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Sunday, July 31, 2011 @ 12:25 AM

The TES Experience (I) : School Curriculum

The TES Experiene (I) - Curriculum

Disclaimer: All opinions are based on own (& friend's) experience and do not represent the general opinion.

Alright, let's start the ball rolling. Before I begin, I would first like to thank Jessica for working on this blog post with me.

1) What's a school year like?

A school year is from July/August to June.

2) What time does school starts and ends?

School begins at 08 30 and ends at 1530 from Monday to Friday, excluding extra curriculum time after school.

3) What's the duration for a period?

A period is 50 minutes, with 5 minutes break between periods.

4) What subjects are offered?

Mandatory Subjects includes the following;

Mathematics, 1 period daily
English Language, 4 periods weekly
Chinese Language and Culture, 3 periods weekly
Science, 3 periods weeky
Humanities, 3 periods weekly
Physical Education, 2 periods weekly
French, 2 periods weekly
Elective Modules, 2 periods weekly
Art, 2 period weekly
Infocomm Technology, 1 period weekly
Music, 1 period weekly
Reading/Penmanship, 1 period weekly

5) What are Elective Modules?

Elective Modules are subjects that students opt to take and can be changed every semester.

For example, if I complete the German elective module in the first semester, I can choose to continue to "Level 2" German OR pick another elective module.

Elective modules that were offered to me were;

Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, European Studies & American History.

6) What is the missing period?

We have an whole school assembly weekly where the teachers & principal give out "Star(s) of the week" awards. It can be anybody in the school; it doesn't even have to be in the teachers' form classes.

7) How long is recess?

We have a break time and also a lunch time. Break time is 30 minutes and lunch is an hour.

8) How are class sorted?

Every level has 3 classes, consisting of 17 to 25 people. We split class for Maths, by standard and Electives, by subjects.

9) Are there End-of-Year exams?

No, but there are small tests (more like quizzes) to gauge our standard.

10) What do you learn during Art and Music?

During Art, we learn to paint on canvas, pottery and sewing. Every year, we have to produce an artwork to go on display, so it's pretty hectic.

11) What's Reading/Penmanship?

It's a period where the class sits in a circle and discuss a specific book or practice our cursive handwriting. We had to get an consistent (at least 3 times in a row) A for our cursive handwriting to receive a pen license, that allowed us to use a pen in our daily work.

That's about all the questions Jess and I managed to come up with. You can direct all other question to me on formspring here.

As for those who are curious, I took a semester of Spanish, Italian, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, and 2 semesters of American History. And no, I didn't get a pen license and my class had a mere 20 students.

Right. I'll most likely be posting the next three parts (yes, three parts) after Jess and I get around editing it. In the mean time, just tolerate with what we've answered. Bye, and have an awesome weekend!