New Phase Next Year

C is going to Primary One next year. It is a brand new phase for him. He is definitely no toddler now. We would have to start paying for buffet and child fares for a lot of things. People will not be giving him special treatments and allowances for being a toddler but he will be treated as a school going child. No more skipping school for last minute getaways. I will be entering the new phase together with him. Learning new syllabus, stressing over results and undone homework.

I have already had a taste of the stress during primary school registration. Why do they make it so complicated in Singapore anyways? I started studying the primary school registration system a year before C's registration started. Studying about the different phases that we are eligible for and later on studying which schools are we narrowing our choices on. Several discussions with RH later, we finally settle on Poi Ching Primary School. Our considerations for primary schools were:

1. Proximity to our home

2. Christian School

3. Secondary School Affliations

4. Mixed gender schools (so that I do not have to go through the stress another time with K)

5. Remotely good standing school in terms of ranking

Poi Ching obviously was not able to fulfill all our criterias but I do thank God for eventually leading us to this choice and on hindsight, it was a good choice with all the changes in primary school registration and all.

Our initial choice was Anglo Chinese Primary which we were eligible for in Phase 2B. Although it was far from our home and was not a mixed gender school, it scored highly for the other 3 criterias. Alas, it was not meant to be when the rulings changed to say that all Singaporean children will have absolute priority over PR children in all phases.

Then it was a toss up between Poi Ching and Ngee Ann primary. Poi Ching fulfilled criteria 4 and 5 and somewhat criteria 1. Ngee Ann fulfilled criteria 1, 3, 4 and 5 and thus was closest to our "ideal" school. However, we were eligible to apply for Poi Ching in Phase 2B through affiliations with Futsing Association while we were only eligible to register for Ngee Ann in Phase 2C which means that there are less vacancies in the school. In the end, we decided to register C for Poi Ching which we were fairly confident we would get in and then try for Ngee Ann in Phase 2C IF there were vacancies left. Thus, the two weeks of registration phases commenced and I would check the MOE website daily to see updates of vacancies in the various Primary Schools.

Unfortunately or rather by God's planning, Ngee Ann was already full in Phase 2C so we stuck with Poi Ching. Now, I just have to get Caleb prepared and excited to be in Primary One. I think I might also have to prepare myself. I heard that Poi Ching has very high Chinese language standards and Caleb is still very poor in his Hanyu Pinyin. 

Lastly, here is a picture of Poi Ching and their uniform which I promised Caleb to google.