Gaining placement into local school

[marky]

Hello Everryone - hope you can provide us with some words of wisdom. We are a family who are very likely to relocate to Singapore for three years at the beginning of the new year. One of the things that is holding this decision back from being made and final is our inability (yet) to secure any schooling for our two girls whom are 6 and 9. We will not be coming on a lucrative expat package so will be unable to afford an International School so will consider the govt. schools. Our problem is that school websites are very lacking in detail and whilst all personal contacts by phone have been very polite, nobody really is able to give us firm information until later in December as to availability of placements. Our concerns are what is the likelihood of there being places available, will we get a good school, and are we likely to reach a point where a school is actullay keen to take our interest and run with it? We would like to locate ourselves somewhere on the East Coast but we will be open to other areas based upon location of good schooling elsewhere. Obviously this link in the chain is huge as will be the basis to our final decision and also where we choose to live etc. so the sooner we can resolve the situation and get some hard and fast answers the better. Thanks for any help. MARK

[prodigy]

Hello Everryone - hope you can provide us with some words of wisdom. We are a family who are very likely to relocate to Singapore for three years at the beginning of the new year. One of the things that is holding this decision back from being made and final is our inability (yet) to secure any schooling for our two girls whom are 6 and 9. We will not be coming on a lucrative expat package so will be unable to afford an International School so will consider the govt. schools. Our problem is that school websites are very lacking in detail and whilst all personal contacts by phone have been very polite, nobody really is able to give us firm information until later in December as to availability of placements. Our concerns are what is the likelihood of there being places available, will we get a good school, and are we likely to reach a point where a school is actullay keen to take our interest and run with it? We would like to locate ourselves somewhere on the East Coast but we will be open to other areas based upon location of good schooling elsewhere. Obviously this link in the chain is huge as will be the basis to our final decision and also where we choose to live etc. so the sooner we can resolve the situation and get some hard and fast answers the better. Thanks for any help. MARK

You should set priority in finalising your children schooling. It's best to meet the school's rep to discuss the options available as well as the placement available rather than over the phone.

The housing should come last and will be easier to finalise as you would probably want your housing to be close to the school.

:O

[yoongf]

http://www.moe.gov.sg/esp/schadm/p1/ava ... ancies.htm

This site shows vacancies for Pri sch for your 6 yr old starting Pri 1 in 2006. Pri 1 sch places in popular schools are hotly contested. We locals do move houses so that the kids have better chances of entering the desired school. Living within 1KM gives a higher priority.

There isn't much info on the school's website about entry requirements since the placements are centrally handled by the Ministry.

Anyway.. the website shown above shows which sch still have vacancies. Better call early cos it's already the yr end break, and come closer to Xmas, more and more decision makers will be going on leave.

[k1w1]

Just to add to that note, your children will be enrolled under phase 3.

I don't understand why the schools are not being upfront whether they have vacancies or not, since all the local kids are enrolled now. Hmm, very weird...

The schools in SG with a lot of expats (of Asian and European descent) are Balestier Hill, Bukit Timah and apparently some of the schools in Jurong. These are all located centrally and west. The schools here run bus services which will pick the kids up and drop them off at your door, so lcoation shouldn't be a major problem.

Are you aware that local schools are only in for half the day? The morning school is a 7-12 and the afternoon school is 1-6pm. It's also highly probable that your children will be in different "shifts" as, for some reason, they often alternate the years. So for half the day, they are going to need care or supervision if both parents are working. This could mount up in costs.

Let us know how you get on. I would be interested to know what is going on with these schools.

[marky]

Thanks for the replies to date. Yes, we are making the schooling our central decision, hence why we would like to get security on this sooner than later. Apparently, according to the schools there is a final placement to take place on the 16th December. This is when the govt. allocates all the "leftover" students that did not get a place in the school of their choice. So whilst a school might have places now, these might be unavailable after the 16th DEC. What we want though are schools who can say "we think we may have places, lets proceed on that basis" We are in Singapore over the New Year break to check things out and want to visit and finalise a school then. Meanwhile, we are interested in getting something more concrete to work with eg. go on a short list, make an appointment for January (or anything other than try later) but to date have not had any school give us these firm responses. Any further responses appreciated, thanks again, MARK

[kansatish]

Hello Mark,
I am currently in the same position as yours. I have a son who is aged 6 and am trying to get him into a local school, but haven't had any encouraging responses yet. I would be interested in knowing any positive results from your side.

Tks/rgds
Satish

[Candy]

Hello all, I am also in the same boat, so I hope that my experience might help you.

We have already arrived in Singapore and have also been trying to secure a placement for our sons, age 5 and 8. We are self employed and have to work within our budget to remain here. We are also base in the East coast, and unfortunately there aren't many schools around this area.

You are basically looking at Tanjong Katong Primary (lots of expats apparently, but i was not impress with the schools, or the way they handle my situation).
Toa Nan Primary, but this is considered a very desirable schools for the locals, so there are no chance for foriegners, plus they really are reknown for excelling in mother tongue.
Ngee Ann Primary, also a good school , so i've heard, althrough I have yet to find out more.
Opera Estate Primary, Impressive and also a good school. (I was turned away like a leper at this school, they really should teach their receptionist some manners).
St Stephens boys primary, also a very good school (also the most helpful and efficent of all the schools I have visited)
Haig girls school which I have no knowledge of since I have two boys.

I find most school offers little or no informations at all and all they will tell you if you call up is that there are no places available. The best thing you can do is basically turn up and bug them. Insist to have you child be place on their waiting list, and phone back and be persistent. Speak to the principle if you can, afterall she/he are the ones who have the final word on who gets in and who doesn't. Going on the phone doesn't work.

I got a call back from Tanjong Katong Pri to take my son in for an entrance exam, I thought at the time that he was going to get in, and it was just a matter of doing a test to see if he could read and write. How wrong I was! I turned up to see at least another 30 other foreign students there, all waiting to do the entrance exams, the school couldn't possibly have that many placements? Each parents queued up to pay for the examinations (I paid $60) and then proceeded to wait around with the other parents for the children to do the exams. 3 hours later the kids came out one by one totally exhausted!
I had to call back the school a week later to be told (very unpolitely) that my child did not make the placement. No reason was given. I was livid, afterall apart from the waste of time, it was mentally and phyically exhasting and all that just to find a place for my son to start school. The poor boy had to sit through 3 hours of examination for nothing! This really made me think about this schools ethics.


It is traumatic and the schools don't seem to take into the account the hardships parents have to go through. I understand that everything seems to be in limbo for you, because afterall the major hurdle for you would be to find a suitable school before looking for an area for your family to live. Unfortunately the only way is to go by foot or get an agent to do the search. Luckily for me my hard work and persisence paid off and I finally got a place at a school that wasn't too far away from us. I hope you will be able to find a school too.

Oh and before and after school cares at most centers are around $200-$300p/m. So not too bad, they will supervise homework, tea and snacks will be available as will showers and nap time. (All singaporean childrens have afternoon naps).

[k1w1]

Hi Candy,

Glad to hear you got a school for your child. Just wondering, did you have a short-list of schools? Did each one demand an entrance test (and entrance test fee)? It sounds like a nightmare - I have never heard this side of things before. Were you able to visit schools and decide which ones you liked or was it a pick-and-choose from the "leftovers"?

Just out of more interest, what did your child's entrance test cover? I assume that he/she is a native english speaker? (I only ask this as I am wondering if this is why Tanjong Katong had a test as they are known for having a lot of foreigners as you say, and many of them are from Asia).

I am not in this boat yet, but there are obviously quite a few parents who are, and I imagine one day this will be me... Thanks for sharing your story.

[Candy]

hello
I didn't get the 'leftover' schools, I actually got my son into one of the schools on my shortlist. But it was very tense because you want to sort it out and get on with life. The schools are in no rush to and will tell you today to bring your child in to start in two days time, they would expect you to have your child in full uniform and have the all the books ready on that same day. Its just the way they operate here.

As for the entrance test. Not all schools have entrance exams, its up to the schools. These examinations papers usually last 1hr each. You will have to pay for each subject, English and Maths are a must and Mandarin is optional.

You should bring along, report cards, exam results , test results, grades of your child educations. this will help the schools decide quicker.
Hope that helps

[Blaze]

We were looking to get our son admitted into P1.

We rented a flat first and then looked for a local school nearby. Thankfully, we got lucky. We called this local school within walking distance from our home. We were asked to come down immediately with the kid's passport and birth certificate. After reaching there and filling an application form, we were given a letter of admission and the application form itself. We were asked to take these to ICA and get a student pass for the kid. Everything was over in 20-30 minutes!

ICA said that it will take a few days to process the paperwork and gave a letter back to the school saying that my son should be allowed to start school on Jan 4 without a student pass.

I am told that there are not many kids in Sg and hence schools are looking for them! Or, this school is a really bad one!

Got a shock when we were given the list of books to buy for him. There must be about 75 of them!

Good luck to all who is trying to gain admission for their kids.
Blaze