8y boy with no school in clementi

[amer_almohssen]

Hi everyone,

I am a little worried about my son's schooling.
we recently moved to Singapore, and have been looking for a school around Clementi, so far we have contacted many local schools in and around our area, but they have all put him on a waiting list, with no promises when he can actually start school.

He is on a dependent pass, and as I understand it, he is under Phase 3 registration. When calling the MOE before I came to Singapore it was explained to me, that he can apply to P2 at any time, but there is no guarantee that he will end up in a near by school. The way it looks now it seems that he might end up with NO school at all for this year !!!!! I do hope there is something I am missing, or not understanding about the application process.

I hope any one can answer or advice us on any of the following

1- if we increase the distance from home, and keep looking for schools all over Singapore, and we end up with a school far away from home, will there be a school bus to pick my son up, or will we have to take him personally to school? as I do not have a car, and I start work very early in the morning.

2- there are a lot of International Schools around us, but we can not afford them, I was wondering if there was a "government aided-private" schools that are affordable? any idea what the tuition would usually be like?

3- What will happen if we can not find a school? does this mean that my son will have to wait til next year? if we start home schooling, how do we make sure that this year of home schooling is actually accredited when we apply next year? Do we have any option other than home schooling?

4-our other son is going to go to P1 next year, is there any advice to make sure that they end up in the same school, or will this depend purely on vacant positions since they are both on dependent passes?

hope anyone can help, and many thanks for all your time and kindness

amer

[fushiav]

Hi Amer

Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time on the schooling front. Unfortunately I cannot comment on your eldest, other than to say that unfortunately clementi/ bukit timah have a lot of very good schools (read very popular) which means there are very few places with vacancies.. I'd suggest you go on kiasuparents.com site and have a look at the balloting history for the schools nearest to you - event though thie info relates to P1 registration process, it might give you a good indication as to which schools might have vacancies... Have you tried Queenstown Primary? This is where my son here and there were vacancies for P 1 in phase 3.

1- Once you have identified a school with vacancies for your P2 son, ask the school to give you the school bus phone number and call them to check whether you would be in their radius. Beware, it can be very limited - they refused to take my son on the school bus as apparently it is too far - in reality is takes me 6 minutes from door to door! It is also almost impossible to find a regular taxi to collect your child from school ( I am still trying in fact!). Do you have a helper that could take your kids to school? Not sure at what time you start work but bear in mind that schools start very early (mostly around 7.30 and open generally half an hour before that so you might be able to drop them yourself?

2- i have not heard of any such schools unfortunately... International Schools are incredibly expensive, but i know that for some you can get some grants from your own country ( I think that for example you may be able to get some help with the fees at the LFS- i think but I am not sure!).

3 I think you need to keep calling the local schools regularly - kids drop off schools or parents move to another part of singapore so the kids is transferred to another school ( my son's class has already lost one kid). there is a pretty active homeschooling group of parents in singapore

4. Unfortunately, unless and until you are a PR, the fact that you have a sibling in the school already, or the fact that you live 2mn away from the school, or the fact that you volunteer for the school is irrelevant and does not give you any kind of priority over the other applicants, which I do find a bit unfair. If you need to chat about the P1 registration process, feel free to contact me by PM ( have gone through the process last year..)

Really sorry I do not have any magical solutions, but I am sure things will pan out eventually ( they always do...)

All the best

[amer_almohssen]

MAny Thanks for all your advice


currently This is what I have done so far, though we have not found a school yet, I hope the following is useful for future commers

- My wife and I have been trying to go personally to each school, and ask for help. phone and email is not enough!

-I have found that the Muslim school have a favorable look at our application since my son studied a little Arabic while we were in Saudi Arabia.

-my son who is in P2 on a DP though he had no priority during the actual process, I was told that he is not required to learn a second language. Which means that they can try to squeeze him in, at least that is what they were telling me in some schools.

-the school year starts in Jan, which means that they are currently taking their mid term finals, I was told that many schools are too busy setting up for their finals, and even if they had free room, they will not take him in until after the summer break

- We are still calling and emailing MOH, and going to different schools,,,,
Please note that the MOH have a hot line, calling them more than once, and emailing them is a must, as they are very very slow, but I am knocking every door I can

We are praying that things work out soon, before my wife, and I go crazy,,,,

I pray that your child find an easy, and safe way to get to school soon

[boffenl]

Did you try Qifa Primary? I dont' understand how if you're in Clementi with a Clementi address they haven't placed your son. School is in session now, if they don't have space, you've got to move onto another school--school year goes from January to November, so they still have half a year of school to go.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[vanyali]

If you do homeschool, it's really easy in Singapore. The government completely ignores expat homeschoolers. They don't even want you to register with them in any way. The MOE just says "our compulsory education law doesn't apply to you" and leaves it at that.