25 Links To Help Your Child Prepare For Primary 1

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As every Singaporean parent is aware, primary school education has evolved—and is continuing to evolve—way beyond what parents were used to in their youth.

An Early Start, Or Let Nature Take Its Course?

Many parents consider it essential to prepare children for primary school education in the early years. Their fear is that failure to do so will result in a high level of stress (for both parent and child), which could become apparent as early as during the beginning months of primary school life.

Other parents, on the other hand, remain resolutely relaxed, preferring instead to focus on values and life skills.

No matter what your stance is towards primary school and the amount of preparation work required, knowing what to expect will help your child to have a smoother transition to primary school.

The Role Of A Kindergarten

While kindergartens (catering for five and six year olds) need to be registered with the MOE, the kindergartens themselves are privately run, which means their syllabus and course materials are not regulated by the MOE. 

This flexibility has resulted in significant disparity across kindergartens, in terms of the depth and breadth of their curriculum. To address this, MOE developed the Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) curriculum as a guide for preschool educators, and the curriculum has been delivered to more than 800 local preschools since last year. Parents can read the FAQs or access the official web site for more information.

To allay anxiety before Primary 1 entry, parents should familiarise themselves with the MOE syllabus and find out more about the academic and life skills that will stand a child in good stead in the school environment.

Here are 25 links to help your child gear up for Primary 1.

Checklist: Before The First Day Of School

Cognitive Skills

Life & Social Skills

English

Maths

Early Science

Mother Tongue

Formative Assessments

Study Skills

Stories From Parents

 

Affiliation

 Hi anyone knows if catholic high school is affiliated with any church organization? Thought I stand a higher chance to qualify under phase 2b. They do not state this in their website.

hi, I had the same prob with

hi,

I had the same prob with my daughter too. She will be in P1 next year, and yet she dont know how to read, blend words. She also not good in her spelling. Her focus on learning spelling only about 5min, after that she will forget and focus on other thing.

I have enrol her in enrichment programme recently at zoophonic class. Not too bad, got a bit of improvement.

help

mamadee…

hello…can someone clear my inqury…my son is nine this year, he will enter SG school in 2012..what will be his cathegory by then?….also can anybody suggest a good school for my son?…thank you

@laiconstance

hi laiconstance

if you are registering your child in 2011 for P1 in 2012, you are too late for PV. Schools would have stopped accepting PV application for this registration year. Some schools have even stopped accepting for next registration year by now.

@cocomummy

hi cocomummy

I agreed with you on choosing a home with some schools in mind. I made the same mistake and ended up shifting, both to increase the chance to get into the school of choice and also for before & after school logistic support (proximity to in-laws).

The school may have rejected your application perhaps based on their past years’ registration statistics, balloting had alway occurred for phase 2B for either < 1km or 1-2km. Thus they would not want you to waste your time and effort in performing PV and only to find out that you do not even stand a chance to even just to participate in the ballot.

 

I share your agony....

I am having this problem now that my son is 6 year old….. I too have appeal with MOE and I got the same answer as you. Basically we are up to ourselves to approach all the possible school near our vicinity to see whether they need volunteer or not,if not we will all ended in the last phase of 2C .

Finally I find a school that still need volunteer at this time but I have to quickly clock in the time before the registration starts in July.

 

Self help Mum

home with no school within even 3km

my agony n stress!!!can anyone advise me what to do if the nearest school from my home is lest 3.5km away!There are not even a school that is nearest to my home! Did anyone faces d same problem that i am facing?I hv tried all possible schools for PV  work but some schools rejected us because we were <2km away from them!funny thing is there was once i called up one of d school n they commented to me saying if u are out of 1-2km don even ever think of trying cos they only accept children staying within 1-2km! I hv tried calling up moe and asked them d same Q’s guess wat??Reply was "THERE’S NOTHING MOE CAN DO!AS ALL RULES AND REGULATIONS WERE SET BY DIFFERENT SCHOOLS!!!! The most upset about this matter is we can only stand at 2C phrase as we are <2km away from all schools!! My advise to all parents (do not buy or stay at a home that is no schools within 1-2km bcos u will b at losing end as u will hv to b only under d phrase 2C if u do not volunteer ur services to any of d schools u hope to get ur child in…..sad………….

new start

mamadee…

hi everyone, my family will relocate in SG very soon and im a little bit confused wd the education system, my son is 9years old what level will he be in the schools by 2012?…..and will be residing in bedok reservior any recommendations which school should be first checkout?..hope he can fit in..thank you

P1 preparations

My daughters are presently in K1 & K2. My eldest girl will be going to P1 nx year. But both of them still cant read. She still do not know how to blend the alphabets to form words. I thought of sending her to Enrichment classes but there’s still no improvement when I sent  my eldest to MMI. Her attention span is just too short & she tends to daydream.

Does anybody know of a good & affordable enrichment that I can provide my daughters?

Thank you.

Nursery in Punggol

Hi mommies!

I am looking for nursery school for my girl born in 2008. Can anyone recommend any in punggol area?

Also, does anyone have any feedbacks on the new Cedan Child Development Centre in Punggol Field?

Thank you!

 

 

looking for K2 @jurong west

My son in entering P1 next year and I try to looking for K2 @jurong west,,,,,nearby blk 732,,,

any one know / advice ,,,tks a lot.

 

Primary School Fees

Hi,

  Me and my wife are PR in Singapore. Can share with me how much is the school fees and other misc fees in SCGS? or any other schools?

  Thanks.

Regards

Enrichment Course for P1 Preparation ?

Hi, my kid will be going to P1 next year, could anyone give advise on what enrichment course to take / any quick learning methods teaching at home to prepare my girl to P1 next year within this few months as I’m working mother time is always insufficient for us.

Hi just wondering which

Hi just wondering which preeschool your son is in?

 

It's about time you change school

I went pass the school once to find some information but was put off by the ‘unviting’ approach.  Any good school should have an ‘open door’ policy & be open about their methods and notices. 

My son is currently attending a very good Preschool.  It’s bright and colourful and I get to see my son’s and other children’s work.  Because of hygience and hand foot mouth disease concern, parents are asked to drop their child at the butterfly gate but if parents would like to enter, they just have to to have their temperature taken.  The meal timetable, the weekly schedules are posted on the noticeboards for parents to view. 

When I asked the principal about the curriculum, she was happy to share with me and even gave me some information.  They even have free quarterly parenting talk for Parents which i don’t know of any other centre providing.  All the Teachers and staff are friendly and inviting which is why my son loves going there.  it seems like i am advertising but really I am glad I switched school and sent him to this one instead. 

Try checking out other centres.  Who knows it may be your best decision yet.

Josiah Montessouri

I had 2 kids at Brightstar (suntec 3rd floor) u may want to check it out too. Apparently, the school does practise parents not to step into the centre too due to Hand foot mouth disease and H1N1 recently. However, they allow us for birthday celebrations. I am not saying that Brightstar is better, but since u are around that area, feel free to explore other ‘competitors’ in the region. There is also GrowingUp Gifted opposite Brightstar.

hello guys,   can u

hello guys,

 

can u recommend me a tutor for chinese language of my son.

thanks

Did I make the right choice to send to Josiah Montessouri???

OverageMum

I am having doubts if I have sent my kid to the right school as I felt that the school seems to be operating behind "closed doors".  As a parent, I was so anxious abt my kid’s first day of school life. However, when we arrived , the school just wanted us to hand over our kid to them the first min we stepped in, and all parents were not allowed to step close to the classroom. All parents were put in a room to brief only abt what is "Montessouri method", there was no introduction of any teachers at all. As Montessouri method got no time table, till date, we only knew the term "academic" goal of our kid, nothing abt how our kid spent the 3.5hrs daily. For kid celebrating his/her birthday in school, parents are also not allowed to be in the classroom. Are all these pratices normal? Can some parents advise me?

 

My girl is in P1 this

My girl is in P1 this year.  it is indeed very helpful if the child is equipped with the basics in K2 this year before he/she moves on to P1 next year.

My girl’s kindergarten focus on hanyupinyin during then (I believe the focus during end K1 and first half of K2 was on hanyupinyin).  Aside, her chinese speech and drama class she attends also focus on that last year.  It really helps her alot when it comes to her chinese classes this year.

Since your child’s kindergarten does not cover that, you may want to look for alternative course that covers that.  

Just a suggestion 🙂 

 

According to my kid's kindy

According to my kid’s kindy teacher, MOE does not recommend that kindergartens teach hanyu pinyin before P1. JMHO : I would prefer my kid (also going to P1 next year) to focus on character recognition and develop a love for Chinese at this point in time. He is attending Chinese Speech & Drama which he loves. It’s important that he doesn’t hate Chinese. Anyway HYPY is easy to pick up so not to worry.

 

Does a K2 child need to know Hanyu Pinyin before P1?

My child in entering P1 next year and I heard from firends that they must know hanyu pinyin before P1. P1 students are taught to read thru hanyu pinyin before introducing how to recognise the chinese characters.  My child kindergarten does not cover this topic in k2.

Can someone please advise me? Thank you

 

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