Parent’s Letter 2018

Dear parent,

First of all, I would like to wish you and your family a very happy new year. As you probably already know, I take some time at the end of each year to reflect on my own teaching and try to come up with new ways to improve the effectiveness of my teaching. Upon reflection, below are some adjustments that will be made in 2018. I sincerely hope these changes will benefit your child.

Use of online videos during lessons – Starting from the year-end holidays in 2017, I have started incorporating some video lessons during tuition. Students are required to complete some worksheets after watching the videos. This will help strengthen their grammar as well as improve their listening comprehension skills.

Use of news articles during lessons – For the new year, secondary students will be required to read curated news articles during lessons. They will then be asked to complete some worksheets and join in the discussion. Besides improving their overall language, the worksheets also help them to improve their question answering techniques, which are useful for exam purposes. In addition, such activities will also help strengthen their awareness of current affairs. Over time, students can develop their maturity towards affairs that are relevant to them.

Mini tests – On top of annual mock assessments, I will also be coming up with mini surprise tests for the students. By having more mini tests, I believe we can better track a child’s progress. Since these tests are meant to be surprise tests, no schedule will be provided. Of course, this also means that more feedback can be provided to the parents.

Repeat important assignments – Students who do not take their assignments seriously (e.g. fail a mini test) may be asked to redo the assignments. This is to ensure that important lessons are not glossed over.

Heavier emphasis on the importance of teamwork – Based on my observations and experience, many of my students are becoming overly self-centered. For example, when writing essays, instead of learning how to form coherent arguments, they base their writing on what “I like…”, what “I hate…”, what “I don’t want to do…”, etc. Instead of learning the best strategies, they only “cherry pick” what they want to learn.

Unfortunately, I feel that this approach does not equip them with the right skillsets and attitude to cope with school and life. Going forward, there will be heavier emphasis on the importance of teamwork.

Administrative matters:

Lesson attendance – For year 2018 onwards, students who miss lessons without valid reasons or without giving 48 hours advance notification will need to pay for the lesson in full. No make-up lesson will be provided. This is to prevent absenteeism with frivolous excuses such as oversleeping, sick without valid MC, last minute family gatherings, etc. As I do not collect a deposit, this is the only way that I can protect my teaching practice and I seek your kind understanding. For absence with valid reason and/or advance notification, lessons will not be billed and fees will be adjusted in the following month.

Payment reminders – Like many people, I sometimes overlook payments. Fortunately, most parents are very kind and make payments on time without the need for reminders. I personally do not like sending repeated payment reminders as I find them impolite. However, to ensure timely collection of fees, which is on the first lesson of each month, I may be sending message reminders to parents who have a tendency to overlook payments regularly.

I seek your understanding to the above.

Overall, 2017 has been a fruitful and rewarding year for many of my students. Here, I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the following students for achieving their personal best (in random order):

J.T – Sec. 1, River Valley High School, Integrated Programme (IP)

For achieving above average scores for the year (equivalent of B3)

K.J– P3, South View Pri.

For achieving consistently high scores for his EL throughout the year. (FYE 45/50)

J.R– P3, South View Pri.

For not giving up and doing well in his FYE (41/50).

R.K– P6, South View Pri.

For achieving her personal best in FYE (> 80%).

For scoring an ‘A’ in PSLE English.

J.T– Sec. 2, Bukit View Sec.

For achieving his personal best for the year (B4).

G.D– Sec. 1, Bukit View Sec.

For maintaining a ‘B’ grade for the year.

J.F– Sec. 1, Bukit Batok Sec.

For achieving a confident pass in his FYE. Good job!

J.S – Sec. 4, Kranji Sec.

For achieving his personal best in his prelims.

Z.Y – P6, Pei Hwa Pri.

For performing consistently well throughout the year.

For scoring an ‘A’ in PSLE English.

Z.Y – P4, Pei Hwa Pri.

For not giving up and achieving his personal best in FYE (41/50).

If you have any ideas of feedback, feel free to let me know. Let us continue to work hard to achieve even better results for year 2018!

Sincerely,

Mr. Darren Chow