Singapore International School

LifeSharing

May I ask if someone can help to answer my queries about studying in Singapore International School (Primary Section).

• does the school fee cover the enhancement subjects?
• are all subjects taught by English except Chinese Language?
• any other fees other than the annual school fee?
• the standard of Chinese Language as comparing with IS and traditional local school?
• would there have Eng, Chin and Maths classes everyday?

Thanks in anticipation for your kind advice.

donutbaby

原帖由 irene_the_pooh 於 10-10-27 17:56 發表
I have a few questions about SIS. My son is only 5 months old, I'm now searching the information for his kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. As he's my first child, I'm totally have no ideas ...

I believe PY stands for Preparatory Year.  PY 1 is equivalent to K2 which is the earliest year of entry.  If you wish to apply, you should submit application after your child has started K1 as they require a school report (from Pre-nursery year).

SaBB

原帖由 mom2006 於 10-10-20 12:42 發表
I just pick up this old thread. Its nice that someone who is studying there shares what he/she experienced...

I admire SIS because I believe it can strike a good balance between academic training, d ...

I have visited SIS, one of the ESF school and also Renaissance College.
From what I can see is:
SIS:
simple classroom with table and chairs only, more like the HK local schools
Students do a lot of exercises/Worksheets in lessons. They have spelling tests almost every week. In chinese lesson, students would stand in front of the whole class and read.

ESF/RC:
There are 'home/play conrner' in the classrooms, you can see lots of students' works hanging up. They are not just simply writing/drawing pieces, but pieces of drawing with details and lebles like 'title-xxx', 'characters in the story- xxx', 'stroy begins with xxx', 'and then xxx' and 'finishs when xxx'.

We cannot compare ESF/RC with SIS. They are just so different from each other.

Step_C

On top of irene_the_pooh's Q1, I wish to know if SIS will accept graduates from KGs like HKPS international stream, i.e. Eng & PTH as the media of teaching? Any successful case here? Can they adapt to SIS's school life easily?

My daughter is studying N1 in HKPS(Ascot).  I wonder if I need to find an international KG for her or she can finish KG in HKPS(Ascot) if I want SIS to be her primary school.

Thanks a lot!!!

irene_the_pooh

I have a few questions about SIS. My son is only 5 months old, I'm now searching the information for his kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. As he's my first child, I'm totally have no ideas about choosing schools.

Like mom2006, I admire the well balance between academic and discipline in SIS, so I would like to get more information about this school...

1. which (kind of) kindergarten should my son enter that enables him to engage in SIS easier?
(Before I consider Victoria or Tutor Time, are they suitable for entering SIS?)

2. if the parents are not good eng speakers (actually my husband can speak well as he's back from overseas), is it difficult for my child to enter SIS / IS? If so, what can I do for him?

3. what is PY? I guess P should stands for primary, right?

4. when should I apply for SIS?

Sorry that many of my questions are so silly (like the meaning of PY), thanks for your kind advice.

mom2006

I just pick up this old thread. Its nice that someone who is studying there shares what he/she experienced...

I admire SIS because I believe it can strike a good balance between academic training, discipline and non-conventional style of schooling. Can anyone advise :

1. I want my son to join PY2. He will finish K3 in a kindergarten's Eng-PTH stream this year. The chance of such is high ?

2. I visited Renaissance College a month ago. Saw that students in P1 were writing alphabets up to 60, (while local kindergartens are doing simple addition already). How is the academic level of SIS when compare to RC?

3. Again in RC, I saw students were pretty relaxing in classroom. They were allowed to lie on the floor when reading books. An extreme from conventional local schools of course. How about SIS ? At the middle of the 2 extremes or purely international ?

Hope to hear some advices !

wongwong123

i heard from many comments that SIS is a  good school.

LifeSharing

I am very pleased to have advice from your son in response to my queries.

I agreed that parents should be along with the small kids as necessary in doing some chats at internet. It may be difficult for small kids to digest "properly" the messages that they have seen in internet.

You are doing an excellent example here, thanks.

iamfine

My apology if anything I said made you or your son felt unsettled.  I have nothing against your son or his school.  It's just that his English, which, not bad though, sounds like something from an adult.

N.B. I have edited this post to correct the tone, which I agree doesn't sound quite right.

[ 本帖最後由 iamfine 於 10-2-26 09:59 編輯 ]

harry_mama

I just look at this thread and see what information is given about SIS. It turns out that a lot of discussions about a boy - some good and some bad. Is it worth continuing such discussion?  

My Q: Where did the kids go to when finsihing their study in SIS secondary school? To continue Uni study in Singapore? Australia?

oooray

原帖由 一條毛 於 10-2-25 23:18 發表
Dear All,

I am Compsognathus's father.

I think some of you may remember I have a son studying in SIS. He is a P2 student. I am here to clarify the speculation in this thread.

These all happened in  ...

it is pretty sad to hear the discussion end up in this way.
On one hand, I do appreciate your son's contributions. Please keep it up!
On the other hand,  it is a typical example of cyber-bullying; perfectly showing the dark side of a self-called open-minded but merely a hopeless IS parent.
no matter how he transforms into any forms, using Chinese or English, any kinds of writing style, he is the one and only one expert with the best points in the world and everybody has to worship him. Otherwise, you should go to the hell directly.
In my mind, parents with such behavior are one of the worst quality persons i have ever seen.

一條毛

No need for you to apolgise. You are always of support to him when some others are questioning that he is an adult. This makes him feel much better!

原帖由 mattsmum 於 10-2-25 23:41 發表
I feel sad for your son as he is not supposed to be attacked by us adult in such a way. i think his english is good.

please accept my apology, there are mum and dads who are not good examples, especi ...

一條毛

I can assure you that you are not fooled! I just think that this world is too lack of trust.

[url=]\\\[/url]This little person's English is way too 'perfect', spelling and grammar etc., which you seldem see even among native english kids while they are still developing their language skills.  May be this shows you how SIS disciplines their children.  Whether it is your cup of tea is another matter.\\\

I take this paragraph as a complement. Thank you. However, I don't agree to your second last sentence. At least, I don't think they are over disciplined. I think this may be due to the fact that he likes reading, esp non-fictions. He has also finished reading some classic by Twain, Dickens, Hemmingway, and whole series of Roald Dahl. He even read the Bible although he said he believed in evolution not creation. However, he is no novelist (so calm down Edexp!).

原帖由 Mighty 於 10-2-25 11:07 發表
compsognathus,
you fooled me   but i guess that's internet for you....

mattsmum

I feel sad for your son as he is not supposed to be attacked by us adult in such a way. i think his english is good.

please accept my apology, there are mum and dads who are not good examples, especially when they said loudly that children should be punished physically.

一條毛

Compsognathus is made by myself and my wife.

I think you need to think striaght this time.

原帖由 iamfine 於 10-2-24 21:35 發表

This is funny.  A self-made 7-Y-O manages to get the wise kid to apologise.

But ironically, I am with wise kid this time.

一條毛

Agree! Otherwise you will drop dead before the school start. The Principal is a Singaporean and you will hear her speech with Singapore accent in the orientation.

原帖由 Bib 於 10-2-24 22:04 發表
I need to correct myself. I mean if any parents fear hearing the slightest bit of 'Singlish'...

一條毛

Dear All,

I am Compsognathus's father.

I think some of you may remember I have a son studying in SIS. He is a P2 student. I am here to clarify the speculation in this thread.

These all happened in last June when I was answering some questions about the school life of SIS.

http://forum.edu-kingdom.com/viewthread.php?tid=2132995&extra=page=18

I asked my son for information to avoid misleading other parents and it was the first time he knew I was browsing BK. The following was what we wrote:

------------------------------------------------------
My son is in P1 of SIS. Sorry that I have no idea of travelling time from Hunghom to SIS. I just double checked with my son. He said they usually arrive the gymnasium before 8:00a.m.. They then have assembly/silent reading. PY2 students will get together in the multi-purpose room. They may have a movie to watch. Lessons will start at 8:30a.m.. PY1 students will also get together in the multi-purpose room at about 12.00 noon and class will start at 12:30p.m.. PY2 students will go home at 12 o'clock noon. PY1 students will go home at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. This is the same as primary students and secondary students, but P2 to P3 will sometimes stay over at school for camp but P4 to P6 will go out of the school sometimes for camp. P1 and PY do not have camp. P1 to S2 will have more lessons for eg. swimming. P1 to P3  will have French lessons. PY have only Chinese and English lessons but sometimes English lessons have a bit of math in them. P1 have more homework than PY. Chinese is the subject that makes the most homework. Sometimes there is one week that has no homework (exam-week), then the next week has normal time homework (normal week of school). There is usually 3 homework sheets a week. My son usually takes half an hour at the most to finish his homework. Math has an intermediate amount of homework. They usually have math homework once a week. He usually finish in 15min. Sometimes P1 have E-assignments. Engish homework is very rare.


\\\ there will be more homework and tests and exams. The curriculum is not easy. It takes much time for kids to study. The pressure is higher\\\

That might be true but I don't think it is very bad at all. They might have exams but they have recess and lunch. Also, exam is FUN!-unless you are very nervous. On exam week the school day is cut in half. It is very easy to study-so WHO CARES??!! My classmates are very happy in school. The school teachers are very nice but you still have to be good! There are nice things to eat. PY have field trips. When I was in PY1, my class teachers took my class to Wetland Park. PY2 teachers took us to Ocean Park. If you like it, then you're in the right school!
P.S. This was written (including this note) by a 7 year old P1 child studying in SIS.


Disclaimer: From the 4th sentence, this contribution is my son's idea. He said and I typed. He also do the proof-reading. At the late part, he actually took up my seat and do the typing himself. It is up to the reader whether to trust the words of a 7 yr old child or not! 引用:

原帖由 sunflowersg 於 09-6-13 23:13 發表
Hi,
so the school bus actually will arrive ard 8:00am? do u hv any idea abt the bus travelling from hung hom? it pick up at 7:20AM, the travelling time is abt 40 mins i guess?

is ur child currently s ...

[ 本帖最後由 一條毛 於 09-6-14 23:11 編輯 ]

-------------------------------------------------------

Then we recieved a thank from Sunflowersg. He was very happy that he had been helpful to others. He asked me to open an account in BK for him so that he could answer some other questions raised about the school life of SIS under his own account not mine. This little kid wants to be independent from me so soon!

I think it may not be a bad idea since a student can give a first hand experience and information about the school life. Even parent could only give second hand experience in some aspects. I even think if Edexp could ask his best friend (wisxxxx, leexxx, dayxxxx, chrxxx, jamesbondxxx, jedaxxx, etc.)'s son (when he is emotionally stable) to answer the questions about the school life of GSIS and QBS would be very informative, interesting and helpful.

It was not until last week when Lifesharing raised some question about SIS that I thought he could answer. I opened an account for him and helped him search a picture of compsognathus in the internet (he is a dinosaurs expert!) Then he started answering under my supervision. This time, the answers were all his ideas and he did all the typing. I did not correct his English ( I must admit that his English is better than mine. It is no big deal. I speak with Hong Kong accent and it takes me a long time to write this posting.). I just double checked whether he gave correct information.

It was out of my expectation that someone query his identity (It may be my mistake!) and debating about his English ability and writing style just based on a few straight forward sentences about some factual things. I just can't imagine how we can answer these questions with有趣、有創意而又充滿童真. May be my English is that poor!

After reading Edexp's postings (I have to read them to him, since his ability to read Chinese, esp traditional Chinese is not so good. Yeah! It is another point for Edexp to attack SIS!), my son was very upset and hurt. He felt that he was not trusted. It took me quite some time to calm him down. I also need to teach him on cyber-safety and cyber-bullying.

We all know that internet is PG. This incidence even makes me feel this forum is not suitable for children. Isn't it sad for BK which is so call 親子網站!

Mighty

compsognathus,
you fooled me   but i guess that's internet for you....

iamfine

I have no experience with SIS.  My only (ridiculously subjective) concern  is that not an insignificant number of Singaporean whom I know tend to think vertically, and vertically only.  Ask them to be more open-minded and try to think laterally, they'd rather kill themselves.  But, are we HKers any better?  I'm not sure.  Many of us HKers are not any better, especially those who call themselves wise and claim to be expert in this and that.

iamfine

Exactly.  What's wrong with Singaporean accent?  A gentleman whom I respect a lot speaks with a heavy Punjabi accent.  So what?

Only losers care about accent.