Direct School Admission (DSA) Exercise 2024

(This document is correct as of 18 Jun 2024)

Do you have a strength, interest or talent area we are looking for?
Do you think that Ngee Ann Secondary School will be a good fit for you?

The Ngee Ann Secondary School Direct School Admission (DSA-Sec) to Secondary One in 2024 is open to interested applicants.

Application for DSA-Sec can be submitted through the online DSA-Sec Portal. The application is free-of-charge and will be open from 11am on Tuesday, 7 May 2024 to 3pm on Monday, 3 Jun 2024. For more details, please refer to MOE website – www.moe.gov.sg/dsa-sec.

Think it Through

How do you know if Ngee Ann Secondary’s DSA suits you? The following considerations might help:

(i)            The Ngee Ann DNA. Check out what Ngee Ann stands for from the information on our school website. Do the flagship programmes and the Ngee Ann Experience excite you? Is it aligned to what you look for in your secondary education?

(ii)          Learning culture and rigour. What sort of learner are you? Do you learn well with technology? Do you want breadth with depth? Can you handle independence with discipline? Do you take ownership of your own learning? Can you learn in groups? Decide if our pace and pitching is right for you.

(iii)         Your strength, interest and talent area. Can our DSA programmes meet your needs? Can we take you further? How can you use your strength, interest and talent to enrich, build and serve the Ngee Ann Sec community? 

Parents and students are encouraged to choose schools wisely based on the student’s aptitudes and strengths, bearing in mind the school’s academic and non-academic requirements, and the programmes available to develop the area of talent.

DSA-Sec Talents Offered

The following talent areas are offered by Ngee Ann Secondary School:

Students who are successfully admitted to Ngee Ann Secondary via DSA are expected to (a) honour their commitment to the school and (b) to participate in the activities related to the talent they are selected in for the duration of the programme admitted to. For DSA talent areas associated with a CCA, they are also expected to remain in their CCA. If your child is not able to fulfil the DSA commitment without valid reasons, they may be required to transfer out to another school.

DSA-Sec Talent Shortlisting Criteria

These are our school’s shortlisting criteria for each DSA-Sec Talent offered.
Meeting all the criteria does not guarantee that the student will be shortlisted/given an offer.

In general, all potential students must:

• Demonstrate strong passion for, as well as motivation in the respective talent areas;
• Demonstrate commitment, perseverance and resilience in their talent area endeavour;
• Consistently displays exemplary character traits with minimum conduct grade of “Very Good”.

In addition, each talent areas will have their own shortlisting criteria:

DSA-Sec Engagement Session (Completed)

At this session, interested students can find out more about our DSA talent area offerings, through which we nurture our students in the diverse areas.

• Session: NAS-DSA – A School of Possibilities, A Home to Grow In
• Date: Thursday, 23 May
• Time: 4-5.15 pm
• Mode: Zoom webinar
https://moe-singapore.zoom.us/j/81033166746
Passcode: 525607

DSA-SEC Selection Process and Key Dates

Part One: Selection Process

All applicants will be notified and should check their email (the email address they used for registration, including their spam mail folder) when Term 3 begins. All shortlisted applicants will be invited to the school for a trial, audition or test. Students will be assessed on their ability to play the game or instrument, as well as their potential. Do note that you only need to attend ONE of these selection tests.

Students should come prepared with their instrument, equipment and be dressed in their school sports attire or uniform. They should report to our school’s general office and will be directed to the respective venues.

The details for the selection tests, auditions and or trials are as follow:

What to expect during auditions, trials and selection tests?

Coding

(i) Applicants are expected to bring their own writing material to sit for a test which assesses aptitude in computational thinking skills. Programming language will not be assessed.

Chinese Orchestra

(i) Applicants are required to prepare a musical piece of their choice and perform the piece.

(ii) Applicants are also required to prepare any major scales up to four sharps and flats.

(iii) Applicants are required to bring their own instrument for the audition. If they do not have their own instrument, they should arrange to loan it from their primary school. For bulky ones like the double bass or percussion instruments, they can borrow the instrument from our school. Please email the teacher-in-charge, Ms Rachel Teo Siew Lian (nass@moe.edu.sg; Subject: Attn Ms Rachel Teo – Loan of DSA instrument), to discuss the loan arrangement at least one week before the audition date.

Badminton, Basketball, Volleyball:

(i) Applicants are to turn up in their school sporting attire (appropriate t-shirt, sporting shorts and comfortable sports shoes) as well as bring along their water bottles.

(ii) Badminton players are to bring their own rackets.

(iii) Be prepared to play the game. 

(iv) Assessors will be looking at applicant’s ability to play the game and the potential for coaching.

Wushu

(i) Applicants are to turn up in their school wushu training attire (any t-shirt, wushu pants and wushu shoes).

(ii) Be prepared to showcase basic moves, splits, jumps etc.

(iii) Prepare up to two routines that they are most confident in. Applicants will be asked to showcase half of the routines. 

(iv) Applicants can bring their own weapons if they are showcasing that routine. If they do not have their own weapons, they should inform teacher in-charge beforehand to discuss possibility of a loan (dependent on availability). Email the teacher-in-charge, Mdm Nur Syifaa’ (nass@moe.edu.sg, Subject: Attn Mdm Syifaa – Loan of DSA equipment), to make the necessary arrangements at least one week before the audition date.

Part Two: Interview

Successful applicants from the selection process will be required (they will be notified) to attend an interview session.

Dates: From July till entire of August (Estimated, to be confirmed)
Venue: Ngee Ann Secondary School Conference Room
Time: From 3 pm onwards

Enquiries

For more information about our programmes and CCAs, please visit our school website.
For other enquiries, please direct your email to, with subject heading as “DSA matters: General” or “DSA matters: Specific talent area” to nass@moe.edu.sg.