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Jump from C to A in 2 months!
“It was a blistering hot day.”
Most students start their composition with this. It’s totally fine, until you receive feedback that 15 other classmates are using the same opening; your child needs to write more.
The problem becomes more serious when the only form of practice in school is simply mindless drilling through exam papers, which is ineffective in helping your child develop his/her vocabulary, comprehension skills or writing skills.
In some cases, schools and tuition centres have in place a book-borrowing practice that requires students to keep a book count in their bid to encourage more reading. But how sure are you that your child is diligently reading the books and if it even helps improve their English at all?
Well, it doesn’t have to be like this. What if there’s a way to help your child:
Rebecca started with Knowledge Trail after P5. Her English's grade was borderline and her confidence was low. After about 3 months with Charissa, I can see that her grades, interest and confidence in English grew. Her English has improved from 'C' to 'A' in PSLE. Thank you Knowledge Trail for not just helping her improve her grades, but also increase her interest and confidence in the subjects.
Mrs Christina Chay, Rebecca Chay’s Mother, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School
Mary Joyclyn De Borja, CHIJ Toa Payoh
In Sec 2, after having experience success with Math, my parents and I decided to give English lessons a try as I had difficulties in comprehension and summary writing. I really saw the improvement of English results in just ten lessons right before the year-end examinations. For the very first time in secondary school, I achieved an A2 for English. It used to be my weakest subject, but now it is my strongest subject.
Mary Joyclyn De Borja, CHIJ Toa Payoh
After joining Knowledge Trail, I have become better at understanding and answering questions that I used to have difficulties in because I am more equipped with the important skills. I have also gained more inspiration in doing my composition after attending KTLC’s English Classes. My English grades have improved from B4 to A2 after attending the lessons.
Leow Sze Theng Jolyn, Yishun Town Secondary School
To score an A or A* in English, your child will need to master four essential language skills—Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. To achieve this, we have come up with our very own Integrated English Learning Framework—The 3Cs, which takes reference from the Balanced Literacy Approach (California Department of Education, 1996; Honig 1996) and our experience in working with over 1,000 students in some of the top schools in Singapore.
To score an A or A* in English, your child will need to master four essential language skills—Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. To achieve this, we have come up with our very own Integrated English Learning Framework—The 3Cs, which takes reference from the Balanced Literacy Approach (California Department of Education, 1996; Honig 1996) and our experience in working with over 1,000 students in some of the top schools in Singapore.
Comprehension of the world around them. We get your child to read actively (beyond text skimming or keeping a book count) in order to equip them with skills necessary for communication. This includes giving him/her an extensive exposure to reading various text genres and listening to real audio and visual recordings, such as TED Talks, speeches, even snippets of Pixar films for the younger ones.
Coherence in thoughts. Besides helping your child acquire new information and knowledge, we also create a learning environment with ample opportunities for him/her to articulate their thoughts and opinions, such as during class discussions and storyline planning for composition, which in turn, will strengthen their comprehension skills, writing skills and oral skills.
Creative in written and oral expression. We want to develop our students to have their own personal voice in their writing and speech, and to do this, we teach students our very own proprietary Thinking Structures such as S-E-C for reading narrative text, 3 Golden Questions and TaME for Visual Text to guide them in annotation as they read a passage, look at a visual text or watch a video.
The good news is, even if your child doesn’t read, he/she can still master the 3Cs under our closely-guided teaching. Needless to say, his/her English grades will finally improve!
Comprehension of the world around them.
We get your child to read actively (beyond text skimming or keeping a book count) in order to equip them with skills necessary for communication. This includes giving him/her an extensive exposure to reading various text genres and listening to real audio and visual recordings, such as TED Talks, speeches, even snippets of Pixar films for the younger ones.
Coherence in thoughts.
Besides helping your child acquire new information and knowledge, we also create a learning environment with ample opportunities for him/her to articulate their thoughts and opinions, such as during class discussions and storyline planning for composition, which in turn, will strengthen their comprehension skills, writing skills and oral skills.
Creative in written and oral expression.
We want to develop our students to have their own personal voice in their writing and speech, and to do this, we teach students our very own proprietary Thinking Structures such as S-E-C for reading narrative text, 3 Golden Questions and TaME for Visual Text to guide them in annotation as they read a passage, look at a visual text or watch a video.
The good news is, even if your child doesn’t read, he/she can still master the 3Cs under our closely-guided teaching. Needless to say, his/her English grades will finally improve!
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
Dr Seuss
Upper Primary
Some kids breeze through Lower Primary English easily. But when it comes to Upper Primary, they often experience a sharp increase in difficulty. You may have seen a drastic drop in their grades because of the steep learning curve. Help your child learn the techniques to study effectively for English so that when it comes to PSLE, you won’t have to panic because the foundations have been laid for your child‘s success.
Lower Secondary
If Primary level English is a walk in the park, then Secondary level English will be a climb up the mountain. Unprepared, the higher demands of the new syllabus and exam format will really stress out any Secondary 1 or 2 student. Building a strong foundation certainly helps to ease them into Lower Secondary levels and gives them an edge over their peers.
Upper Secondary
Overloading content and assessments are common when exams are near. Not to mention at the end of Secondary education, it is the national exam that will determine your child’s future. A poor English grade will eventually pull down your child’s L1R5 or L1R2B2 score, making it difficult to enter his/her ideal Junior College or Polytechnic courses. With our help, it’s not too late to improve their grades.
Taught By Ex-MOE Teachers
All our teachers have over a decade of teaching experience in MOE schools and are constantly updating themselves on the latest MOE syllabus. We meticulously plan each and every lesson from scratch, right down to what video, quiz or artifact to use as the teaching topic of the day
Easy-to-Remember Building Blocks
For example, to help students plan their essays, we teach them our 3-Step Writing Guide. Students are also armed with the ultimate Visual Writer Toolbox which includes SAF Beginnings, FAH Description, ARSq development and GPS Editing. We also teach our very own PEERS Strategy to ensure that your child never runs out of things to say. By the end of our lessons, he/she will be equipped with the important tools and techniques to score for English.
1-to-1 Constructive Feedback
“Elaborate” “Rephrase” “Wrong use”. It’s common for teachers/tutors to leave brief remarks on papers. But without further explanation or guidance, most children have no idea where or how to improve their work. That’s why our students are given a few rounds of 1-to-1 feedback and the opportunity to redraft their work based on each critique. We’ve found that, by pointing out these 3 things—why it is incorrect, what the correct way is and why—the chances of students repeating the same mistakes drop by 90%! As a result, they breeze through most questions during exams.
Mrs Lydia, Hailey’s Mother
Rachel has attained an ‘A’ in English in the recent PSLE. We were both very happy when we saw the ‘A’. I really would like to thank Mrs Charissa Tan for helping her in preparing for the exams. Your patience and concern to share her progress with me has enabled me to guide her when she was at home. She has made great improvements in her composition and tackling of comprehension open ended questions. Your pointers and weekly readings exposed her to different genres and also helped her to be more reflective in what she reads.
Mrs Irene Wong, Rachel Wong’s Grandma, Marymount Convent School
Mrs Vivian Tan, Erin’s Mother, CHIJ OLQP
Erin has been attending English lessons at Knowledge Trail Learning Centre since 2013, when she was in Primary 3. She was an average student then. Under Charissa’s tutelage, Erin has benefitted and her grades have improved tremendously. She managed to score ‘A’ for her Prelim in P6. Charissa is very helpful and patient, Erin can always approach her whenever she faces challenging questions that she could not solve. They constantly motivate and encourage her to do her best and believe in herself. Thank you very much for helping our girl, Erin!
Mrs Vivian Tan, Erin’s Mother, CHIJ OLQP
Mrs. Charissa Tan
Mrs. Charissa Tan
Founder & Master Teacher (English)
Founder & Master Teacher (English)
Mrs. Charissa Tan is an experienced MOE teacher who has 9 years of teaching experience in various schools such as Beatty Secondary School, Orchid Park Secondary School and Singapore Chinese Girls School (Secondary) before becoming the Principal English Coach at Knowledge Trail Learning Centre in 2010. Mrs Tan specialises in helping students gain greater confidence in their English Language skills by seeking out creative and innovative teaching methods to engage and inspire her students. She is also the author of the Scan and Learn series: Upper Secondary English Editing assessment book, which is currently used in a number of Secondary schools in Singapore and has helped students get much higher marks in the Editing section in the English GCE ‘O’ Level Examinations.
Mrs. Charissa Tan is an experienced MOE teacher who has 9 years of teaching experience in various schools such as Beatty Secondary School, Orchid Park Secondary School and Singapore Chinese Girls School (Secondary) before becoming the Principal English Coach at Knowledge Trail Learning Centre in 2010. Mrs Tan specialises in helping students gain greater confidence in their English Language skills by seeking out creative and innovative teaching methods to engage and inspire her students. She is also the author of the Scan and Learn series: Upper Secondary English Editing assessment book, which is currently used in a number of Secondary schools in Singapore and has helped students get much higher marks in the Editing section in the English GCE ‘O’ Level Examinations.
Mr. Rizal Jailani
Mr. Rizal Jailani
Former Head of Department (English), North View Primary School (2003-2014)
Former Head of Department (English), North View Primary School (2003-2014)
With 12 years of MOE teaching experience under his belt, Mr Rizal has the ability to customize his approach to teaching to meet the needs of high-achieving pupils as well as those who need more help in reinforcing the foundations of subject mastery. He has taught English, Math and Science at Upper Primary levels, of which 7 years were spent teaching Primary 6 classes. His appointment as the Former Subject Head (ICT) has also paved the way for incorporating ICT in his lessons, making every lesson more interactive and effective for his students.
With 12 years of MOE teaching experience under his belt, Mr Rizal has the ability to customize his approach to teaching to meet the needs of high-achieving pupils as well as those who need more help in reinforcing the foundations of subject mastery. He has taught English, Math and Science at Upper Primary levels, of which 7 years were spent teaching Primary 6 classes. His appointment as the Former Subject Head (ICT) has also paved the way for incorporating ICT in his lessons, making every lesson more interactive and effective for his students.
Established in 2009, Knowledge Trail Learning Centre is co-founded by a husband-and-wife team, Mr Darrin Tan and Mrs Charissa Tan. They believe that every student deserves the best guidance in the subject they need help in through individualized attention. When taught correctly, every student will begin to reach his/her full potential, including a positive learning attitude and achieving excellent results.
If your child is struggling with English, then have your child come and experience our unique teaching method which will definitely help him/her jumpstart his transformative English Learning journey. More importantly, his attitude towards writing and reading will improve, which will ultimately increase his English grades. Not sure if our method can help him/her achieve better grades? There’s no need to second-guess.
For a limited time, we’re offering a complimentary 1-to-1 Diagnostic Assessment for your child, where you will: