|
BY LIEW HANQING
CLASS size does matter. Just ask Bartley Secondary School.
By giving each student more personalised attention, the school has achieved a first in its 57-year history - it has been banded for the first time since the school ranking system was introduced in 1992.
Based on the 2008 O-level results, the school was placed in Band 9 - out of nine bands - in the Ministry of Education (MOE)'s annual school banding exercise. Schools in Band9 have an average L1B5 of 18.
L1B5 is the average aggregate of English/higher mother tongue and best five subjects of all special/express stream students.
Band1 schools have an average L1B5 of less than 11. Schools with an average LlB5 of greater than 18 are not banded.
MOE revised the ranking system to the new banding system in 2004 so that schools with the same average L1B5 are grouped in the same band.
A total of 60 schools were banded this year.
Responding to the news, Bartley Secondary School principal Mary Bay-Chua told The New Paper: 'When the O-level results were released,we did our own calculations and thought: 'This year,we may be banded'.
'When we knew for sure, everybody was really happy ' it affirmed the hard work of all the teachers.'
She said over the past few years, several programmes have been introduced to help their students both academically and emotionally.
One is a supervised self-study programme, where all teachers from a particular department are present to help students with their work - one class at a time - during school hours.
Said Mrs Goh Siew Shin, the school's head of the department (HOD) of Science: 'With the whole department coaching one class at a time, the students get more personal attention.'
She added that this programme yielded significant results, especially for weaker students, who benefit from the lower student-teacher ratio during these sessions. 'The weaker students respond almost immediately,' she said.
Another key programme is 'Smile at Bartley', a mentorship programme where a group of about 10 students from graduating classes are paired with a teacher.
Said Mr Seah Chin Liang, HOD of Mother Tongue: 'Teachers meet with the students regularly to understand them better and give them emotional support so they can better prepare for the O levels.'
Mrs Bay-Chua said the programme is important because most of the school's students are from low-income families.
She said: 'The mentors are teachers whom the students are already familiar with - these teachers are the 'responsible adults' in their lives.'
She added that the school conducts an annual exercise to make sure that teachers are effective in imparting knowledge to their students.
'The teachers are observed by their peers during lessons and given feedback on how to improve,' she said.
This, she said, is essential for students to understand their lessons thoroughly.
Another award won
While the school is celebrating their banding, Mrs Bay-Chua said she was more excited that the school had received the MOE's sustained achievement award for Academic Value-added.
The academic value-added award is given to schools whose students do better than expected in the O levels, based on their PSLE T-scores.
A comparison with other schools in the same band is telling.
Express stream students at Bartley Secondary have a mean PSLE T-score of 201, while those at other Band 9 schools like Jurong Secondary School and Compassvale Secondary School have mean T-scores of 233 and 222 respectively.
Said Mrs Bay-Chua: 'We believe that all pupils have the ability to achieve.
'It takes a whole village to develop a child - not just the teachers and non-teaching staff - but also the school advisory committee and old Bartleyans, who have been very supportive.'
This article was first published in The New Paper.
| 
