Sports are getting more popular here. A few of my friends send their kids to serious stuff at a young age - they call competitive sports and some have benefited when it comes to selection of their preferred secondary schools. Apparently it is through the Direct School Admission scheme where children could be admitted on the merits of their performance in sports.

My daughter is keen to take up fencing as she was provided a trial in school. It does not appeared to be a common sport like netball or swimming. Would anybody know if fencing is considered a possible 'popular' sport amongst the more popular secondary schools? Which would be the ones for girls' schools?

For girls' school, it appeared only Raffles Girls Secondary and CHIJ St Joseph's Convent offer fencing. Best bet go for the more popular ones - swimming, gymnastics or netball. Good idea to plan early because it does come in very handy especially when your child miss the cut-off point marginally... like insurance you know.

A friend of mine recently sent her son to many schools for DSA. Her son did not succeed and she told me she regretted because it really tired the son out. I think better if kids get into school through academic merits. If they can't, don't push too hard lah. To get into a school through sports and later have to spent another 4 years working hard on the sports whether the child likes it or not, that can be very tedious too. If only Singaporean less kiasu. Neighbourhood schools not bad what.

Whether kids use sports for Direct School Admission (DSA) or just for the sake of participation, it's a necessity in every kids (and adults) life.

Sports not only provides an opportunity for the DSA, it is fundamental in teaching real life skills such as collaboration, coordination, confidence, teaming, leadership, and following. These are just not taught in the classroom. Should your child be talented enough to gain entry through DSA then why not take advantage.

I do agree that enjoyment must come first in choosing the particular sport for the average little athlete but one must also remember that at such a young age kids do not always know what's best. Look at the Olympic skaters in China or the English footballers, the kids are scouted at 3, 4, 5 and 6 years of age. Will these kids know what's best and always enjoy the practicing and drilling? Not likely. Thus some times we parents must push them through the sport and play with them to foster the enjoyment part.

I also do not believe one needs to trade off academic to excel in sports, overseas there were numerous kids who did well in both without sacrificing school marks. Hopefully, the schools allowing DSA, the Singapore Sports School and the Singapore Sports Council will design a proper balance / schedule for these talented individuals.

singapore chinese girls school... their netball quite good... try it out

you should join a uniform group.

Do you choose the sport for your dd love for the sport or do you choose it for DSA to secondary schools. I think parents must do much reflection in this respect.

Also, if your dd passion for the sport is to grow and she's really talented. Are you willing to let her go to a place where she can be with her kind, that is the Sports School, where the best academic and physical support as well as good sporting challenges is given to her. Are you willing to let her make her choice. It takes alot of love to let the child choose.

Many parents with talented kids have the same dilemma. It's especially difficult if your child is also good in his studies. So if you daughter should really love the sport so much, will you be cruel and say NO to where she wants to be.

I'm speaking from experience. I think the craze over getting into top schools has gotten Sports, Art and Music i to become an excuse for parents to nurture them in these non- academic activities.

I've friends whose kids are obviously not the RI or Hwa Chong type but they spend alot of money to get coaches to train them. Hoping the kids can DSA into those schools. The kid's T-Score is only in the range 220-230. Sometimes, parents really have very unrealistic expectations.

As a parent of a student-athlete, May i suggest to you to let your child decide what she wants, don't choose something just for DSA. I've seen enough of parents wasting money trying to get the school coach to sideline to teach their kid so as to get a chance to be in the school team.

Hello Chris Rogers,

I'm happy to let your know that the Singapore Sports School has been doing an excellent job helping student athletes to balance their studies and sports.

My son is a student-athlete in SSP. I must say the. SSP is truly a school that cares about the whole-person development of a child. In mainstream, you get in via DSA but they do not invest in sports development for your child, basically it's more of exploitation of your talent. You just play and get medals for the school and you get placed in a 'sports class' which actually means a class for weak students. This is because, alot of DSA kids do not meet the COP of the good schools. These kids in Sports class are also treated like second class citizens. It's not nice but some parents wants to be tagged with the school name so badly, they will do alot of justification to pushed the kid in even if the kid is unwilling.

In the Sports School, they do not select you just on your ability to win medals, they look at potential and even if you are not ready to win medals, they spend time and money to develop you . Even if you should break your leg in the course of your stay with the school and you cannot do sports anymore, they'll still take care of you and your studies until you graduate.

The kids there has the privilege to stay in the school boarding 5 days a week. The principal and sports director live with them too. It's a very nurturing environment and sheltered from all the hullabaloo of the outside crazy rat race.

The student athlete live very regimented and discipline lives there. Discipline is so strict that they have sacked a few students over the last 7 years. The SSP has the privilege to sack students with undesirable behavior unlike mainstream which has to tolerate it. The government invest so much in these students that they want to make sure only the deserving ones are there.

Student wakes up 6-6.30am in the morning and their school, sports training, and self study and recreation schedule is all fixed like clockwork until 10.30 at night. They worked really hard, no free play of their time. For the love and passion of their sports, they don't mind. They enjoy being able to study, play, train and live with their friends. There's no time to gallivant in the shopping mall and no need to gather at Macdonalds to study together . Teens like to be with their friends and the students athletes are able to do everything together 24 hrs a day.

The school has a very good Character dEvelopment Program. It's all incorporated in the classroom, in training, in the school environment. They take in students for Normal, Express stream and the top 20% can opt to do the 6 year International Baccalaureate Diploma. The system is porous so as your needs change, you can move up or down the different academic tracks. This is why the SSP really cares about the students. They allow the flexibility, not elitist and always give weaker students a chance.

Sorry for this long reply. I chance upon this thread and I feel I should help parents understand more about what the Specialized Independent Schools SSP and SOTA do. They are not vocational schools. They have students who are from GEP and t- score more then 260 choosing to do what they
love. All said, one needs to have a sporting talent to get in. They have more than 1000 kids going for selection test every year.

go for some common sports like basketball ,swimming,badminton..etc.The child should like that sport to excel in it.u should make shure he/she is extremely good at that sport but also make sure his/her acedamics are good to be admitted into a good secondary school.

Thanks for the feedback. It is great having real life experience. I am sure your comments will help many parents reading this ....