Is acceptance for P1 for dependent pass holders impossible?

[cachaca2014]

Hello
My child will be in P1 next year and there is no way we can pay International School fees. I was reviewing the local school availability for Phase 2C for last year and at least from the data reported, it seems like there were no dependent pass holders spots at least in the Clementi area. Maybe I am reading it wrong .

Just wanted to get a sense from folks who may have children with dependent passes if last year entry was very tough? Looks pretty daunting and I can't find any figures for phase 3 allocation intakes.

My back up plan is a home school online program called K12 at $5,000 US is way more affordable than international school Harvard-like school fees.

Any experience on registering your P1 with a dependant pass into local schools appreciated!

[therat]

For your information.
Phase 2C is for Singapore citizen and PR

For non citizen and non PR, you should look at phase 3

http://moe.gov.sg/education/admissions/ ... on/phases/

Phase 3

For a child who is neither a Singapore Citizen nor a Singapore Permanent Resident

Registration at Primary School for Phase 3

Registration is conducted at the primary school that you wish your child to be admitted into. The hours of registration are from 8.00 am to 11.00 am and from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm on each scheduled registration day. Parents or a person authorized by the parents in writing (letter of authorization (72kb .pdf)) is to submit the registration form and required documents at the school of choice.

Balloting will be conducted in Phase 3 if the number of applications exceeds the number of places available at the end of Phase 3 registration. Balloting will be conducted one day after phase 3 registration.

With effect from the 2012 Primary One Registration Exercise, for non Singapore Citizen / Singapore Permanent Resident children who have not been able to obtain a place at their school of choice after the Phase 3 balloting, MOE will post the child to a suitable primary school with vacancy. The posting outcome will be released to the parent a month after the balloting. MOE posting is final and no appeals will be entertained. Schools will also not entertain any walk-in applications.

[lowersmiths]

Hi there

We were in this position last year. Our son completed K1 and K2 in a PCF kindergarten in Toa Payoh. The kindergarten was excellent, he did four hours per day and it was around $150 per month.

When it came to trying to get into P1, it became very difficult. All the best schools in the area were filled by locals and PRs before it got to Phase 3. We applied to the only school with places left (about 40 places), which didn't have a very good reputation, but it was a 10 min walk from our flat.

Unfortunately, distance means nothing in Phase 3! It's a free-for-all and the place was oversubscribed. It went to a ballot and I had to sit there as they called the numbers out of the bingo machine. I think there were around 45 parents trying to get in.....and our ball didn't get picked!

It was an awful experience so then we had to wait to see where MOE posted our boy....would it be Kranji or Jurong West or somewhere else in the sticks...

Eventually the letter arrived and it said he had been assigned a school in Hougang. Our rental contract was coming to an end so we moved to Hougang to be next to the school.

This school is actually much more highly regarded than the one in Toa Payoh! So I guess we were lucky. It's just a normal Singapore school, some good kids some not so much...but nothing much to complain about.

In fact the school quickly launched a campaign to eradicate Singlish...my boy's Singaporean teacher speaks with a beautiful upper class English accent...now my boy embarrasses me by speaking words with an accent I have never been able to master.

So it is possible for a foreigner to get into a local school, but you must be flexible. I now face a real battle to get to work, and it is hard for me, but my boy is fine.

My younger son has started at the kindergarten in Toa Payoh (they were that good we would not consider any where else). So we travel between Hougang and Toa Payoh... not really ideal but we seem to be making a pretty good go of it so far.