In 2009, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) International decided to make this programme available to their students. Since then, it has been gaining in popularity at a rapid rate. In fact, only a rare handful will be capable of getting into the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programme due to their limited vacancies. In 2009, the total number of slots was only 59. Over the years, after realising how popular the programme has turned into, SJI took measures to increase the available slots to 137 as of last year.

Although the number of students increased by more by twice since 2009, the quality of teaching has not deteriorated. On the contrary, it has seen significant improvements from when the IB Diploma Programme was first offered in SJI. The school reported that just last year they have attained their best results ever for the programme. 99 per cent of the 2012 class passed the exam, with an average score of 36.2 points out of the possible 45. To be more specific, every one in four students scored 40 points, which is quite a remarkable feat. The top student is reported to be Monica Layarda, who managed to attain a perfect score.

Bradley Roberts, the principal of the school, credited the students’ outstanding results to the commitment and dedication of the staff. At the same time, he also mentioned that it was the hard work of the students that got them to where they were. ”This particular batch of students included those who joined the school when it first opened its doors in January 2007. During this time, our average PSLE entry score has remained around 225. With this in mind, our results are truly extraordinary,” stated Mr Roberts. If you would like to read the full story, please do so here. As for those who would like to find out more about the IB Diploma Programme, you can refer here.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We do offer tuition services for the IB Diploma Programme as well, even though our website may not show it. You can always give us a call to verify the details with us.

“It might not be said out loud, but it’s the mindset of the community that disabled people are incapable. I rejected the job offer because I didn’t save all that money to study so hard for so long to become a telephone operator,” stated the 33-year-old psychotherapist. In fact, her battle to build the life she wanted began when she was only in Primary 1. After she teachers realised she wasn’t copying down notes from the blackboard correctly, they informed her parents.

“I remember breaking my arm when I was in P1 because I couldn’t judge distance. We were spring-cleaning (the) classroom and I was up on a chair trying to pull decorations off the door frame, and I fell,” Cassandra recalled. After consulting with various doctors, she was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, which is a genetic condition that eventually causes blindness. When she failed Primary 4, her mother wanted to enroll her into a school for the blind. However, she wasn’t in any way open to that idea. ”It was up for discussion several times, when my mum brought me to take a look at the school, but I told her, ‘Over my dead body.’ I wouldn’t be seen by the neighbours going up the school bus that says ‘Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped’ (SSVH),” she said.

She managed to go through the normal education route till she reached 14 years old. That was when she finally accepted the fact that she needed specialised help. Even when she was in SSVH, she refused to use the white cane that was given as she wanted to be view as normal. According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), students who have lesser visual impairment can still choose to attend mainstream primary schools. However, those who have severe visual impairment will be required to enroll into Lighthouse School. As for secondary schools, Ahmad Ibrahim, Bedok South, Clementi Woods and Dunearn are the four schools designed to aid students suffering from visual impairment. For more of the story, check it out here.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We provide tutors for both Primary School Tuition and Secondary School Tuition.

“It gives greater details and practical applications to the ethos of the teaching profession as well as creeds. So I think it is a good set of documents which will serve as a baseline document that would guide educators,” explained Mr Heng. It is basically a consolidation of regulations from the instruction manuals for civil servants along with the internal conduct guidelines of the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Just yesterday, approximately 40,000 children started their Primary One journey in schools. There were also seven new schools to cater for these children, most of which were in Punggol and Sengkang area. Mr Heng was in St Hilda’s Primary to share some tips with parents on how they can aid their children ease into formal schooling. “I had one secondary school student who told me that once she got 80 marks in a school, and the mother said, ‘hey but your cousin got 85′ in another school. And then when she got 85, her mother said,’ but your cousin got 90 now. How come you didn’t get 90?’. And she said, ‘I felt very discouraged after that’. We want to encourage our children, but if you keep comparing them with others, it can become very discouraging. Every child is unique and has his own talents and strengths, so take time to understand them and help them develop as best as you can,” reminded Mr Heng.

This year also allows these children to experience the new implementations that took place in 2012. With these new changes put in placed, Mr Heng is hoping that parents will begin to focus more towards their children’s holistic development. He also highlighted that another 14 school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs) will be set up by this month. Their aim is to assist with after-school care and to supervise the students. This also means that a total number of such centres in schools will be up to eighty. If you would like to read more of the story, you can do so here.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. If you are looking for Primary School Tuition for your child, do sure to check us out!

“Put another way, our principals’ key challenge is more than competing for the most talented students, or showing that our school is better than the next school. Leading nationally means understanding that we are an integral part of the larger school system and having the generosity of spirit to not just narrowly focus on the success of your own school, but to share and collaborate with others – to bring our entire education system forward,” he explained.

Over the past few months, a few former former school principals made the headlines for the wrong reasons. First, there was Lee Lip Hong, the former  Pei Chun Public School Principal, who was jailed in April for nine weeks for having paid sex with a minor. Then, there was Anthony Tan Kim Hock, the former Maris Stella High School Principal, who at the moment is on trial for allegedly embezzling more than S$148,000 between 2004 and 2009. This month also saw former River Valley High School Principal Steven Koh Yong Chiah being redeployed to the Ministry of Education Headquarters.

Mr Heng mentioned that, ”schools and society at large have high expectations and regard for the principal; for his work and for him as a person. Good principals know that the position is not about privilege or power, but rather, it is a calling to inspire a teaching fraternity, to nurture future generations, in order to lay strong foundations for our nation.”

Mr Heng also recounted his visit to the MOE Heritage Centre and how he was ”struck (by) how in the kampung days, principals were the village chiefs – reading and writing letters for illiterate migrants” and that “they were the centre of village life”. ”Times have changed, but principals remain role models. They must strive to play an equivalent community leadership role, helping the broader community understand the value of education, and explain what can or cannot be done,” he added.

He went on to talk about the implementations made to stop naming the top Primary School Leaving Examination scorers as an example how principals can translate policymakers’ “intent to effective change in the schools”. ”For instance, some of our changes have caught media headlines, but may not be fully understood by the public. We did not name the top PSLE scorers not because we are moving away from academic excellence or to reduce stress per se. Rather, it is to signal that the PSLE is not the end-all-and-be-all, and there is more to education than just grades,” he said.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Perhaps one of the more infamous incidents this year was the one at National University of Singapore (NUS) law school, which was considered to be a premier law school not just in Singapore, but worldwide too. Hence, one can imagine the shock of the students after they discovered that a well-liked professor had allegedly given top grades to a female undergraduate in return for sexual favours. In fact, this is the first known local sex-for-grades case. Tey Tsun Hang, a 41 year old professor at NUS, has been accused of receiving expensive gifts from Darinne Ko, a 23 year old student, in exchange for good grades. Some of the gifts include a Mont Blanc pen, an iPod touch and tailor-made shirts.

It was not just the male educators who found themselves in court incidents. Two female teachers were also involved in such incidents. The first incident occurred in a top school when the student started to confide in the 32-year-old teacher following a boating mishap during an overseas school trip in October last year. This eventually led to them having sex and oral sex at the teacher’s home. When the boy’s parents sensed that something wasn’t right, they confronted him. After which the school was alerted and the teacher was jailed for a year.

The other case involving a female teacher, who is also 32, is set to be heard in court next month. As of now, she has been accused of committing sexual acts with her 13-year-old student in staircase landings and a park.

Apparently, regular teachers weren’t the only ones involved. Two male relief teachers were recently charged over similar incidents with their female students. The first involved a 26 year old teacher who touched his 13-year-old student inappropriately and had sex with her. The second was a 30 year old teacher who has been accused of having sexual intercourse several times with a minor, then 13. The Principal of Pei Chun Public School also made headlines in April after being the first school principal to be jailed for having paid sex with an underage prostitute.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We provide Primary School Tuition and Secondary School Tuition for your child.

Upon enrolling into the school, students will get to do basic vocational modules during their lower secondary level. As they advance to upper secondary, they will then specialise in their ITE Skills Certificate course. Apart from that, the students will take another step further by gaining practical experience from industrial attachments. According to Frederick Yeo, the principal of Crest Secondary School, the school had received over three hundred applications for the two hundred vacancies.

“From the conversations we had with both parents and students themselves, they like the kind of curriculum we offer, which is a blend of academic learning with vocational training to provide authentic learning experiences that is not so typical of a curriculum offered in mainstream schools. Of course, parents have the choice to enroll their child in a mainstream secondary school. The setup of Crest Secondary School is really one of the multiple pathways the MOE has provided to cater to different learning needs and interests,” he explained. For the full story, do read it over here.

The good thing about this new programme structure is that students will get to experience the best of both worlds. As we all know, knowledge is power and it is something crucial that all students are supposed to take away after their studies. The students from Crest Secondary will be no exception. Perhaps the two things that allow them to stand out from students from other schools are their skills specialisation and industrial attachment. Knowledge is power, but at the same time, it comes from experience too. By having a taste of the real working world, students will definitely be able to have a much clearer idea of what to expect when they do eventually come out to work. Furthermore, it provides them with an advantage over their peers as companies would prefer individuals who have at least some working experience over those who do not have any at all.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. If you are looking for Secondary School Tuition for your child, remember do check out our website!

According to Brandon, he suffered from a lack of motivation during his lower secondary school days. He recalls failing his tests and exams one after another, but not being too anxious over them. ”I just didn’t care about my studies,” he said. Thankfully, his change of attitude allowed him to undergo an about-turn. He was so surprised when he realised that he scored nine points, placing him among the top scorers in his cohort.

He did mention that there were big changes occurring in his life when he was about to enter into secondary school. When he was still in Primary six, his parents were already going through a divorce. Regardless, he mentioned that this wasn’t the reason why he was affected in school. Instead, he admitted that his poor grades were a result of his lack of drive. ”I was just daydreaming at the back of the class,” he added.

During the middle of Secondary 2, he started to question his purpose of attending school. He felt that since he was already wasting money and time in school, he might as well go on and give it a try. This led to him burning the midnight oil in order to play catch up on the one-and-a-half years of schoolwork, which he barely paid much attention to. He decided to go through all his textbooks as well as the notes and worksheets given by his teachers. At the same time, when he still wasn’t able to understand, he approached his fellow classmates for assistance. Through this process, he was able to make new friends too. ”Previously, I didn’t socialise much… Problems were so much easier after I asked!” he recalled.

His friends also motivated him through friendly competition and heckling him when he attained poor results. ”We always had friendly challenges on tests, comparing our results,” he said. As of now, he has intention of applying for the Polytechnic Foundation Programme. This new one-year course assists in preparing the top 10 per cent of the Sec 4 Normal (Academic) cohort for entry into one of Singapore’s five polytechnics’ aerospace studies. For the full story, you can read it here.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. If you are in need of a Secondary School Tutor, do check us out.

This was one of the worst school shootings in the history of US. According to Lieutenant Paul Vance, the spokesman of Connecticut State Police, the gunman shot 18 children dead at the scene. Another two who were wounded by gun wounds passed on when they were in hospital. Six adults, including the school principal, were also killed at the school before the gunman was shot.

Since the incident, authorities have offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings. A couple of hours after the tragedy, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors. ”This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together,” said Robert Weiss, the priest, at the mass.

The majority of killings, which started at about 9:30 am, “took place in one section of the school, in two rooms,” Paul mentioned. According to officials, those children who were killed were aged from five to ten years old. The US media reported that the killer was Adam Lanza. Initially, the police had confused him with Ryan Lanza, his elder brother, whose identity card was with him when he went into the school. Ryan was taken in and questioned based on reports.

The other two victims included the gunman and his mother. Various news outlet stated that he killed his mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook, in a home in Newtown before driving to the school. Of all US campus shootings, the toll for this one was the second highest after the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university. This incident really rattled and shocked the rest of the world, many of which also offer their condolences including Britain and Singapore. Nobody ever wants to see such a thing ever happen, especially to young children, who still had their entire lives ahead of them including birthdays, graduations, weddings and kids of their own as mentioned by President Obama. If you have yet to read about the tragedy, you can do so here. You can also watch President Obama delivering a statement on the shooting here.

Once again, we at Home Tuition SG would like to offer our deepest condolences to all those affected by the incident.

Some of the more colourful characters included Jennifer Y, a 22-year-old Canadian lady, who had her country’s flag draped over her bikini-clad body. She managed to gather her fellow Canadians to sign and write well wishes on her flag. ”Canadians came over to sign on the flag when they saw it,” stated the Hong Kong resident. This year, the event drew a total of 40,000 people over two nights at Siloso Beach on Sentosa. The first session started on Friday from 9pm and lasted till 4am the next day. As for the second night, it kicked off at 8pm on Saturday.

There were also many others who flew in just for the party. Mr Ken Cheng and Mr Darren Low were two examples. Both the 22-year-old marketing executives flew in all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday morning just to participate in the event. Just like many others, they hung around till sunrise. ”It’s so good. It’s our first time here and we’re waiting for sunrise,” exclaimed Ken.

However, we believe that out of everyone, nobody could match up to Ivan Ngo, a fellow Singaporean who is studying law in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The 20-year-old has been attending the event every year since 2009. ”I skipped two weeks of law school for ZoukOut. A 16-hour flight and a four-hour delay just for this. It’s the best beach party in Asia,” he explained. He felt that it was totally worth it as he managed to enjoy three nights of partying, including the pre-party on Thursday night. In fact, he only managed an hour of sleep before heading back to the beach on Friday for another round of partying.

This year, some of the notable performers included English trio Above & Beyond, American DJ-producer Kaskade, Scottish DJ-producer-singer Calvin Harris, New York-based DJ-producer A-Trak and Grammy-nominated German DJ Paul van Dyk. For the full story, don’t forget to check it out here.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We provide Private Home Tuition in Singapore for students of all ages and levels.

This year, the initiative has already kicked off and NTUC FairPrice is going to give out more than 350,000 used textbooks to needy students. This is an increased of 30,000 compared to the 320,000 used textbooks which were given out last year. This year, the distribution centres are divided into three locations. They are Changkat Changi Secondary School, Yuan Ching Secondary School and Yio Chu Kang Secondary School. In fact, the priority students had already started their collection of books since Saturday.

According to the supermarket chain, the total number of low-income families that requested for assistance this year alone is 30 per cent more compared to last year. Just on Saturday alone, a total of about 18,500 students from low-income families managed to benefit from the NTUC Fairprice’s Share-A-Textbook project. All of these free textbooks were being donated by the community, which is usually made up of students who have already completed that certain level of education. The used textbooks ranges from Primary One all the way to Secondary Four. Hence, there is pretty much something for each of the different levels. For the full story, you can check it out over here.

Although this initiative has been able to help such a large volume of students so far, there are still many others out there who are unable to receive the assistance that they require. Therefore, NTUC FairPrice is constantly advising families to donate their used textbooks to the needy and less fortunate. By donating your used textbooks, at least you know that at the end of the day, you are actually helping out a fellow Singaporean.

This article was written by Home Tuition SG. We provide both PSLE Tuition as well as O Level Tuition for students in Singapore.