much homework on CCA days, but this is not a hard rule.
   

4. Is their Chinese standard one year slower than local school?

>>> I agree that the Chinese standard at SIS is lower than most of the local schools in HK as Chinese is not the first language of most of the students in SIS.  


5. Is their Maths a lot more difficult than local schools?

>>>  I think the Maths standard at SIS is comparable with the local schools. In fact, the Maths & science curriculums developed by the Singapore government are very famous in the world and have been adopted in overseas. Please read the following articles for more info:-  

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/09/local/me-math9  

http://www.sgbox.com/singaporeeducation20.html  

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v5/N27/timss.html

  

6. Overall, is this a happy school for kids and parents?

>>> My kid is studying extremely happy at SIS and would not consider changing to other schools.  

7. Do the kids speak Singlish??

>>>  Yes, sometines they do. The important thing is that they can communicate in English at native speakers level and accent is of secondary importance.  

In summary, I think SIS is a good school. My kid will stay at SIS till S4 to complete the IGCSE exam. After S4, I may look for an IB program in HK or in overseas.   


[ 本帖最後由 bristol 於 08-12-29 12:46 編輯 ]

sisimammy

Thanks bristol and thanksful for the valuable comments!

I'm sure that SIS is good school especially on academic level. And how are they doing in the following area? And does it support with any additional programmes or it's been embedded into the curriculum?

1. Nurture student's ability in self-learning
2. Develop their interest in reading
3. Enhance student's self-confidence level and social skill

JJsMama

1. Is this school very demanding in terms of homework? Do they have daily homework? If so, what is the amount of their daily homework in P1 or early years? And how long does it take them to finish?


My son is in P1 and has been with SIS since PY.
Right now, he gets homework once to twice a week.
The level of work is not demanding and only takes a short while to complete.

2. Do they have dictation and quiz every week? Does it require a lot of parent's support at home for revision?


Yes, there is English spelling test once a week.
Ten words.
Pretty easy to handle.
In addition, there are topical tests for Maths and Chinese which are given after a particular topic or chapter is covered.
I value these tests because it is a systematic and disciplined way to refresh and reinforce the things they’ve learned in class.

The tests are straight-forward but it does require learning, eg. Pin Yin, and you do see your child progress quickly at the end of it.  So, that little bit of 'pain' is, in my opinion, all worthwhile.
Regarding parental support, based on my conversations with parents, it appears to be gender specific.
Girls seem to be able to go on auto pilot and handle the homework and revision pretty much themselves, while boys in general take some pushing.
I don’t think the things they’re learning currently is beyond their ability and require tuitions, but tutoring mentality seems to permeate all households in Hong Kong regardless of local or international schools so some kids do have an entourage of help behind them.
My kid doesn’t have any tutor except for a private mandarin lesson once a week, saying that, I do stand by to give him a hand on his work.


3. Is it true that they don't have any homework on the CCA days?


I supposed that depends on the teacher.
My son does bring home homework on CCA days but he is not required to hand it in on the following day.


4. Is their Chinese standard one year slower than local school?

Probably.
But it’s reasonable to expect kids who are aptly bi-lingual to be slightly behind kids that mainly focus on one language.
What I know for a fact is my son can already handle both English and Mandarin with ease.
He is able write journals, create his own English books and recognize enough Chinese characters to read simple Chinese picture books himself, not to mention the conversational aspect.
I’d say he is a representation of a typical P1 pupil in SIS.   And looking at it from a big picture perspective, I don't think it matters much if children is one year ahead or behind at this stage.

5. Is their Maths a lot more difficult than local schools?


I never compared it with local schools but for P1 I was told the topics covered are very similar to local schools.
P1 Math focuses on concept and there aren’t much drills.
There are quite a bit of ‘word problems’ so thinking and thorough understanding of concepts are required.
I do give my son extra exercises to do occasionally because there is so little Math work from school.
The bookstore at SIS sells a lot of supplementary exercise books that matches completely with the syllabus, chapter-to-chapter, topic-to-topic.
It makes things much easier for parents and there’s no need to go round hunting for materials for the kids.

6. Overall, is this a happy school for kids and parents?


The kids I know are all very happy, even for those who perform slightly below average.
As for parents, many seem content and relax, but of course, you’ll also have ones who find issues here and there.
I suppose you’ll find them everywhere even with the so called dream schools.  No schools are perfect after all.



7. Do the kids speak Singlish??

Ohhh - that’s the bane of my life, but I did go in with my eyes wide open and accepted this reality right from the start.   But the truth is, not all kids speak with a Singaporean accent.   And in view of the total package, this is a minor issue and can be addressed.
I do highlight the intonation of the accent and nuisances of Singlish to my son and remind him to try avoid it as much as possible.



I am very happy with SIS because I see my son is progressing in the right direction: academically, socially, and attitude to learning.
I am happy that I’ve picked the right school for him as it fits my initial expectation perfectly.




In summary, SIS is a school for parents who look for bi-lingual education, respect the value of discipline and not put-off by the notion of structured learning.
There is nothing to worry about the quality of the curriculum as it is consistent with Singapore’s and children definitely get a solid foundation in their primary years.
Yes, there will be tests and exams, and homework is sure to be progressively harder, but the pressure is not quite the same as local schools’.
As long as the child learns to be disciplined with their school work, he/she should do fine.

elmostoney

I read in one of the messages above that it is better for the child to follow a "model" answer and memorization takes a critical part in the learning.  This is the issue that always holds me back - does the SIS way of teaching by encouraging model answer and route memorization undermine a child's creativity and his problem solving skills (= his desire to look for an answer)?  What puts me off in the local school system is that, the teachers only want the answer from the text book.  If a child exhibits interest in a topic and furthers his studies on his own in a particular area, he is often discouraged because that extra knowledge outside the textbook is not appreciated.  Is SIS like this too?