Category Archives: Education

E-Learning Portal LEAD

LEADLEAD is an E-Learning Portal made available free to all Primary School Students in Singapore. Please check with your school whether this Portal is available for you to use.

There are many interesting lesson that you can take at this portal during your free time or during the holidays. My daughter enjoy the English and Maths Interactive Lessons on the Portal.

The Login ID is your child birth certificate number and the password is learning. You need to know the School ID and can be obtain from the school if they are a member of this Portal. Alternative you can also email the LEAD Help Desk for the School ID at helpdesk@LEAD.com.sg

Admiralty Primary School ID is admps

Parenting Workshop@Admiralty Primary

I attended a series of Parenting Workshops conducted by Admiralty Primary School for Primary 1 & 2 Parents. The workshop consists of Mother Tongue, Maths and Phonics. Mother Tongue Workshop is to enable us to use Hanyu Pinyin in learning Mandarin. The MOE has also setup a online website that teaches us the usage of Hanyu Pinyin.

The Maths Workshop main purpose is to inform Parents how to use Maths Models to solve problems. Gone are the days of just providing correct answer only. Drawing models will allow teachers to know that the student understand the problem. The model consists of the Part Whole Model and Comparsion Model. I will upload a guide by February 2009 to show you model solving Maths problem.

Phonics Workshop was conducted by a trainer engaged by the school. She mentioned that most of the students were not well trained in Phonics during Kindergarten. Nursery Rhymes is well used to train the students on the use of Phonics.
The last agenda was the Teacher Meet the Parent session. This session allowed the Teachers to explain to Parents the students learning process in the school.

But there are minus points of this Workshops and are mainly due to logistic problem. Admiralty Primary School are rather weak in this as compared with other schools. They have always under estimate the turn out and therefore there was not enough chairs. It happened during Primary 1 orientation last December. The lesson was not learned and it happen again at this workshop. The 45 minutes session per Workshop were not sufficient and the speaker has to apologized for this. Generally it still benefited the Parents as the speakers had presented their information well but do not have ample time.

Nursery Class First Week

Brian start his first week of Nursery class at PAP Kindergarten. Most of the children were crying on the first few days including our son Brian. This is the first time most of the children is away from their family for 2 complete hours. The Kindergarten has deployed 2 teachers to look after these 4 years old kids.
Brian has started to adapt to the nursery class and do not resist going to the Kindergarten now. It has been a tiring week with one kid going to Primary School and the other to Kindergarten.

Primary 1 Canteen Break

It is a time where all our children starts to grow more independent. Amelia has to learn how to buy her own food and pay with her pocket money. Admiralty Primary School has deployed Parent Support Volunteers and Primary 5 Students to help out the Primary 1 students to purchase the food and drink for their canteen break.

Parents were also allowed into the school for the first three days to see their children during canteen break. Many eager parents has taken off to visit their children during these three days. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the Admiralty Primary School Parent Support Group.

SNC00065  SNC00069

Admiralty Primary 1 Orientation

I am attending my daughter Primary 1 orientation at Admiralty Primary School. The Parent Briefing did not start at 8am as schedule and was delayed till 830AM. The children will be taken care by the school while we attend the briefing talk.
It aims to give us information on how the school operates. In addition, Parents are to work with Teachers to guide their children in the learning process. Gone are the good old days, where we just dump our students in the school. We will just blame the school and teachers if our children failed to made the grade.
Amelia enjoy the Orientation as teachers and others bring them for a tour of the school. They even got a goodies bag on their way home.

PAP Graduation Day

Amelia has spent 3 Years at the PAP Kindergarten and today was her last day at the school. She bid farewell to the Teachers, Principal and Students.
She attended a 2 hour party for all kindergarten students. Every students enjoy the party and K2 students will embark on a new education next year. Amelia got her Certificate and Kindergarten Portfolio today also. She will missed the memorable days she spent at PAP Kindergarten.
PAP Graduation Day

Primary School Visit

Amelia will be graduating from PAP Kindergarten this week. The PAP Kindergarten has arrange for all K2 students to visit the Primary School. It will allow the children to see how the Primary School life is.
They will see how students are studying at the school. It will also gives them an insight on how the school functions which will be very different from a Kindergarten. They will even be given a chance to queue up buying food for themselves. It will definitely be a good experience for all the K2 students admitting to Primary School next year.

Primary 1 Textbooks

Amelia has went to buy her Primary 1 textbooks at Admiralty Primary School. The textbooks plus accessories cost $137.50. She was unable to purchase full set of uniform as some sizes were sold out. The price of uniforms will be updated at a later date. From my estimation, family need to set aside at least $500 per child to start his/her Primary 1 education.

PAP Kindergarten Graduation Concert

Another major event, the Graduation Concert where Amelia will be performing on stage. Today and next Tue will be her final rehearsal together with the rest of the Woodlands PAP Kindergartens.. Every Parents has to pay $35 for their children to participate in the event.
She and others students has been practicing for the past few months and is looking forward for the performance. The whole Woodlands PAP Kindergartens will take part in the performance and it will be held at Woodlands Causeway Point.

House near to Primary School

Many couples who buy house do not consider whether the house is within 1km to the nearest Primary School. It is an important criteria especially for couples who plan to start a family. It is only when I was enrolling my daughter for her Primary School that I realise how important it was.

My house was within 1km radius of her primary school. It was lucky that she got a position after going through the balloting. In this case, all applicants outside 1km of the school were disqualify. The unsuccessful applicants will have to look for another school which has vacancy. Only 5 Primary School need not go through the balloting process this year. There will be more pressure in the next few years. There are parents who buy resale flat within 1km of the school to boast their child chances of entering the school.

Phase 2C Balloting for Primary Schools

The wait for the balloting day to come was a anxious time for my family. It occur yesterday at 9am at Admiralty Primary School. We did not attend it as I was working. Today I got the result that my daughter was successful in getting a place. I and wife was happy as it is a good neighbourhood school and it is within 1km of our house.
As previously mention in my blog, all three primary school within 1km of my house need balloting. When purchasing a new house, you also need to know whether it falls within 1km radius of the primary school. In this case, applicants outside the 1km are not eligible for the ballot as they have enough applicants within the 1km radius of the school.
I can sense joy for parents successful in balloting and sadness for those who are not successful. MOE will assign a school for parents who are unsuccessful in the ballot. I will not need to worry for my second kid as he will qualify for phase 1 registration as his sister is in the school already.

Balloting for Primary School

Due to insufficient vacancy at Admiralty Primary School, my daughter must go through the balloting process. It will be held on this Thursday at the school multi purpose hall.
I have check that all the neighbouring primary school within 1KM of my home has to go through balloting. The government has encouraged us to have more child but getting a vacancy in school is also difficult. If we are unsuccessful in the ballot, the school assigned to us maybe 2 KM away from our home.
This lack of vacancy has prompted some parents to do volunteer work at school which they are interested to enrol in. You must be a volunteer at the school two years before your child is due to enrol. The motive is not to do free volunteering but to secure a primary school position for the child. I wish all parents the best in primary schools that balloting is needed.

Primary School Phase 2C Registration

Registration for first time applicants in Phase 2C will start next week. Most of the school has already filled more than half the vacancy available. It will be tense for parents in this phase 2C as balloting cannot be avoided.
Parents who have done volunteer work for the school should secure a seat by now unless it is a top school. The government has been encouraging us to have more babies but there is a lack of school vacancy. If parents failed to secured a place for their child at their selected primary school, we need to depend on MOE allocation. But no child will be deny a place to study!
Wishing all parents the best of luck in Phase 2C.

Primary School Registration

Amelia is now moving to her next stage of education, the primary School Education. I think getting her to a school near our area will be a tough task as she can only apply in the Phase 2C. She will not be able to participate in Phase 1, 2A1, 2A2 and 2B which will start at the end of June. The registration for Amelia will take place on Tuesday 29th July 2008, Wednesday 30th July 2008 and Thursday 31st July 2008. We will keep our fingers cross on securing a place for her.
You can visit the MOE website to find out more on the balloting, number of vacancy, financial assistance available and many other information.
MOE Primary One Registration>>>

PAP Kindergarden Mass Registration

The PAP Kindregarden Mass registration will start this week for internal students and open to the public on 5 May 2008. Parents must prepare the necessary documents to bring for the registration for their children. The fees structured has been raised for the PAP Kindergarden and you can check it out at the respective registration centre. But PAP still remains the most afforable kindergarden education as it cost below S$110 for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents. Balloting will be held if demand exceed the vacancy available.
Please check out the mass registration details at PAP Community Foundation by clicking here>>>

PAP Kindgarden Fees Raise

PAP Kindergarden will be raising their fees structure with effect from 1 July 2008. My daughter centre will be charging S$110 as it is an Air-Con Kindergarden. There will be no changes to the material fees cost.
The reason for the fees raised given by PCF are

  • rising operational cost
  • retaining qualified staffs
  • funding training programs for staffs
  • acquiring resources and equipments

Families who have financial diffiulty can apply for the KIFAS(Kindergarden Financial Assistance Scheme) to offset the kindergarden fees. This scheme is available for Singapore Citizens or children who are permanent residents of Singapore(PR) with at least one member of their immediate family a Singapore Citizen.