What’s On Offer At Sports School At The Upcoming Early Admissions Exercise?

Customised Polytechnic Diploma Programmes

From as early as 2005, a year after the Sports School was established, the through-train system was put in place to ensure that student-athletes’ progress in sport would not be hindered by the national examinations. Student-athletes on the through-train pathway were able to bypass the GCE-O Level examinations and articulate into a post-secondary option of their choice available at the Sports School. Presently, Sports School offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme – with an option to extend beyond the standard two years, and two customised polytechnic programmes – Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) and Diploma in Business (DBIZ). The DBS, with a specialisation in Entrepreneurship Management, is offered in collaboration with Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) and is unique to the in-house programme at Sports School. Student-athletes may also opt for the DBIZ offered by Republic Polytechnic (RP) which has a focus on Sport Management.

The polytechnic diplomas are conferred by the respective polytechnics but conducted on Sports School campus, so a sizeable population of student-athletes have easy access to sport infrastructure such as training facilities and sport science support.

These two programmes will be open for application by Secondary 4 students in the Early Admissions Exercise from now till 24 June 2020.

To ensure that customised polytechnic programmes conducted on Sports School campus are athlete-friendly when compared with the equivalent course offered the respective tertiary institutions, unique timetable structures are adopted to accommodate the training and competition requirements of high-performing student-athletes. Key features include undergoing up to two modules per semester (versus the usual five), shorter lesson hours held during a specified period each day (to facilitate double training sessions), more flexible Leave of Absence scheme, and the provision of make-up lessons for those who missed class due to training and competition. Student-athletes go through the curriculum in bite-sized portions which translates to more digestible curriculum and fewer assessments at any point in time, as compared to the norm.

Jowen Lim Si Wei, who transferred from RP’s main campus to continue his third year of the sport-related diploma programme in Sports School, believes the unique curriculum structure helped him cope better in sport and studies, resulting in an improvement in both aspects. Jowen graduates in May 2020, four years since enrolling in the RP programme. The national wushu exponent took a year off school in 2018 to pursue his sport dreams. However, when he returned, he was able to continue his studies without any additional fees incurred during the extended period, an advantage of the partnership between Sports School and the polytechnics.

Additional benefits of the in-house programmes include human resource and pastoral care support. Post-secondary student-athletes have dedicated staff to coordinate needs of student-athletes pertaining to sport and academic requirements. Student-athletes receive close mentorship from staff who regularly check on their well-being, as well as their progress in both sport and studies. Progress reports are subsequently provided to student-athletes and their parents during formal feedback sessions, which are exclusive to the customised in-house programmes, to ensure that student-athletes are on track in achieving their sport and academic goals.