1st Term Review

Time flies. My girl has gone to Primary School Year One for 1 term now. Here's a short summary of the first term

• Still says she dislikes school but no more tears


• Homework is manageable. Most days is 2-4 pages of Chinese Writing and an occassional other subject, Math, English or Malay. I wouldn't say its little but she doesn't have to stay up till late in the night to struggle to finish her work either


• Sometimes does not understand instructions in Chinese but can write well enough


• Teacher says she has no confidence


• School curriculum is still easy. A repetition of what she has learned in preschool


• Scores A-C for most school work


• They have Chinese Spelling, Ejaan and English Spelling once a week. English teacher seems rather slack. Hardly turns up or teaches much of anything. BM teacher teaches BM in Chinese Mandarin language.


• No tests this term. Surprisingly, the school has been quite relaxed. There were no books during the first 3 weeks. Merely singing, coloring and relearning ABCs and 123s. It was like 3 weeks of orientation for them. After CNY, books were handed out and thats when work began but still its not as much work as I had expected of a Chinese School. (I later found out from another parent that there were some assessments during the last week of school but my girl didn't know about it and didn't tell me.)


• Says that she has only 2-3 friends though I see her waving to many after school


• I have not heard her complain about any harsh punishment from teachers that I always here about Chinese School. She says her English teacher carries a rotan but only uses it to bang the table. Once, she said her teacher pushed a talkative boy out the door and closed the door but only for a minute. Another time she said the teacher banged the table very loudly till a boys pencils etc all fell off the table and the table almost tilt over but that is it so far.

There is no need for tuition for now. Her kindy teacher comes in twice a week to talk to her in Mandarin to improve her speech and Chinese Conversation. Its more like an Oral Chinese Class. Sometimes they just chat about school, sometimes the teacher asks her to read a book and then they discuss. Its very informal. There is no extra written homework involved. We had requested that the teacher do it in this manner so that there is no added pressure as in a real tuition class.

As for the rest of the subjects, Daddy teaches her Math and Mummy teaches her English, Malay, Science, etc when time permits. The rest is left to the teacher at school.

Thats all I can think of for now. I wanted to do this review so that I can compare it with the 2nd and subsequent term.