It's the time of the year again! Another new batch of students are preparing to enter the next phase of education - Secondary School! Are you ready?
In the midst of all the frenziness in the education system, what should parents and students consider when choosing a secondary school?
Key Pointers
- Upon the results release, submit your preference list within 1 week. (Most likely from 20th Nov to 27th Nov)
- There are 6 slots to choose from. The sequence matters.
Tips for Students!
Choosing your top 6 choices from a whole myriad of 148 schools in total can be very very daunting. So here are some tips that I can offer and share for the students to better make their choices!
- Think, set, and realign your own priorities.
Think about how you want your next 4 years of your own life to turn out. At the end of the 4 years, how do you want others to describe you? This golden period of 4 years is a time when you will grow drastically, for the good or for the bad.
Put aside academics first. Think about your personal and social life. Are there things that you want to try out? Exercising? Making new friends? Trying new things? What had you heard from others that you want to try?
Visit as many open houses as possible to broaden your options.
Based the the previous point, you should have narrowed down your scope to maybe 6-10 schools already. Find out more about the school through their website and visit their open houses! Most schools are having open houses before and after results release, and most likely in the weekends. Go talk to the students and teachers there, find out more bout the learning experiences and CCAs too (Pro Tip: CCA plays a very big in your secondary school life, so choose wisely!)
When visiting a school, keep a lookout for these things.
Location and time of travel to these schools.
CCA Offerings - do they have something that you are interested in?
Affiliations - any affiliations to specific JCs? What support is given?
Pro Tip - Culture : to see the realest culture of a school beneath the surface of the CCA booths, head to the canteen and the library. Go see what the other students are doing in those places if they are not helping out in the CCAs booths. Most of the time, the behaviour you see in these places, reflect the most common behaviours throughout the schools during normal school time.
Do NOT put your current friends as part of the considering factors.
Yes, you may feel more secure while going in to a new school not feeling alone, but this feeling will fade away pretty quickly. Your friends may or may not be in the same class as you. They may also make new friends and form new cliques, and so will you! You may still be hanging out with your primary school friends sometimes during recess, but it will probably be only for the first 3 months. Don't put your life for the next 4 years at risk, just because you want to "stick with your buddies as best friends forever".
At this juncture, you will need to learn to let go of past connections and move on. All these are part of the growing up process. Ready yourself to start afresh, talk to new people, and make new friends. Everyone else are also preparing themselves too- everyone may feel shy at first, just like you. And it's totally fine.
Conclusion
Unless you are considering affiliations to certain JCs and you already have set your clear targets way before reading this article, all the other schools are pretty much the same (except for a few No-Nos personally for me, but I can't explicitly say it here.) So do your research and find out more to your best ability.
Of course we don't have the time to research through all the schools. We may miss out some options that looks 'decent'. It's alright really. Ultimately, it's not about your starting hand, but it's about making the best play with your hand. Just make sure to be your best self and be ready to grow and learn.
That's all for today! All the best for your results release and choosing of your secondary schools!