CMF:

BTW you may wish to find out from each school you are wait listed on, the \"period\" your wait listed status is \"valid\" for, as some schools may require you to \"update\" your intention to continue to be wait listed over a certain period. All the very best to you and all others in similar situation.

Wow, didn't know that... thanks for reminding and good luck to you and children.

CMF:

Some info on transferring to another primary school : http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1107

A good read there.. thanks.

CMF:

I sympathize with your situation. Do not lose heart. All is not lost. Place your child's name on wait list(s) at school(s) you would possibly like him to attend. Different schools have different criteria for admitting transfer pupils should there be vacancies.


Whichever school that your child may be admitted to in the meantime, try to make the most of it and academically if he does well there, submit the results at each juncture (CA1, SA1 etc) to each of the wait list school(s), it will be useful additional info for the school(s) to have on hand should a vacancy arises for it to consider accepting transfer student(s).

Thanks.. will be placing myself on waitlist for maha bodhi and a couple of others. And yes, I think voluntary submission of results is great advice. While some schools like maha bodhi require recent results for consideration, some others don't. For those schools who don't, your good results might catch their eyes quicker than the other waitlisters (I guess).

MMM:

You might want to consider putting your child on MBS's waiting list. Along the way, there will be kids who transfer out of the school due to various reasons and there will be new ones joining.

Thanks. All losing balloters had been issued a form for wait list application, which we can only submit after registering a school in phase 2CS (maha bodhi requirements). The wait list is going to be long, but yes, an outside chance is better than none.

pirate:

If that is your concern, look for a school with PRC students. Opera Estate scored 60% distinction in Higher Chinese last year. Their pass and quality pass rates are also above the national average.

Thanks. I have been considering OEPS too, but my sister has warned me that with it being >2km away and single session, the son is going to suffer and get very tired from the long daily travelling. I'm still considering it, though..

gvyong:

Damai is interesting and it seem to arise from a 1980s project to create 'new generation' schools, although damai has no actual history to speak of. who knows, with a 'Chinese' name, in future it may become a SAP sch or be chosen to host some special program like GEP? (e.g. Rosyth)

Some advice I had did mention Damai appears to be marginally better than the rest in the lot. I have parked myself outside the school to observe the students and those of neighbouring bedok west primary, may try to speak to some parents. In this predicament I don't even dare think of special programs and the like; only wish it upholds at least average standards in teaching and curriculum/programs. Anything beyond that (like what you mentioned) will of course be a surprise bonus. Thanks for advice.

Zeng:

You are not alone. Many parents who were balloted at popular branded schs
are in similar situations. Thats why some parents opted for an acceptable second choice sch if it was a shoe-in rather than ballot.

You should drop by these schs to take a look and talk to parents during recess or pick up times. For argument's sake, even it is the bottom tier sch, if your kid does well and in top class, he/she is likely to be happy with the special attention. You also have the option for transfer later on even if you fail to secure from the waitlist this time. Good Luck!

Yes, I've personally experienced the happiness of being top in a bottom school/not-so-good class. And yes, even in a bottom school it is very possible to achieve the ultimate objective of scoring well in the all important PSLE.

I guess some ballot-victim parents grief because they understand too well the difference in standards that different tiers of schools try to uphold, and the huge impact it has on the children's pace of learning. The parents can try to bridge this gap with personal coaching, tuition, etc. but the effort is exceptionally draining as you would have to diligently research and often guess what the good schools define as 'acceptable' in various aspects of learning.

Take, for example, Maha Bodhi's description of their reading and speech programmes on the website - the short and concise point forms detailing the various aspects of proper speech and reading to be covered gives you an assuring sense of completeness. And you know that as a parent, the programme makes it easy for you to identify areas of weakness in the child's progress. Now compare that to the bottom tier schools which have their program description as just a paragraph of un-informative text and a big photo of the students reading... Unless we are lucky enough to encounter very good teachers in the bottom tier school, the child's performance is going to be generally summed up as 'good', 'very good', 'no good', etc.. and the parent has to research widely and make her own gauge of the child's performance against the good school's yardsticks of excellence. Perfectly doable, albeit a very daunting amount of effort can be projected.

That said, what you mentioned about doing well and being happy in the bottom tier schools i do agree, although I must say I would pray hard that the wait list registration would turn out to be fruitful, though we all know we cannot count on it.

Thanks for your advice and good luck to you too.

Blessedwife:

Sorry to hear that you was balloted out in 2C.

I can understand how you feel even though we managed to ballot in our preferred school.

Before the balloting, I kept asking myself and hubby what are we supposed to do if we fail to ballot in because we had ready planned and registered our son with the student care which is in the school compound and we liked the environment too after visiting many other student care which are very run down.

I thought to myself WHAT IF we cannot get in ??!!

I know is easier said then done but don't look back. It's a good thing
That you put yrself under waiting list. It might help if any parent decides to transfer their kids to elsewhere. I think before the school starts or before orientation day, we might see withdrawals from some schools.

All the best

Have put myself on wait list ... thanks, wishing you the best too..

it’s been four days since i faced the horror of missing out in the balloting at Maha Bodhi. Have not been able to eat, sleep or work properly till now. On top of the heart bleeding disappointment which I know needs to be cast aside for now, is the very daunting task of placing the son in a decent school in phase 2Cs.


The only schools available within 1-2km are eunos primary, damai primary, bedok west primary and east coast primary. These being among the least popular of schools, have had almost totally no info/discussion on KSP so far. My fear of enrolling the son in these schools is that the extremely low take-up rate even at phase 2C would mean a huge, perhaps >50% of foreign students in the final makeup, and I have heard in some cases chinese as mother tongue students are the minority. This worries me sick as the environment would mean even greater difficulty for my son to improve his rather umm… basic level of chinese.

I plead with anyone who has some experience dealing with these schools to provide some info on them, any info at all, good or bad. Would also be great if someone can tell me I have other options apart from these schools.

Also, I have put myself on waitlist at telok kurau, which going by demand, looks pretty decent. Any info anyone? Does anyone have any idea when is the typical period when there are most withdrawals from average schools, when the waitlisters can smell a chance? Thanks a lot to anyone with info.