Recently, T1 had her mid year exam (wow, so serious! I know…..for real, OK?!). She is 6.5 years old and in Primary One, but she currently does Primary Two work. Why, you might ask? Well, that is just how her school operates. Sounds daunting? Not in the least.

We have been at the school for almost 1.5 years now and have been very impressed with it for various reasons. The first being that the end products of the school, being its students, have always impressed us. Every person we’ve known and met over the years who has graduated from the school is a polite, bright spark; and individual in his own right, and a talented all rounder after being thrown and trained in various settings within the school . Despite the many rumours that the school is TOO academic (and yes, it does have very good academic results in the country but so do some other schools), it is also TOO good in their performing arts, if there can be such a thing! Not to mention, they are also very good out at the field, high in the mountains (Mount Kinabalu) and in deep in water (diving expeditions)!

To make a clear assessment of the school, one only has to speak to a product of the school. That’s not to say that other high achievers can’t emulate them, but here, it’s like putting them into a factory for life success because from the word GO, these kids are taught values and experience a myriad of activities that enrich their schooling life . Academics really isn’t everything.

Or if you would like to see what the kids output, look at the quality of stage and other performances, quality of movies they make, quality of journalistic work, quality of innovation and creation of the projects they get to have fun with (such as designing their life size house as a group, 15x25x25 feet), etcetera…….etcetera…….etcetera. They really do SO MUCH.

Just to give you an example, 2 years before T1 started school, we’d attended a commencement at the school and were surprised at the level of professionalism! You would expect that in most schools, the best speakers would be sought out to emcee the event but here, every student had the chance of emcee-ing (they took turns) and they were ALL bloody eloquent! We were well and truly impressed (kids are trained from T1’s age, no wonder). Then we watched a performance, their annual production, and again, were gob-smacked. If you had the opportunity to compare their performances with any other school in KL, theirs are truly a cut above the rest. And I’m not saying this because T1 is there. You have to see it for yourself. Their performances are of professional quality (one you’d feel happy to pay to watch); in fact their West Side Story was far BETTER than the professionals from New York who performed at Istana Budaya! I am not kidding.

And throughout the year, there are dozens of performances (Literary Day, Rag Day, Story Telling Day, Cultural Celebrations etc), I really wonder where they find the time to organise themselves; having to train and excel in sports and yet get the straight As so demanded of them, these poor, poor kids……but they do it! One thing for sure is that they certainly prepare you for life!

The school is also about winning. They win in everything from global mathematic competitions to spelling bees to chess games to war strategy games to national swimming to top British Universities offering their students scholarships. But most importantly, they stress that although you must win, you must, MUST relish, enjoy, journal and LIVE your journey there. That journey towards the Gold. To me, that is such an important life lesson.

It reminded me of the high pressured work environment I used to be in. Although admittedly stressful, I left proud for I never knew I was capable of achieving so much. But why would anyone want to subject their kids to such a stressful environment? And here again, I will qualify, that the school is not for everyone. Some kids thrive and love it (and don’t regard stress as a negative thing), some get crushed. You need to know your kid and what he or she is capable of. Many parents throw their kids in with high expectations but if the home front itself is unstable, how can a less than confident kid flourish when everyone else does it better? A confident kid would strive to be better or accept that they may be better at A but he will be better at B. And then you have the over-confident kid (like my daughter) who doesn’t care that they are better because she really does know she is better, and cannot be bothered to show it. And that belongs to yet another post on how to bring an over-confident kid back to reality…..

The school advocates ZERO tuition yet many parents send their kids for tuition and enrichment classes, whether it be to get ahead or stay ahead, but I can assure you, we will not be having any tuition or academic enrichment activities for the next 10 years. I never had a single hour of tuition in my entire life, there is no reason why T1 should have it either. Also, the school themselves provides free after school tuition should your child be weak in any given subject so really, there is no need. If your child has not been summoned by the school for tuition, then your child is fine. It is only parents who want to see a score of XXX that make them kill their kids with tuition. The kids already come home at 4pm, are exhausted from a full day of school, why??? I wish they would just relax and let their children be!

Below is a video that exemplifies just one of the things that the school does with our kids:

I think you need to be of a certain mould in order to fit into this type of competitive, highly energetic environment that spins innovation and creates oodles of fun. I can see many students not thriving and it is those that get dejected who will start blaming the school for being too this and too that. No school is perfect, and many parents from our school will even disagree with me (for whatever reason, and I swear I’d be able to argue them down if given the chance), but if you want to expose your child to a school where teachers and principals have been around since 25 years ago (and a good one third of the school’s staff have been around since they were single, then married and now have their own grandchildren attending the same school), if you want your child to have an all round education (which is in essence a REAL education) comparable to one from the famed United World College (the Hubs testifies to this), if you want your child to be challenged, made to think, taught to strive and still be Malaysian about it all, then this is the school for you.

Gosh, I sound like their Admissions Secretary, don’t I?

I must say another comparable school option would be the AS School but that wasn’t an option for us because we didn’t want T1 to be in a foreign environment whereby she not only gets further from her roots of being Malaysian but the influence of foreign cultures at such a young age is not advisable. We are Malaysians, and we respect our elders.

T1’s school has a high level of discipline. Bullying is not tolerated, nor is rudeness. There is an etiquette list that is given to students and parents so everyone knows what is expected of them. Basically, from the moment a child enters school, the school trains them from doing things or not doing things because otherwise they will get punished, to doing things or not doing things because it is in line with the student’s own personal moral values (and this where we want our kids to be, though many adults fail miserably). And then in between, they do it or not do it to get tangible rewards, then they follow the rules to gain respect, then as they develop, they do it for the consideration of others etc.

If anyone ever wants to watch a performance or event of any sort, do let me know. I’d be glad to inform you of the school’s calendar of events throughout the year.

So the reason the Hubs chose this school was because it was the closest school in all aspects we could get in KL to replicate the school he went to, which was a GREAT school. Honestly, all you have to do is go to youtube and google the schools, one by one. You’d be able to see who does what in what capacity.

Of course, being a private school, not many people can afford it. There in lies the problem with the Government. A quality education should be accessible to all. But we shall leave that for another post. If the Government could get their act together with their education system, we won’t need private schools.

Oh, Lordy…..I got carried away and just realised I started with the learning of our National Language and ended up selling T1’s school with a passion!! Sincere apologies but tell me you didn’t gain anything from it!

So the story goes, that T1 got her worst exam result ever, 85% for her latest Bahasa paper. We never revised at all for this last mid year exam and we have not been doing any work either throughout the semester because, well, because I am a slacker Mom? Seriously now, where am I to find time to do any work with her? I’ve already told her, as long as she pays attention in class and ensures she understands the concepts taught, she should not need tuition. And as long as she can do her homework without my help, she should be A-OK. So all this while, she HAS been doing her homework without my help (I used to help her a bit last year, but she’s graduated to independence now) and I was very confident that she should have no problems. And she didn’t.

Except for Bahasa. And I talk as though 85 is such a bad score, right? I blame it on my weakness of being sucked into the kiasuism of it all. I try very hard to stay away from people who think scoring 100% mean they are amazing parents who nurture amazing students. By the time their kids hit puberty, they’d be burnt out.

In a class where 100% is the benchmark, 85% seems a far away score. I was a tad disappointed (complete shame on me!!!) when I looked at her paper and realised that she could have made 100% or near it, had I revised with her (on hindsight, that would have been impossible as we had relatives in town and we were doing daily hospital visits). And why would I even be disappointed? Again it is me being sucked into the kiasu circle!!! But she was happy enough with her own result and I guess that is what mattered most. She told me proudly, “it’s an A!” And she was right.

The Hubs came home that evening and T1 proudly told him that she had 99% for Math and Science, and 85% for Bahasa. We have not received the English paper yet. And the Hubs said, to hell with the Bahasa! Who needs 100% for Bahasa? Then he went on to support his argument that he wasn’t a Bahasa kid yet he speaks every day now to the contractors in Bahasa. I had to speak to the school security guards today in Bahasa. So whilst we DO need to know how to speak and understand the language as Malaysians, do we really need to score 100% for Bahasa? Do we really need to know how to write a book in Bahasa?

Absolutely not.

At worst, through living in this country alone, one would pick up the language. Just look at my many BLONDE foreign friends who speak the language more fluently than me!! *shame* Thus, I really shouldn’t be stressing out about T1 and her crippled Bahasa. Really.

An education never stops. Education is all around us and surrounds the child. You only need to make the right connections. It truly isn’t about scoring 100% for all subjects, but if that’s the way you want to go, by all means. But never stop LEARNING……

I love you, my T1. You are naturally a beautiful child. BEAUTIFUL, in the true essence of the word.

Even when your smart ass mouth strikes, and I’ll forgive you for now as you are at Level 1 (of 7) of your journey in doing the right thing following the school code. Shit, the school has an entire manual for LIFE!!! There is even a topic on How To Make Good Friends!!! Now, if only I could sell this manual, because really, SO many Malaysians would benefit from it. Another GREAT topic is Managing Your Time and the number one rule of that is NO TUITION & NO ENRICHMENT CLASSES after school. Seriously, I’ll bet that 90% of parents don’t even know of this wealth of information and education that the school provides and thus lies a fault in the school’s system of dissemination.

Parents have to remember: It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest. – Alfred Binet, the inventor of the IQ test.

OK, I’m open to debates now! Share your thoughts, please!

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