Programme Aims

Our L4O programme provides comprehensive preparation for the national examinations at the end of Secondary 4. Whether you are sitting for the Cambridge ‘O’ levels, IGCSE, or other exam formats, our customised and strategic approach will get you your desired results.

Each student is evaluated individually to assess his or her writing style and strengths, and advised on how to leverage them to excel at the types of writing they will be examined on. Those with a creative spark will be taught how to nurse and grow it, and others with a bend for logic will learn to refine their clarity of expression. Descriptive and narrative writers will learn how to be impactful within the strict parameters of a school essay, while persuasive writers will master the art of being concise and convincing.

All students are fed a carefully curated selection of texts designed to broaden their knowledge and understanding of both local and global issues, through insightful narratives and well-researched expository texts. With easy-to-follow answer structures and step-by-step guides to writing summaries and functional communiques such as emails and speeches, even the weakest students can get that coveted A1 — and they have!

Components

Narratives and Personal Recounts

Successfully construct personalised and reflective narrative texts, intentionally employing literary techniques to develop a unique writing style. Students consistently reinforce narrative elements and frameworks to produce impressive and personalised narratives.

Descriptive-Reflective Writing

Develop thought-provoking reflective essays that rely not on narration but intersperse vivid descriptions with insightful reflections.

Discursive Essays and Personal Expository

The fundamental PEEL structure is persistently reinforced, along with diverse and relevant organisational structures and text frames for a wide range of examinable topics. Students utilise a complete range of techniques and workshop various elements of non-narrative writing in order to improve the structure, logical flow, use of evidence, and overall coherence of their writing.

Personal Argumentative Essays

Students utilise a range of critical techniques to refine the structure, logical flow, use of evidence, and overall coherence of their writing. Frameworks for clear thinking about an issue or a debate are established.

Narrative Comprehension

Critically deconstruct, analyse and respond to narrative texts, including the use of language and literary elements. Accurately analyse literary devices, use of language, textual features and their specific effects on the reader. Paraphrasing skills and techniques are persistently reinforced to perform well.

Expository Comprehension

Full understand information-dense texts and accurately capture meaning in rhetorical devices and other textual effects. Analyse language insightfully and with precision.

Summary

Accurately and critically source points in information-dense texts in order to capture all points required. Paraphrase idiomatically in context and in a concise manner, employing critical examination strategies to ensure full retention of meaning.

Visual Text

Effectively analyse multimodal texts with insight and contextual accuracy, according to examination requirements. Respond with precision to questions about textual effects and language use.

Situational Writing

Create insightful, coherent and information-rich textual responses to various stimuli or sociocultural artefacts, employing various textual effects and rhetorical devices.

Grammar and Editing

Employ a critical literacy grammatical framework to understand the function and effects of grammar in texts, as well as perform editing.

Orals

Produce structured and impressive verbal responses that are personalised and include clearly expressed opinions, suggestions and reflections in a culturally apt manner.

Active Listening

Listen with insight, analysing inferences and counterfactuals, with varying globalised voices and diverse contexts, in order to accurately capture meaning and answer questions or annotate graphic organisers.

The Academia Advantage

Liberal Arts Programme

Texts are intentionally architected to expose students to a stream of stimulating and thoughtful texts with high sociocultural and examination value, endowing them with the ability to think and write with clarity for a wide range of examination topics.

Writing-Centric Immersion

Students are immersed in a highly productive and scaffolded environment with multiple thinking frameworks enabling them to produce a wide range of essays and texts that impress examiners.

Competitive Training

A competitive training culture managed in a structured and psychologically safe manner under the auspices of a 360 coaching approach ensures that students possess stability during a critical period, and are able to manage their own performance with self-awareness and understanding.

Critical Literacy

Students are well-equipped to successfully critically analyse texts, including their inferred meanings, textual effects and use of language at the highest examination levels.

Metacognition

Students possess awareness of texts, their abilities, and learning objectives in various objectives, endowed with the skills and strategies to allocate their time, energy and resources efficiently during high-stakes examinations.

Optimised Flow

Students successfully enter psychologically optimised flow states at peak performance, enjoying high-functioning mental states in examination conditions.