River Valley High School (RVHS)
Table of Contents
0. Introduction
1. Describe your school culture
2. Are there any leadership opportunities in your school? Is it competitive to get a leadership position?
3. How is the academic rigour? Is everyone fixated on results?
4. Was the it tough to get into a CCA?
5. What is the class size and gender ratio?
6. Are tutors easy to approach and open for consultations?
Introduction
This section is written by Teleschope
Founded in 1956, River Valley High School is a forward-looking educational institution steeped in history and eastern culture. One cohort comprises River Valley’s IP students as well as O-Level students from various secondary schools. To nurture in students a way of thinking and doing through designing and making, all students are given the opportunity to go through the Innovation Programme to be equipped with necessary skills and knowledge to view situations with empathy and in multiple perspectives so as to seek out and design innovating improvements to these situations. RV also aims to nurture in students bicultural acumen, moral integrity and people-centricity.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions in this article are from either current or past students from the respective schools and do not represent those of Teleschope, unless explicitly stated. All students have been anonymised for privacy reasons.
Q1. Describe your school culture
“ Earlier last year, a decision was made to open RVHS to allow external students to apply for RVJC. That’s why students may not be used to having external students.
The RV spirit could be described in 1 word: Participation.
If u choose to participate in many events, you will definitely make more friends, and know more people. Conversely, there are also people who choose to devote school life to studies, and so they will not have a very strong notion of what is considered the “RV spirit”.
RV is very STEM focused.
A huge amount of money actually goes towards the sciences, and placing ahead of other JCs will make u a darling of the school. There is also no shortage of STEM related opportunities and there are students in JC who have represented the school, and afterwards the nation, in science events. The top ones also get to go to the US for 2 months for an exchange.
Music is also something the school places huge emphasis on
but if you are a transfer-in student, you better be damn good to break into the music scene in RV, because there are established groups of musicians in RV already, and all the opportunities will go to them.
However, there are…
significant drawbacks to these, namely in the humanities.
History, Geog, and Econs are things that RV does not do well in, and for aspiring business students, or econs students, my advice would be don’t come to RV, because schools like ACJC, RJ, and HCI provides a more established curriculum for the humanities.”
Q2. Are there any leadership opportunities in your school? Is it competitive to get a leadership position?
“ 1. YLead: Designed to help JC peeps gain leadership experience (chairmanship reserved for council, but excos for all to compete)
2. Council: Too many. In fact, it is good that u are a transfer in student and joining council. Because there will be…
positions reserved for you in order to achieve diversity
But if you’re in council, some people will dislike u, as it’s linked to our school leaders, and our principal and VPs doesn’t have a very nice reputation in our sch cause they keep pushing out “stupid” policies, and council people are seen as the people who agree with everything. But if you don’t give a shit about these things, go for it. Council is a great way for u to get portfolio and teachers give u alot of inside info.”
Q3. How is the academic rigour? Is everyone fixated on results?
“Again, it is very personalized and different for each person. There are people who only spend all day studying, while at the other end of the spectrum, there are people who don’t really study. But generally, RVians care about results lah.”
Q4. Was the it tough to get into a CCA?
“ There are three types of CCAs: academies, clubs, and CCA
Academies: Humanities and Social studies Leaders Academy (HSSLA), Bicultural Leaders Academy (BLA), Science Leaders Academy (SLA), Math Leaders Academy (MLA). SLA is the hardest to get in, followed by MLA, then BLA(as long as you are in BSP) and lastly HSSLA.
Clubs: Clubs are like mini CCAs, there will be a trial, and if you are good enough, they will let you in. Some clubs are damn easy to get in, some are super difficult like Photography Club, Debating Club, VIA club
CCAs: Really depends. Softball is super hard because RV wants softballers who can win the nationals. Basketball sucks but alot of people wanna join so it’s competitive.
arts are not competitive at all, literally u can get in to anything u want. (Except street dance lah, cause they want people who alr can dance).”
Q5. What is the class size and gender ratio?
“ Class Size: 20 students, 1 teacher.
Gender ratio: Depends on subject combination. The physics intensive combinations get a lot more boys than girls. The biology intensive combinations get alot more girls than boys. Finally, the humanities intensive combis: one class of 20, maybe only 5 boys.”
Q6. Are tutors easy to approach and open for consultations?
“ YES. Teachers in RV are bae, super good especially in JC section. Legit the teachers are the best and…
you can approach them anytime you want
”
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