DSA Matters

Current COVID Phase 2/3 Process (Updated 7th April 2021)

1. Please double-check with the SJI official website for any updates on DSA applications, processes, as this is still very fluid and changes according to MOE instructions for all schools to follow as closely as possible. https://openhouse.sji.edu.sg/st-josephs-institution/DSA or https://www.sji.edu.sg/admission/dsa-at-sji/direct-school-admission-to-year-1-in-2022

2. In general, do prepare to submit a competition video of the applicant playing against other school players in the official NSG competition. If this is not possible, we may consider sparring videos with their own teammates. Please don't send coaching videos or similar, as we do want to have a better assessment of their gameplay, movement, shot skills, footwork, attitude during play, service consistency among other attributes.

3. During the submission phase, results of the recent semesters dating back to P5 will be needed by the school. Do understand that this is taken into consideration in order to assess if the student can cope with the academic rigours for Year 1 and beyond, at SJI due to the pace and volume of subjects and depth of work required during their stay at SJI.

4. After the review of the results, certs and documentation and also the review of the video submissions, a shortlist will occur and the selected students will be invited for an online interview that will be set up by their current primary school and liaised with SJI on the dates and timings. The interview will be presided by the Teacher-in-Charge and a Key Appointment Holder working with Year 1 and 2 SJI students.

5. After the interviews, the teacher-in-charge and the DSA committee will further shortlist and invitations will be made in rank order of the shortlist to ask if they want to sign up and put SJI as 1st choice for DSA school. This has to be taken seriously. Saying yes to more than one school at this point will leave the schools not receiving the students that 'committed' a blank spot that could have been filled by the next student in the rank list as we cannot go back in time to offer an invitation the others down the list. We appeal to all parents to take this seriously and accept the school they really want and tell the others immediately upon invitation that they would not be taking up the invitation.

6. MOE will ask all applicants to submit their top 3 schools in rank order to submit officially in October. Changing your rank order after the earlier invitation/commitment at this point would result in the school losing a potential DSA student as we cannot go back to the invitation period as mentioned in point 5.

7. Then when the PSLE results are out, and as long they put SJI as 1st choice and they qualify to he Express/Special stream, they will receive a notification that they are posted to SJI. Welcome to SJI!

Pre-COVID Process

Process and sequence after DSA documentation is submitted and processed:(The following is tentative and subject to changes)

1. Successful pre-selected candidates for trials will be contacted via email enclosed in documents.

2. Look out for email invitation for Trials.

3. Trials will be held on SJI campus, based on dates announced on SJI Website and/or email sent.

4. Candidates to be properly attired, mentally, affectively and physically prepared. No further trials for those on MC or absent. If there is a clash of trials with another institution, please make a choice, thank you.

5. Candidates will be briefed on day of trials, parents and guardians will be informed when to pick boys up after the trials. We recommend complete concentration and no distractions for their trials so they can remain focused throughout.

6. Coaches, teachers and senior students will triangulate assessment of footwork, movement speed, poise, power and strength, skills and finally a 400m sprint. This will be done via the participants playing amongst each other and also with SJI Team Sec 1 boys to have some element of challenge in their trial assessment. Please do not come and appeal to say that your boy won all his matches and yet still not selected. The latter is not the sole determinant for the trials.

7. There will be 2 rounds, and some boys will be assessed to move to round 2. Those that do not make it to round 2, will be asked to leave or they can stay to watch till picked up by parents.

8. Round 2 will be consisting of 15 boys from the annual application list of between 45-60 applicants.

9. No announcement of rankings will be done at end of trials as we will need to use the time thereafter to work out the rank order and determine how many of the final 15 SJI will eventually offer. Most years, the general offer is not more than 4 boys.

10. A phone call will be made to parents of the final 3-4 boys later based on the timeline in the DSA application forms. If offer is not accepted or more time is needed, we will proceed down the rank order and confirm the first 3-4 boys to agree to the SJI Badminton DSA offer. Once offer is accepted, it is assumed that the candidate will join SJI if the candidate has attained the minimum cut-off for Express Stream nationally.

Rationale for 2 rounds is to streamline the better performing candidates and make the difficult assessments thereafter to shortlist the final group. SJI Badminton, overall remains a small CCA, and thus is limited by space(4 courts), training days(3 days) and coaches(1 coach), hence the need to be extra vigilant in choosing the best for the final list. Those not offered, but make it to SJI on their own academic merit of meeting the SJI PSLE cut-off, may have a slim chance of making Badminton CCA their CCA of choice, if not, there are other Badminton related activities that can be experienced as a SJI student.

There will be some disappointment after the first round during the trials and also after not receiving any word about being offered DSA spots. Please work with us to pre-empt and manage expectations and possibly make this a learning experience that they can learn from too. We teach our boys the same things when things don't go our way and ask them how best to manage the loss, disappointment and frustration. We believe the home environment and school can work together to do just this and more too.

We would advise parents and candidates to consider very carefully if SJI is the school of choice for DSA and being part of the family. Rejecting the confirmed offer by SJI for DSA, after confirming and signing the letter of offer, would mean SJI would have lost its chance to give this opportunity to another possible DSA student, leading to a smaller number joining SJI Badminton CCA as DSA students. We seek your understanding and cooperation with the above.

Please note that the above is only a rough guide and may change as the time draws nearer to the DSA timeline. The above process and timeline is based on what was generally practiced in previous years after several revisions.

Decisions made to select for both rounds are final and only determined by the Teacher in Charge on the day of the trials. No appeal whatsoever will be entertained. All DSA applicants who got through the trials will be ranked, even though they have been knocked out in the first round.

Thank you.