Get tips to help your child at ST’s Smart Parenting PSLE Prep Forum
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The Straits Times Smart Parenting PSLE Prep Forum 2024 featured Mr Ong Kong Hong (right) from MOE. ST correspondent Sandra Davie moderated the session.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – To improve in mathematics, your Primary 6 child may find it helpful to redo old questions rather than attempt new ones, says a maths expert.
Dr Cynthia Seto, a principal consultant for mathematics at Marshall Cavendish Education, suggests pupils go through their maths workbooks and worksheets, taking note of the questions they were unable to solve.
“Is there a concept or skill that is lacking? Refer to the textbook, discuss with classmates or consult your maths teacher,” she said.
Dr Seto will be speaking at The Straits Times Smart Parenting PSLE Prep Forum on April 12, where she will share more strategies with parents to guide their children in revising for the PSLE maths examination.
Registration for the forum costs $15 for ST subscribers and $35 for members of the public who sign up for a free SPH Media account.
The event will also have a plenary session helmed by Mr Ong Kong Hong, divisional director for curriculum planning and development division 1 from the Ministry of Education (MOE). It will be moderated by ST senior education correspondent Sandra Davie. Parents who have additional queries can pose them during the question-and-answer segment.
Mr Ong will have tips for parents on how they can support their children for the examination, and how the young ones can thrive in secondary school.
MOE provides multiple pathways for students to develop their strengths and pursue their interests, he said.
Full subject-based banding (SBB) in secondary schools allows students to take subjects according to their abilities and interests.
“We have seen positive outcomes from full SBB, such as students having a wider and more diverse network of friends, and taking greater ownership of their learning,” Mr Ong said.
He emphasised that the Primary School Leaving Examination is just one of many milestones to understand how much their children have learnt and to gauge their learning needs for the next step of their educational journey.
“In the lead-up to the PSLE, I encourage parents to find out more about the diverse programmes offered by our secondary schools that can support and develop their child’s strengths and learning needs,” he said.
Running concurrently with the forum, which is for parents, is a PSLE English workshop for Primary 6 pupils to learn to make use of current affairs news articles to write compositions.
This 90-minute masterclass will be conducted by Mrs Soo Kim Bee, a former MOE gifted education senior specialist and master teacher at the English Language Institute of Singapore.
She will teach pupils how to carefully read news articles for their content and vocabulary. The children will also learn how news stories can be a rich resource to improve their language skills.
Mrs Soo added that making a child do assessment books may not be effective when it comes to the actual exams, as assessment books test pupils on a specific exam format, and they may end up repeating the same mistakes.
“While it may help some pupils scrape through a specific written PSLE exam, it would not help them gain greater mastery in the long term,” she said, adding that the better way to improve in a language is to read more.
Event details
Date: Saturday, April 12
Time: 10am to 12.30pm
Venue: SPH News Centre Auditorium
Registration details:
$15 for subscribers of The Straits Times str.sg/psle2025
$35 for members of the public who sign up for a free SPH Media account
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