'St John the Apostle' - Torquay (30th July 2008)

xsakurax · Post by **xsakurax** » 15 years ago

Hey guys, UK and US school systems are really cool! Especially the long summer holidays!

And I'm kind of envious you guys get so many days off, the holidays and stuff. In my country, we only get 2 days off for Christmas - Christmas day itself and Christmas eve, and for most of the other festivities and occasions, it's either one or two days off. School term breaks is usually a month or two.

Guess what, holidays doesn't entirely means we don't have to go to school. I can still remember in my high school days that almost every day (even though it's term break) we have to go to school for extra lessons, CCAs (Co-curricular activities) just like normal school days! Thank goodness now I'm in the polytechnic and that term break really means term break! Haha.

TullyBascombe · Post by **TullyBascombe** » 15 years ago

You live in Singapore, right? IIRC Singapore typically scores at or near the top of the list in studies comparing academic achievement among nations. I wonder though, what portion of your population gets a complete four year academic high school course?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 15 years ago

kjackson83 wrote:Is that a public school? I'd really like to see the U.S. move toward a year-round model; schools in Texas break for three months for the summer, a really long time, IMHO.

yeah its a public school and if we're lucky, we sometimes get a full 3 months for summer, but thats rare now-a-days

kthomp · Post by **kthomp** » 15 years ago

in the us children start school at 7 dont they?
i wish i didnt start till then, in england we start at 5 but many go to pre-school.
haha in england by the time 7 year olds in america start school, children in engalnd at the age have joined junior school lol.
the english school system is not that great, yes we do have a few breaks, but its all modular marked and so when you strt secondary school it all exams and stuff.
and with the weather being so unpreictable, it is hard for the shools heating and cooling systems to work, i know that where i live in hampshire many schools struggle in the winter.
but hey i left school now and am of to college in september yay.

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 15 years ago

kthomp wrote:and with the weather being so unpreictable, it is hard for the shools heating and cooling systems to work

Haha I didn't think about that...Houston's climate is disastrous in the summer, but I'm a warm-natured person and would probably fare better in the London fog than Houston humidity.

xsakurax · Post by **xsakurax** » 15 years ago

You live in Singapore, right? IIRC Singapore typically scores at or near the top of the list in studies comparing academic achievement among nations. I wonder though, what portion of your population gets a complete four year academic high school course?

Yes, TullyBascombe, I live in Singapore. In Singapore, we have a 4year and 5year high school courses. Basically in the last year of elementary school we sit for the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examinations) and we are streamed according to our results. Special/Express stream is 4year, and Normal streams are 5years. But if you do well in the Normal, you might get a chance to move up to the express, and if you do badly in express, you might move down to normal instead. I check up the Wikipedia and found out that about 24.6% of the whole population actually complete high school. I'm not sure it's good, but the numbers are gradually increasing, with qualifications getting more important these days.

Sometimes, it can be rather competitive and stressful, I must say. And everyone's vying for places for university. It's like from young, we are streamed into different classes which kind of grade us according to our academics and results.

xsakurax · Post by **xsakurax** » 15 years ago

I wonder how's the weather like in other parts of the world? Is the US states weather about the same in each state? How about England?

I think my country's the only one with summer all year round! How I wish to experience winter someday! Our temperatures usually range from 24 or 25 degrees to 31 or 32 degrees. Is it even hotter or cooler in your part of the world?

kthomp · Post by **kthomp** » 15 years ago

In England We never know what the weather will be like from one day to the other. It can be sunny one day and rainy the next. As we have such a variable climate changing from from day to day, it is difficult to predict the weather.
down south and up north are the cooldest places to live with the weahter normally no higher than 18-22 degrees but its normally lower than that.
central england has the hottest weather going up to 27 degrees.
England seasons seem to mixed up at the moment with snow falling in april in many part of england.
we have warm summers and cool winters and mixed weather in spring and autum which includes lots of rain.
but hey what ya going to do about it atleast we dont normally get humid weather, which i find the worst type of weather.

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 15 years ago

Weather varies all over the States. I live in the deep south of the country, so it's always hot and humid down here. In places like Massachusetts, however, it's mild in the summer and COLD in the winter. The central part of the country is dry and warm, while it rains quite a bit on the coasts. Predicting the weather in Houston is a thankless job, that's for sure.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 15 years ago

kthomp wrote:in the us children start school at 7 dont they?
i wish i didnt start till then, in england we start at 5 but many go to pre-school.
haha in england by the time 7 year olds in america start school, children in engalnd at the age have joined junior school lol.
the english school system is not that great, yes we do have a few breaks, but its all modular marked and so when you strt secondary school it all exams and stuff.
and with the weather being so unpreictable, it is hard for the shools heating and cooling systems to work, i know that where i live in hampshire many schools struggle in the winter.
but hey i left school now and am of to college in september yay.

When I was in elementary school we started at 7:30 and ended the day at 2, middle and high school we start at 8 and end at 3. But in high school, it varies depending on how many classes you take, a full schedule ends at 3 but a half schedule ended at around noon-ish. College varies, not sure about times, guess it depends on where you are going for college, what class etc.

I live in the western US in California and it gets pretty cold here now during the winter and painfully hot during the summer. We are experiencing a drought right now so its worse, plus we are battling countless wildfires all over the state

kthomp · Post by **kthomp** » 15 years ago

yeah i heard about that, hope your not to affected by it kevin.
in england most schools start at 8:30 - 3-3:30
whereas my old school is weird and started 8:30- 2-30

hope it gets better for you soon kevin

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 15 years ago

No im not, Im actually used it. Ive been on this schedule for 12 years now so im used to it. Hopefully once I get into college it will be better.

tcliffy · Post by **tcliffy** » 15 years ago

Elementary School for me started at 7:30 and ended at 2
Middle School at 9:00 and ended at 4
and High School at 7:19 to 2:43

Now I'm in college at the University of South Florida and I have classes from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Te other 3 days I have off.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 15 years ago

Very similar to our schedule, but you get used to it. Hopefully once I get into college it will be better, get to sleep in at least a little bit later in the morning.

Anyway, how bout we get back to the topic at hand

Anyone here who is attending this concert excited on going?

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 15 years ago

Big applause for the promo video on the splash page!