But I digress. What I meant to talk about is the PSLE; yes it's finally just around the corner! The much dreaded first major exam taken by kids in Singapore, the cause of much stress for kids and their parents alike, and the inspiration for this blog, is but 3 months away. I feel as if we are headed towards a waterfall and there's little we can do but drift towards it and hope we survive the fall.
I actually feel both happy and anxious about this. No doubt it's causing us some stress but I'm also thinking the fact that it will be upon us soon also means that it will soon be over. And boy will we be relieved when it's done with!
But what would bring us the greatest relief is if Tai Pi gets accepted into the School of the Arts (SOTA) which she so badly wants to join. She went for an audition there a few weeks back and will know the results in early August. Not sure about this year but there were more than 1000 applicants vying for 200 places last year. Tai Pi said that many of the applicants were for Visual Arts which is the area that she applied for. If she receives a positive answer from SOTA in early August, she will only have to obtain a good enough PSLE score that qualifies her for the Express Stream (that means doing better than one third of PSLE candidates which is anyway the benchmark set for homeschoolers for a PSLE pass) and then we won't have to worry so much about the PSLE and which school she would end up in. This is especially important for Tai Pi as the MOE only processes homeschoolers' secondary school applications after they are done with the posting for mainstreamers which means that homeschoolers get posted to whichever school still has vacancies regardless of how well they may have scored in the PSLE. Unfair I know but that's the MOE for you.
So from now till early August, I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed and hoping that Tai Pi's talent and passion for art is sufficient to earn her a place in her dream school.
6 comments:
Hey,
U started blogging again :)
I still cant believe how brave you are. AND AND, I'd love for my kids to go to SOTA too. For Angel, quite likely since she seems to 've a love for performing arts. I visited their booth 3yrs ago at the MOE excelfest & d gals were so impressive. Most importnatly, they love gg to sch. And my kids' one time babysitter's also fr SOTA & she's awesome. The kids juz are so different - so matured, lively, 've initiative, well spoken & confident.
Keep us posted :)
Yvonne Chung
Yah and then I forgot about my blog again till I got your comments!
Very brave ah? U mean it's brave to go to SOTA? I think it's very brave to go to a regular school. HAHA! We r so anxious now, faithfully opening the mailbox everyday.
No, I meant brave tt u r homesch Phoebe in PSLE. Me too, I'd rather my kids go to sch like SOTA. I wish, I wish, they've pri sch. My friend asked me very seriously, "y would u wanna send them to SOTA?"
Btw, the way which area is Phoebe choosing in SOTA?
Yikes, I'll cross my fingers for her! I'd love to ask her how the audition wa. I didnt know there r so many kids (& parents) who'd wanna go to SOTA.
Yvonne Chung
Yah crazy hor? PSLE math is driving me mad!!!
She just opened the mailbox for the 3rd time today. No news yet. Getting more and more anxious by the day.
She has wanted to b a designer since she was very young so it's visual arts that she auditioned for.
If your child is passionate about the arts, then why not? I think many people are not familiar with the SOTA curriculum; they think it's just dancing dancing drawing drawing, etc. They don't realise that they cover the usual academic subjects as well, but in a way that is more interesting for arts inclined kids. Maybe these parents thought it's some sort of vocational institute but of course it's not, because you don't have vocational training at such a young age; it's still a very broad-based curriculum but catering to the children's passion for arts.
I think we r still in the sandwich generation where some can be really old fashioned in the way they think. I'm sure most of my friends r like that. Maybe if they know tt SOTA is listed in MOE as one of their sch, then they may start to understand.
Yvonne Chung
oh actually SOTA is not an MOE school; it comes under MICA. Anyway I don't think that is what deters parents. People here just prefer the tried and tested ways (i.e. better do what everyone else does) and also they probably have a mistaken idea of the SOTA curriculum. SOTA has open house every year; you and AJ should go check it out.
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