This is probably long overdue. But would like to comment for the benefit of other parents who might be looking for this info.
I've 2 kids (P1 and P2) in MBS. I was an old girl who used to hate the school as felt that it's more for the rich. I am surrounded by friends whose parents are professionals (eg pilots, teachers,etc...) and are from well to do family background. I also told myself that unless I am doing well in life, I will never send my kids to MBS. I eventually did as the opportunity cost of losing a place in MBS is definitely high.
No regrets. MBS is currently the no. 11 primary school in Spore based on PSLE results. Frankly, I am a kiasu mother. Our weekends are filled with enrichment classes.
With the kids in the school and liasing with the teachers, I am starting to think of the school differently from how I used to. Especially this yr, I am very happy to put the kids in the school and felt that it was a wise choice. The kids enjoy going to school. No doubt some teachers are stricter than the rest and enforce punishment which parents might think it's old fashioned BUT I personally found them effective. eg. standing outside the class for misbehaving,etc... My P1 son now thinks twice about misbehaving and puts in his best effort to write neatly as he does not want to upset his teacher who has been teaching for 40+ years. I spoke to the teacher several times and she is a firm believer on discipline in kids and it's actually good as sometimes with fewer kids, parents start to treat their kid like "bao bei" and untouchable.
In speaking with the teachers, I also found all of them very reasonable and committed. Eg. when my P2 is not doing well in her chinese compo, iso telling parents that go fix the problem yourself, the teacher will run remedial lessons to help the kids. Through my recent communication with the teachers, I also realised that they are not lop sided people who only favor kids who do well. In fact, they value the strengths of individual child which make me touched. Eg. my P2 girl didn't do well for her SA1 chinese and she is in one of top class. Her teacher shared with me that the paper this yr is difficult and avg was around 70+ Though my girl is above average, but she is definitely one of the lowest in her class. She shared with me that my girl cried on seeing her results and she reassured me that my girl is very hardworking,etc... and suggested ways for us to help her. So I was really touched as iso penalising the child's results, the teacher is very encouraging. This differs so much from what I heard of some top schools where teachers ask the parents to send the kids for tuition to increase the scores!!!
Also the teachers are very helpful and are there to help parents who are keen to help their kids cope academically.
There are always such comments like oh the school std has dropped,etc... But this yr, MBS has come up with a new mission statement on their focus to be a premier school. The principal spoke to parents during P1 orientation that the school value the kids be it academically,etc... Through my interaction with them, I know they mean it and I am glad that the school is trying to focus on building on its long standing reputation.
This is a SAP school so kids do both languages as 1st language. They are very much expose to the chinese culture and they come back with poems, san zi jing,etc.... In terms of exams, given that it's one of the good schools, the std is definitely not low. Eg. there are some websites that has exam papers. My kids did the paper of one of the neighbourhood school in hougang and they can score close to full marks but MBS paper is alot more demanding. So MBS exam paper std is definitely there.