Hello,


DS1 is in P1 at the moment. As I’m planning on applying for DS2 for intake 2015 and looking back at the last few years, Phase 1 is normally on the 1st week after the June school holidays. According to MOE, the elder sibling will be given the application forms for DS2’s application. Could someone enlighten me on when this form will be given out and returned? Is it before the Jun holidays? Cos it is likely both parents will be traveling 1st week after the June holidays. Tks.

PS. Can a grandparent apply in place of the parents?

Hello,


My DS is in 1F (2014). Trying to link up with other parents from 1F for email/whatsapp discussion group. Kindly PM me. Many Tks.

PS. Any parents from 1F involved in PSG? I’m involved with Rainbow Reading Club.

nguan:

PapayaDad:

[quote=\"lepetitpenguin\"]Hello,


Some quick questions:

1. What do they call the Tuckshop these days? Tuckshop or Canteen or Cafe?

2. Where can we buy those traditional student desks? The type where the top opens up and you can store your exercise books and stationery inside? Checked with IKEA and no stock for the foreseeable future and KSP Buy and Sell doesn't have anything on this.

3. For the Admin Day and Orientation Day, do we bring the child along?

4. On taking the school bus, for <1km, will the child be picked up amongst the firsts or lasts? ie. more or less sleeping time for the child at home. Still trying to weigh the difference between taking the school bus and mummy taxi. For mummy taxi, what's the drop off and pick up protocol at the school like? I understand that school starts at 7:10am.

5. What's the guidance on Pocket Money/Day at MSHP? Will $1 to $1.50 allowance/day be sufficient?

6. Does the school restrict the child from carrying a non-smartphone (on silent mode) in his school bag? The cellphone will be particularly useful if DS needs to call home for whatever reason, eg. early or late pick up, nanny fails to show up etc.

Any advise welcomed and tks in advance.

1. Canteen

2. dunno

3. can

4. not sure about pick up, drop off prefer to drop off at the taxi stand in front of the MRT...can follow the others walking to school and enter by side gate..school start 730 la...as long as before 730 not consider late.

5. $2

6. no phone allowed.

I give my elder DS only $1 per day, as he will buy other unnecessary stuff with his extra money.[/quote]Many tks for the info.

[/quote]


People are taking advantage of the system. This is bad![/quote]

Parents are exercising their options. This trend will continue if MOE do not tighten withdraw procedure and if parents are not assured that all schools are good. MOE have many challenges ahead. Next yr there will be more kids registering for P1.[/quote]


I tend to agree with an earlier post suggesting that MOE provides, the 6 category information at the end of each registration day, SC/PR times Distance Criteria. As to having a "live" site providing up to the minute information, perhaps there will be logistical limitations and it’ll up the stress ante even more, in my opinion.

As to withdrawals from earlier phases (P2A and P2B), perhaps MOE could institute some disincentive for applicants from an earlier phase withdrawing and positioning oneself for a later phase. In many cases, as an alumni, you could have attended the school some 25-30 years ago, and now perhaps living quite far from the school, however, it’s a popular school and you apply at P2A (Plan B school) and secure a place. However, as you are <1km from your Plan A school, you keep that in your pocket to exercise that option in P2C. This becomes disruptive to other parents in your Plan B (P2A) school as well as your Plan A (P2C) school.

Perhaps after a withdrawal, the SC will be designated as a PR, or at least, notwithstanding his address, be treated as >2km, this will act as a deterrent to frivolous withdrawals after securing a place at an earlier phase. This is not unprecedented in the sense that with the current rules, if your child is cared for by your parents, even if your parents live <1km from the school, the application is still treated under that 1-2km distance criteria. If this is the case, the parent will really have to think long and hard when he is applying his child at P2A.

JMO

Hello,


Some quick questions:

1. What do they call the Tuckshop these days? Tuckshop or Canteen or Cafe?

2. Where can we buy those traditional student desks? The type where the top opens up and you can store your exercise books and stationery inside? Checked with IKEA and no stock for the foreseeable future and KSP Buy and Sell doesn’t have anything on this.

3. For the Admin Day and Orientation Day, do we bring the child along?

4. On taking the school bus, for <1km, will the child be picked up amongst the firsts or lasts? ie. more or less sleeping time for the child at home. Still trying to weigh the difference between taking the school bus and mummy taxi. For mummy taxi, what’s the drop off and pick up protocol at the school like? I understand that school starts at 7:10am.

5. What’s the guidance on Pocket Money/Day at MSHP? Will $1 to $1.50 allowance/day be sufficient?

6. Does the school restrict the child from carrying a non-smartphone (on silent mode) in his school bag? The cellphone will be particularly useful if DS needs to call home for whatever reason, eg. early or late pick up, nanny fails to show up etc.

Any advise welcomed and tks in advance.

Hello,


I can’t help but notice that there are still quite a number of vacancies from some schools that make pretty good Plan B schools, without a doubt, P2C is quite critical as avoiding P2CS would be of utmost importance.

Having had the privilege to have had some experience in hiring personnel, I find that the schools stated below have produced good well rounded individuals, and some of these schools have quite long histories and having produced some credible alumni,

(School/Year Founded/Total Vacancies/TUR end P2B/Vacancies P2C/% Registered P2C) as at Jul 30

-Mayflower Pr/1979/240/77/163/37%
-Gan Eng Seng/2002/240/113/127/51%
- Teck Whye/1959/210/59/151/17%
-Pei Tong/1948/240/93/147/44%
-Canossa Convent/1941/120/31/89/41%
-St Gabriels/1969/150/76/74/47%
-First Toa Payoh/1968/210/46/164/13%
-Marymount Convent/1960s/240/88/152/42%

So the application vs number of vacancies (P2C) ranges from 13% to 51%. Of course the number could change significantly just prior to closing of P2C. But these would be some of the schools I’d consider as Plan B schools.

Of course, I’m excluding the following considerations - quality of teaching faculty, distance from home, population centres, current "hot" favourites, star principal, deterioration of academic standards over the years etc…

I apologise for the less than thorough research, as this is being collated/typed during office meetings… time to get back to work… hehe…

Note: No vested interest here, I’m not strategizing to detract attention from the schools on my own shortlist.

Just sharing… good luck to all P2C applicants…

Hello,


I’d read an earlier post regarding IC address for the parents, something along the lines of… "perhaps one parent’s IC reflects one address and other parent has a different address on her IC". Having some trouble tracking that particular post down to quote from it.

Question being, how does the school apply the IC address criteria? eg. If the Parent (Father) is eyeing PLMGS and the family lives in the house <1km (Lor Ah Soo) from PLMGS and is applying at P2C, and the family having bought/rented another house <1km from CHIJ OLGC with the Mother’s IC address reflecting the Serangoon Garden address (CHIJ OLGC being Plan B). Will the Plan A school (PLMGS) use the Lorong Ah Soo address as it is the stipulated address, and hence disregards the Mother’s IC address (Serangoon Garden)?

And just before closing of P2C, monitors the chances of balloting at PLMGS and if the odds are not good, quickly applies at CHIJ OLGC using the Mother’s address?

Of course, I’m excluding situations where Father and Mother (separated/divorced) actually living in different addresses. That can be a discussion for another day.

Thanks.

Yes, probable there’s 2 pair of twin or 1 triplet. acsp is a bit complicated. there’s was 2 withdrawal from phase1, 2 withdraw from phase 2a1 and 1 withdrawal from phase 2a2. Not too sure how these extra places allocated to phase 2b & c.[/quote]


wiltanws,

You’d mentioned for ACSP, as for withdrawals, -2(P1), -2(P2A1) & -1(P2A2). Where can we get this specific information? I’d enquired pre P2B for this information with the schools on my shortlist, but they (the schools) were not prepared/able/willing to give information this specific. They were only referencing past years Ballot chances vis-a-vis distance, which is information that is already well detailed in this website. Withdrawal information would be particularly useful when strategizing for the later Phases if the vacancies are allocated then or at least for the so-called Waitlist.

Many tks.

wiltanws:

lepetitpenguin:

[quote=\"lepetitpenguin\"]Just thinking aloud here. Looking at the P2B Schools Conducting Balloting, I've noticed the following comments for the following schools,


\"The school has places for only SC children residing within 1km of the school. No balloting will be conducted.\"

The schools being, ACSJ (47/73), ACSP (24/31), Hong Wen (51/72), Kong Hwa (41/46), MGSP (40/57), SCGSP (22/23). ie. Name of school (2B vacancies/No. of children registered 2B).

Apart from Kong Hwa and SCGSP, the number of children registered for the schools mentioned far outnumbers the number of 2B vacancies. I find it interesting that the exact number accepted equals the exact number of SC within 1km. I'm guessing that this is only possible if the applicant (SC/PR) has the exact status of the registration numbers (including breakdown of SC, PR, Distance information) close to the closing of 2B on 23 Jul late afternoon and hence registers accordingly.

Somehow, the numbers seem too \"exact\" imho. Perhaps I'm missing something here.

Just curious. Tks.

Hello,

Just adding to sembgal's comments. I've replicated my earlier post to facilitate referencing some of the vacancy numbers at end P2B (late 23 Jul).

Looking at MGPS:
At end P2B, 40 vacancies, 57 applied. All SC (1km) accepted. Vacancies at start of P2C, 41 enrolled (P2B) and 38 vacancies (P2C). I would think that at the start of P2B, vacancies would have been 40 (P2B) and 40 (P2C). Even if 1 pair of twins were enrolled at P2B, there should be 39 (40 minus 1) vacancies for P2C instead of 38. Note: There was no balloting for MGPS for P2B. As such, there would not have been the possibility that the last \"ball\" was a \"twin\" ball.

Still trying to understand how the system works. Tks.

For MGS, after Phase 2A, there's 79 vacancy left, so 40 allocated to 2b and 39 allocated to 2c. There was 41 sc within 1km registered for 40 vacancy at 2B, one of them is a pair of twin. so one place is transferred from phase 2c to 2b to cater for this extra place required by the twin. all 41 sc within 1km admitted and no ballot required. that's why phase 2c is left with only 38.[/quote]wiltanws,

Tks for the clarification. Apologies, I'd missed out on the 40(P2B) & 39(P2C) allocation. A lot clearer now.

lepetitpenguin:

Just thinking aloud here. Looking at the P2B Schools Conducting Balloting, I've noticed the following comments for the following schools,


\"The school has places for only SC children residing within 1km of the school. No balloting will be conducted.\"

The schools being, ACSJ (47/73), ACSP (24/31), Hong Wen (51/72), Kong Hwa (41/46), MGSP (40/57), SCGSP (22/23). ie. Name of school (2B vacancies/No. of children registered 2B).

Apart from Kong Hwa and SCGSP, the number of children registered for the schools mentioned far outnumbers the number of 2B vacancies. I find it interesting that the exact number accepted equals the exact number of SC within 1km. I'm guessing that this is only possible if the applicant (SC/PR) has the exact status of the registration numbers (including breakdown of SC, PR, Distance information) close to the closing of 2B on 23 Jul late afternoon and hence registers accordingly.

Somehow, the numbers seem too \"exact\" imho. Perhaps I'm missing something here.

Just curious. Tks.

Hello,

Just adding to sembgal's comments. I've replicated my earlier post to facilitate referencing some of the vacancy numbers at end P2B (late 23 Jul).

Looking at MGPS:
At end P2B, 40 vacancies, 57 applied. All SC (1km) accepted. Vacancies at start of P2C, 41 enrolled (P2B) and 38 vacancies (P2C). I would think that at the start of P2B, vacancies would have been 40 (P2B) and 40 (P2C). Even if 1 pair of twins were enrolled at P2B, there should be 39 (40 minus 1) vacancies for P2C instead of 38. Note: There was no balloting for MGPS for P2B. As such, there would not have been the possibility that the last \"ball\" was a \"twin\" ball.

Still trying to understand how the system works. Tks.