1 2 3 21 st CC Confident Person, Concerned Citizen, Seld-Directed - - PDF document

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21st CC – Confident Person, Concerned Citizen, Seld-Directed Learner, Acitve Contributor

M otto kept though there was talk in the previous leadership to change to the Best is Y et to Be. The existing motto is kept as the school believes that for everything that a staff/ pupil does it has to be performed to the best of his or her ability. Excellence - anchor on values and purpose and give our best in all that we do and take pride in whatever we do. Success - seek to improve and learn from mistakes so that the next attempt is a better one, persevere.

The word SPRING, means bounce or leap, to encourage both staff and pupils to bounce back from setbacks and be able to leap forward to another peak of

• excellence. The school believes that in all things we do, we need to be grounded on

values and purpose. These values are also in line with the school's mission of nurturing caring citizens, innovative individual and independent learners. The word SPRING means bounce or leap. The school will like to see the staff and pupils being able to bounce back from setbacks and be able to leap forward to another peak of

• excellence. Hence the acronym "SPRING" is used not just for the school core values

but alos a reference term used by the school e.g. SPRING Hub, SPRING Trail to constantly remind everyone in the school to be resilient and persevere and go towards the desired success.

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We have heard some of your concerns and would be addressing them here.

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As we reduce the assessment load, the aim is not to erode the pursuit of

• excellence. We are starting from a high point of rigour. With these changes,

students will:

• Have more time and space to deepen their learning, especially in the transition

years of schooling (i.e. P3, P5, S1 and S3). These are years where they will take

• n new subjects or have to adjust to a new stage of learning for example moving

from lower to middle or middle to upper primary levels, entering secondary school from primary school at secondary 1, as well as moving from lower to upper secondary levels.

• Better enjoy the process of learning and develop dispositions for lifelong

learning.

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For Primary 4, we have all of the above types of assessment throughout the year.

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• So how does SBB work in schools?
• At the end of P4, your child will sit for the SA2 exam, which is school-
• based. Then, based on his/her results, the school will recommend the

subject combination that best suits your child’s strengths and abilities. Then, based on the recommendation, you will select the preferred combination.

• So at Primary 5, your child will take the subject combination chosen by

you. 17

• So how does SBB work in schools?
• At the end of P4, your child will sit for the SA2 exam, which is school-
• based. Then, based on his/her results, the school will recommend the

subject combination that best suits your child’s strengths and abilities. Then, based on the recommendation, you will select the preferred combination.

• So at Primary 5, your child will take the subject combination chosen by

you. 18

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Now, what does SBB mean in ESPS?

• In East Spring, we recommend students to take up the right subject combination

based on their performance.

• We provide them with the breadth in the learning of the four subjects.

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• The school will recommend the subject combination based on student’s

performance at P4 as well as taking into consideration teachers’ recommendation.

• After which, the option form will be given to the parents.
• Parents will have to exercise their preferred choice of subject combination

and the option form will have to be returned to the school within the stipulated time. 22

• The recommended subject combination together with the report book will

be provided to parents during the year end Parent-Teacher Conference. 23

• The school will decide to emplace a pupil to a more or less demanding

course at the end of P5 if it is noted that the pupil is facing difficulty in coping with Standard subjects at P5.

• The school will base this after a whole year of monitoring on the pupil’s

performance at P5. The teachers will make professional judgments to ascertain the suitability of the pupil to continue with the same subject combination or to switch to a different course.

• As all these are based on the pupil’s results, parents can no longer

exercise their option at this level. 24

1. Over the years, M OE has been moving away from an over-emphasis on academic results towards a broad-based, well-rounded education.

• Recently, we removed school-based assessments for P1-2 students,

and reduced the assessment load for other levels, to free up time for holistic development, self discovery and learning.

• At the secondary level, we introduced the Applied Learning and

Learning for Life Programmes. Schools have their own distinctive programmes which provide opportunities for students to apply the skills and knowledge that they learnt in the classroom in other contexts.

• At COS 2019, M OE also announced the implementation of Full Subject-

Based Banding by 2024, which will allows students to customise their secondary education by taking subjects at different levels according to their aptitude and strengths. Students will not be defined by the course that they enter based on their PSLE Score. 2. The PSLE changes from 2021 are a step in the same direction. Our changes aim to:

• Reduce fine differentiation at a young age based on exam scores; and

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• Recognise a student’s level of achievement regardless of how his/ her

peers have done. 1. This will allow students to focus on their own learning and develop their potential, rather than comparing themselves to their peers.

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1. At the same time, we recognise that the PSLE remains a useful checkpoint at the end of primary school a. Primary school is a time when students develop foundational skills in literacy and numeracy, and acquire habits and skills that will help them learn in the future b. The PSLE helps to gauge the student ’s understanding of key concepts and where their academic strengths lie. i. It allows parents and teachers to guide students in choosing appropriate academic programmes in secondary school which best suit their learning needs 26

The above 2 video clips are both about 3.5 minutes each and they explain about the 2021 PSLE scoring system. 27

Slide 27 CEG35 NOTE: SLs may choose to play the video on “Changes to the PSLE Scoring and S1 Posting” instead of going through slides 3 – 8. SLs may choose to play the video “What you need to know about the PSLE scoring system” to further explain the differences between T-score and AL-scores, if needed.

CEG, 7/11/2019

• 1. Under the new PSLE Scoring system, students will no longer be finely

differentiated from each other. Instead, students with similar scores will be grouped into the same Achievement Level (AL). There will be 8 ALs, with AL 1 being the best.

• Each AL will span a range of raw marks, and students with similar raw

scores in each subject will be grouped into the same AL. The student ’s AL will reflect his own level of achievement. This means that once he meets the learning objectives of the curriculum, he will receive the AL, regardless of how his peers have performed.

• Why 8 ALs?
• It offers a good balance - Reduces fine differentiation of

students, and provides some differentiation to give parents and educators a gauge of a student ’s progress at the end of primary school, and match students to suitable academic programmes in secondary schools.

• Reference Raw M ark Range for each AL - Set based on the learning
• bjectives of the curriculum, and reflect educationally meaningful

differences that enable schools to better guide students' secondary school journeys. 28

• 2. Unlike the current T-score, the students’ AL for each subject will reflect their

level of achievement, rather than how they have performed relative to their peers.

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1. To summarise, what remains are:

• First, the same four subjects will be tested and scores will still be

awarded to students to guide their choices in secondary school.

• Second, the curriculum will continued to be updated, independently of

the PSLE changes. 2. What has changed are:

• First, the T-score Aggregate will be replaced by the PSLE Score.
• Second, students will be assessed based on their own level of

achievement, instead of comparing them to their peers. 29

DSA is an admission exercise introduced by M OE in 2004 to promote holistic education and provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate a more diverse range of achievements and talents in seeking admission to a secondary

• school. Interested P6 students should visit the DSA-Sec School’s website to learn

more about DSA niche areas, selection criteria and programmes. Parents should consider the child’s strengths and apply to the school(s) that best caters to their child’s needs.

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Y es, if your child has talent or achievementsin: A non-academic area which schools offer DSA in, such as a sport, the performing arts, visual arts, or uniformed groups. A specific academic subject, such as English or M aths And are passionate about and committed to developing their strengths in that area. Talent and achievement is natural for DSA. But why is Passion and Commitment important? The DSA is a commitment from both the student and the school If a secondary school accepts your child through the DSA, it promises to do its best to grow their strengths, and support them in all aspects of their education throughout their time there. In return, your child is committing to develop their talents in the chosen area, in that school. E.g. If they applied to a school through DSA for basketball, they could be expected to take up basketball as their CCA. This means that they have to be sure that they want to pursue the DSA area, and

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stay with that school for the duration of the programme. E.g If your child enter a school’s Integrated Programme, they will be expected to stay at that school for all 6 years. If they are not sure, or not ready to do so, they might want to enter a secondary school through the S1 Posting process instead. * Note: In previous years, some schools selected students who were academically strong, overall. As the DSA is meant to reflect talents and achievements that cannot necessarily be shown through the PSLE, schools have stopped doing so from 2018 DSA onwards. That said, students who are strong in and very passionate in

• ne academic subject may continue to be selected by schools after 2018, if that

school has a programme that develops students who are strong in that subject.

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Strategies for language learning and reading in English include SBA where the teacher introduces a book to the students. Students are taught reading strategies like prediction as the teacher goes through the story. Other reading strategies introduced include questioning, mainly modelled by the teacher. Students also learn language in context and this includes vocabulary. Students are also taught to connect with the text as it is read. Again, teachers model how this is done by reminding students of what they had previously read that connects with the text that is being read. After teachers have taught the language and vocabulary items, writing is done in class. During writing lessons, through careful scaffolding students are taught skills ranging from sequencing to writing in paragraphs. Reinforcement activities include listening, reading aloud, and completing additional worksheets. Teachers will also work with small groups of students in areas like reading. The routine use of these strategies provide students with familiarity in language learning. As part of the Shared Book Approach, the teacher might use the Big Book edition

• f "The Hungry Giant" in class and model reading aloud, creating a social
• experience. "Through questioning techniques, the teacher will get the students to

respond to the books while also teaching grammar, punctuation conventions and concepts of print,

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At the heart of the STELLAR programme is the belief that enjoyment is a fundamental aspect of shared reading and writing experiences

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For P4, students are exposed to the 4 Heuristics through the Toolbox worksheets. 39

Another key strategy is emphasis on correct use of Mathematical terms in our daily lessons.

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Our school promotes correct use of Mathematics language and engages students in mathematics conversations.

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In learning science, process skills like comparing; classifying; conducting investigations are part of the process in learning science. We are focusing on developing the skills in communicating- e.g. understanding data presented in tables and graphs; and how students support their claims using evidence and scientific reasoning. 45

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Finally with regards to M T , the dept focus is to Lay a strong M other Tongue Language Foundation in the following areas,

 Writing  Reading  Listening  Oral

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• Writing, being an essential part of language

learning, is the MT dept’s main focus. The MT dept has put together a writing package for our

• students. The package aims to teach students

the essential skills of descriptive writing, dialogue writing and so on.

• As this is the level whereby students are still

building foundation in Composition. Hence, students continue to be taught skills on how to map out their ideas before writing.

• Students are also given sufficient weekly practice
• n Synthesis as well as sentence construction.

With a good foundation in sentence construction and sentence structures then can we help the students to proceed to paragraph writing and

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eventually build a good foundation in composition.

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• Reading forms the foundation of language

learning.

• In our extensive reading programme, students

are exposed to a wide selection of genre. They also subscribe to magazines that serves as supplementary readings.

• With our reading programme, we want to expose
• ur students to vocabulary outside of their

textbooks and help them build a strong foundation in language skills.

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• For students to appreciate M T as a language that is

useful in real life and not see it as a classroom language, authentic listening tasks are planned. They refers to various practices that involves active listening and performing tasks based on content heard.

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• Oral plays just an important role in language learning.
• While students need to learn to express their thoughts and understanding on

paper, it is as important for them to be able to vocalize their thoughts.

• Our focused practice is structured to guide our students to speak confidently

and presenting their thoughts logically.

• This structured-thinking training not only serves to train our students’ oral skills,

it also a set of skills that students can bring forth to post primary school learning.

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On 10 March, our P4 students will be exposed to an EL Drama experience. On 2 June, our P4 students will participate in a Cross Cultural Camp. The camp aims to instil life skills and provide opportunities for students to have a better understanding of friends from other ethnic groups.

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On 10 March, our P4 students will be exposed to an EL Drama experience. On 2 June, our P4 students will participate in a Cross Cultural Camp. The camp aims to instil life skills and provide opportunities for students to have a better understanding of friends from other ethnic groups.

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Our school adopts Restorative Approach when managing our students. We would like the students to take responsibility over their own actions and be able to accept the consequences for their actions. In order for them to be responsible adults, they need to understand accountability. This is the story like the butterfly struggling to get out from its cocoon. Y

• u snip the cocoon to make the hole bigger for the

butterfly to get out. As the butterfly came out, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The good intention has hurt the butterfly. This is part of growing up. As parents, we would like to protect our children as much as possible but in the long run, it will not help them. Teach them responsibility and independence. Ultimately, we want them to have the resilience and strength to face challenges, and integrate well with the school community.

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Late-coming may seem trivial to some students. What difference does five minutes make? If a student is five minutes late three times a week, this equates to nine hours of education missed in a year. If you reach school after 7.30 am, you will be stopped at the security post.

• Late coming slip
• Report to the General Office
• Name will be recorded.
• Return to your class for lessons.
• Latecomers will also affect others as it will create distraction and disrupt the

lesson

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Learning cannot take place if there is no discipline in the classroom. Discipline is a set of behaviour which is accepted in a classroom set by the teacher. If a child does not have discipline, the significant adult must guide the students until the appropriate behaviour is observed. At some points we have to be strict but we also have to take time out to understand and sit the child down to identify his point of

• weakness. This will allow the student to understand that we can be firm yet

approachable at the same time.

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Conversation will be facilitated by the FTs

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Parents can help to encourage Joy of Learning by not over-emphasising academic performances, and to focus on your child’s learning journey, rather than compare them to others.

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Whatever time we free up for our students, parents as our key partners in this journey play an important role in ensuring the success of these changes. For instance, parents should not fill up the freed time with extra practice and drilling, tuition and enrichment. This actually add to the stress. We do not want a situation

• f on top of school worksheets, there are tuition worksheets and even parent ’s

worksheets, as some students have said. We know that many of you, do this out of care and concern, but these actions could unintentionally add to the stress for our

• children. There is room for parents to step back and give our children space to

explore and play. So let us all see these changes as time returned to the schools for students to deepen their learning, and space for more holistic development so that students can self-discover, and focus on mastery of learning instead of grades. Let ’s prepare every child for the test of life, and not just a life of tests, and it is with your support that we can truly create the time and space for our children to be prepared for what really matters.

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Presenter’s Notes:

• Thus we need strong partnership from you to venture into this journey of

educating our young.

• Family time is important in fostering strong bonds to support your child’s

character development.

• Y
• u can help your child develop social and emotional skills by being involved in

your child’s learning experiences.

• Lastly, encouragement from you helps to build confidence and resilience in your

child.

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If you are need to contact the teachers, please do so between 7 am and 6 pm, as they too will need rest time and spend time with their loved ones., unless it is for emergency such as medical issues. And if you email them, please allow for at least

• ne day of response time.

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