singapore international school

112200

Dear ,

Can anyone share  your view on SIS  ? Can kids get balanced learning on both Eng and PTH ? Kids speak english in school outside the classroom ? Thanks !

ikerberg

the question is not "is the school good enough?"
the question is "is my kid good enough to get into the school?"

the competition in getting a place for PY1 Year 2012/13 is just crazily keen.....

ikerberg

by the way, if you wish to track parents' comments on the school, rather than wait others to comment, you could just type "SIS" for keyword search in this forum, I think your questions would then be well answered...

caramom

112200 發表於 12-6-8 17:26
Dear ,

Can anyone share  your view on SIS  ? Can kids get balanced learning on both Eng and PTH ?  ...

SIS is strong in Chinese, this is also one of the reasons why I send my girls to this school.
My girls speak English at school, and sometimes Mandarin, but mostly English because they're from an English preschool. I seldom heard of students speaking Cantonese at school, they usually speak English and Mandarin.
So far they can manage both languages well, it's not necessary to have extra Chinese lessons, the school have enough support for it, but I still put them in an after-school Mandarin class once per week to enhance their reading and writing ability.

Jane1983

SIS由PY開始，以後每年都吳會增加班數，所以PY入吳到，以後就好難。
今年去，見到學校貼出來interview的日子有成7、8日（包括所有班級，但以PY為主）。Interview等候時，見到吳少講Singalish的華人和印巴裔，佢地係國民有priority，所以留比本地家庭、大陸人民的位真係吳多。

HKPES

caramom 發表於 12-6-8 17:44
SIS is strong in Chinese, this is also one of the reasons why I send my girls to this school.
My gi ...

May I know which school your girl was in before joining SIS?  Thanks for sharing.

一條毛

May I know which language you prefer your kid speaks outside classroom? English, PTH or cantonese?

caramom

HKPES 發表於 12-6-8 21:44
May I know which school your girl was in before joining SIS?  Thanks for sharing.

pls check pm, tks.

caramom

一條毛 發表於 12-6-9 00:08
May I know which language you prefer your kid speaks outside classroom? English, PTH or cantonese?

Honestly, they prefer speaking English all the time, Mandarin is also ok for them but they like English more.
The school encourage students speaking both English and Mandarin, since most of them are grown up in an English or Mandarin environment, so not many of them speak Cantonese at school.
I speak to them in Cantonese, they usually repond me in simple Cantonese and sometimes mix with some English.

一條毛

回復 caramom 的帖子

Exactly what I observe! The school also has a language policy that Cantonese is prohibited in the campus. It seems that SIS  authority is quite satisfied in the student's English standard. However, Chinese still has room for improvement. I heard in several occasions that the Principal urged the students to study harder in Chinese. Nevertheless, I think SIS is already one of the international school strong in Chinese, esp in spoken PTH.

Chinese standard of individual students varies a lot. I saw one of my son's class-mate (P4 student) reading Chinese version of Harry Potter. My son's Chinese ability cannot do it. That's why I ask 112200 which language she wants her kid to speak outside classroom. If it is English,I think it is alright to study in SIS or any other international school. If Cantonese, go back to local school. I also believed that, in general, spoken PTH for SIS students, although this is not their first spoken language outside classroom, is better than their local school counterparts.

chanms

SIS students prefer speak English all the time. You may observe them when they dismiss from school. When I participated at the school picnic as parent helper, all students speak English.

112200

Dearest  Caramom and 一條毛,

Thanks a lot.  I couldn’t log in my account for quite a while , I am so happy to read your comment & sharing just now.  Actually my boy is accepted for sep 2102 and we were very happy because this is our first choice of International school since long time ago .

But a month ago, I see my friend’s son who is studying in SIS in P3 or 4 , he got no intention to speak English during the gathering. I am so worry while let my boy have fluent eng and PTH is our objective, I have so much question mark on my mind afterwards.  I feel better now.  BTW as I know other international school also provide Chinese class, but as everyone said SIS students is strong in Chinese,   may I have your sharing how SIS facilitates this “ strong Chinese” happen ?  

Last question, have you heard about a school 蔡繼有小學( choi Kai Yau school) ? As I know quite some SIS students change from SIS to蔡繼有小學, have you heard about that ? do you know why  ? sorry for too many question.  

mingmingyinyin

回復 112200 的帖子

Students of both SIS and Choi Kai Yau School got very good IGCSE results for their first cohort of students. Both schools place much emphasis on both English and Putonghua. One of the differences is that CKY is teaching Chinese in traditional characters whereas it's the simplified Chinese characters for SIS.
But as far as I know, most parents would only think of their dream schools - German Swiss or CIS... when considering changing to another school for the higher learning stage...

112200

hi again,

Will student in SIS can learn " simplified chinese PinYin typing " ?

chanms

Yes, SIS learns Chinese by the "simplified chinese PinYin".
It's an excellent method to learn Chinese.

My son learn the PinYin at PY. Whatever he picked up a Chinese book with PinYin, he could read it all.

And he loves Chinese composition very much. It is because whatever he could speak, he can search the Chinese character from dictionary via PinYin.

He always keeps his Chinese dictionary at his school bag. Even at the exam, SIS students may use the dictionary.

SIS encourages learning instead of 死背。

112200

that is GD, while I am afraid it is a spoonfeed style.

mrshoho

And you get to learn Singlish too!!!

Leisurefan

Both my kids are in SIS, one going to P2 and the other P4. Both find learning fun and love school. Fluent eng with a slight American accent. No singlish at all. They can distinguish the singlish accent even when they were at PY.

112200

Oh thanks all. Hi Leisurefan, do you know f any SIS student change school during their primary or secondary ? usually to which type of school you have heard so far ? If it is local school, is st paul co ed or DGS / DBS ...etc those typical local school as you heard before  ? ?  thanks

Leisurefan

Yes, SIS students do change schools in upper primary school years, mostly to CIS and/or GSIS, usually the top in the level ones. I believe it's because the uni placements of these schools are promising. This is understandable because SIS do not have any such track record yet.