Learners Academy

To all parents, our popular creative writing workshop for Primary 3 and 4 students is here! Want your child to learn useful tips on how to improve their creative writing component in school? This is the workshop for you! Do give us a message to find out more!

Happy Father's Day to all our daddies!!

We in Little Gems Preschool would like to wish all our awesome daddies a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Apple's former CEO shares the secret to success that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates taught him To be successful, young people should choose a purpose-driven life, according to Apple's former CEO John Sculley.

Little Gems Preschool

The World Cup has gripped the world, holding its attention fast to The Ball. Three weeks of thrilling drama, that all came home, not to England, but to a climax, last Sunday. The French victory has rocked the world, a (mostly expected) result borne out of strategy, tactical ball magic and hard work that nonetheless made for a very exciting World Cup final.

At the same time, a storm is brewing. School teachers are ramping up their lessons both in intensity and frequency, worried parents are starting to seek out tutors (even additional tutors!) to coach their children, and preparations by the students are underway to tackle that demon: the national exams. Our beloved, yet much-hated O and A-levels.

Two emotionally-charged events. One that has already reached its thrilling conclusion, while the other has just started to gain momentum. With such a contrast in outward appearance, can parallels be even drawn between the two?

At first glance it may not seem so at all. The excitement and physical explosiveness of national teams from over 30 countries competing against each other greatly contrasts with the tame restraint of sitting down, poring over books, notes and worksheets.

Yet there is always a bridge, and in this case, the bridge is the community. There are a few kinds of community that are common to both, that being the community of fellow team-mates, community of mentors and managers, and the community of supporters. These are the people that have a huge influence on the outcome, due to how much time you spend with them. In the theory of Nature and Nurture, or Internal versus External, as it can be seen, not much can really be done to change what someone is. But what one has control over is the environment one spends time in, or the group one associates oneself with, and this influences oneself greatly.

At LA, we recognise this phenomenon in action. We see that children in school may not receive the required attention from a community within it, whether it be from friends, teachers or supporting mentors. We believe that a strong sense of community, trust and feedback is the way to success, and we uphold this through our practices. That's why we have opted for small classroom sizes that allow every student's voice and opinions to matter, and for close teacher-student interaction so as to build bonds and strengthen relationships - a real team builder.

In the end, it is the small, united team that knows how its individual members work and how to use them together that wins, more so than a big team that has little to no organisation. The World Cup highlights exactly that, and so it is too, in education.

LA - Towards new heights - together.

“Early in his teens we should at least put clearly before the child
the possibility of a drifting, easy life led by appetite or desire in
which will plays no part; and the other possibility of using the
power and responsibility proper to him as a person and willing as
he goes” - Charlotte Mason

A child who goes through the motions and does what is the norm might not be one who cultivates a strong will. The function of a will is to choose. Children should be given the information and knowledge, but also the time and space to digest it and make a choice of their own.

In modern jargon, it is known as helping a child to cultivate a strong sense of critical thinking. Here in LA, our educators believe strongly in this. That is why patience is a must for all our educators as patience is required of us to ensure that our students are given the time to focus, think, reflect and make the right choice...

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐀-𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐒𝐋𝐄!

Contrary to popular belief, it is not hard to write a composition good enough to warrant an A grade for the PSLE! Let’s take a look at the assessment marks format:

Content – 20 marks
Language – 20 marks

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝟐 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬:

1. Grammar, spelling and punctuation must be 𝗔𝗖𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘
2. Appropriate vocabulary is used with 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡

If we look at the 2 criteria for the language component, we can safely conclude that it does not take a student who won the top prize for the Spelling Bee competition to be able to do well! Many students have this misconception that an A-grade composition requires complex or ‘bombastic’ words and the good news is, 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 can be FURTHER from the 𝑻𝑹𝑼𝑻𝑯!

What is more important is the 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 of a student’s grammar, spelling and punctuation. That is the foundation of a good composition. Students must ensure that tenses used are correct, the spelling of every word must not be wrong and the right punctuation must be inserted accordingly. Thus a student should seek to first learn the rules of basic grammar and punctuation rather than spend time to memorise long bombastic words.

Now of course, vocabulary is still important but as seen from the rubrics, the key words are ‘appropriate’ and ‘precision’. This is where a student’s flair in vocabulary comes in, but note that this is a secondary objective. Let’s give an 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 of how students can use appropriate vocabulary with precision. For example, a student wanted to write about the protagonist speaking in a loud voice:

𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔:
Peter said in a loud voice, “It is time to go.”

𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁:
Peter shouted, “It is time to go!”

𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖:
Peter exclaimed, “It is time to go!”

Let’s compare students A, B and C. For student A, the ending punctuation is just a full-stop rather than an exclamation mark, that shows a 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.

For student B and C, the difference is between the word ‘shouted’ and ‘exclaimed’. Student C, using the word ‘exclaimed’, is able to more 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗬 emphasise the tone and volume of Peter’s voice. Thus, a student who has a wider range of vocabulary would have an advantage in this area, but just a slight one. So what is the moral of the story?

The moral is that in the area of language, students must first seek to understand the basic rules of grammar and punctuation and ensure the accuracy of spelling. Only when this is done, the student can then think about adding to his or her range of vocabulary to increase his or her ‘precision’.

We now look at the second component, Content.

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝟐 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬:

1. 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 of the essay must be clear and has a smooth flow from the introduction to the body and overall conclusion

2. 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 of content to the topic where the student can provide a clear linkage between the theme and the picture given

Students with a good command of English might STRUGGLE to get a good score because of their lack of ability to get the high marks in the content session. In fact, some of them might even write 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁, sounds familiar?

Another challenge for students to do well in the content session is to be able to come up with a 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 which helps to sum up their composition and because of this, students tend to end their composition abruptly and are unfortunately penalised for a lack of flow and organisation.

To be honest, one of the main reasons for this challenge is really due to a lack of time. In real-life, authors have lots of time to refine their essays and edit their storylines to ensure the organisation, flow and linkages are strong and coherent. But since PSLE is a test of knowledge against TIME, a main way to overcome this challenge would be to provide students with a composition 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 which they can plan effectively with and ensure that they stick to the topic and the essay is organised and coherent.

In LA, we have tailored a tried-and-test structure which has benefited many of our students, helping them to achieve their desired results. In fact, students who struggle with the composition component are pleasantly surprised to see a 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 in their scores after applying our structure!

To sum it all up, we believe that with hard work and prompt feedback by specialised teachers, students would gain the confidence to be a good writer and 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝑷𝑺𝑳𝑬 𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏!

The Hundred Languages of Children

How true is that! In a small Italian village named Reggio Emilia, the community came together after the War to endeavour to educate their children for the greater good.

Their approach stems from the belief that every child has the innate curiosity and competency to learn in his or her own way, thus the Hundred Languages of Children.

Here in LA, we believe in that too. Our pedagogy is one that does not seek to "put in" but rather to "pull out'... How do we do that? We do that by investing in 2 areas: resources and educators.

We seek to build an environment which is conducive and engage educators who are like-minded with our core beliefs.

If you are like us, who believes in the hundred languages of children, whether you r a parent, educator or anyone, please feel free to pop to our centre for a visit! All are welcome!

Reggio Emilia: The Hundred Languages of Children This photo came from the New York Times article, " The Art of Distraction ", illustrated by Rutu Modan. In the United States, th...

Never stop learning!

The truth of the matter is that for All students and educators alike, academic results are never the end in itself. And results are not something that are 100% within our control. We can study more, revise more and practice more but results are never 100% guaranteed.

But 1 thing that is 100% within our control is our learning! When we learn, we grow in all aspects, so never stop learning!:)

4 Reasons You Should Never Stop Learning Self-growth is key to living a fulfilling life and having a successful career.