KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Erm .. My dd and i are in a Dilemma as we are considering whether to change schools or not as dd's school is quite far from home and she did very well in school exams ( 4th in express cohot ) so we are thinking if she could transfer to a better and nearer school .

P.S . I believe there was some problem in PSLE as she did worse then her standard so the school she went to is also of a slightly lower standard to her ( hence the good results)

Why not give it a try since there are benefits in transferring. You got nothing to lose, so better do it fast.

Good luck!

I agree. Better to do it when it's still early. Easier to settle down in the new school. Good luck!

But .. Are there cons to this ?
I am not sure weather to change or not ..
She can't decide too

Well, she may loose her CCA points accumulated in S1.

She can work doubly hard from Sec 2 onwards to earn back the CCA points, eg, leadership roles.

Which school is good ?

Just to share, my DD also transferred school in Sec 2 this year. Her PSLE result too was way much lower than her usual school standard. Being in the school's top class since P3, all of us including her teachers were expecting a 240+, but she shocked everyone with only a 210. Thus she was posted to a neighborhood school which is just within walking distance, but we had never ever considered it in the past years. Well, she also did very well in school, being the big fish in a small pond. However, she was not happy at all in that school as the teachers were not exactly very motivating and her classmates were not exactly very keen in learning either. She behaved very much like a walking dead everyday, and she had no sense of belonging there. So I was very determined to transfer her out, as I feel that the poor learning environment would greatly affect her. Once the report book was released, I immediately appealed to a few schools with COP ranged from 220-245. I was either rejected flat on the face, saying that her PSLE score was too low from their COP and that my DD may not be able to cope, or I totally didn't hear from the schools. The good news from one of the few appealed schools only came in on the last week of Term 1 this year. Without hesitation, I did all the paper work and bought all the uniforms and books within a day, and my DD reported to her new school on the very next day.

Another main reason for the transfer is that the Sec 3 subject combinations being offered in DD's former school are very limited. The former school does not offer 8-subject combination as the principal does not think that the pupils can cope with it. The school only offers 7-subject and 6-subject combination, mainly with Combined Science for its Express cohort. As a parent, I think the subject combinations being offered by the school is very important as it determines what courses to take in next higher level of learning. DD hopes to study JC and has always wanted to do a Triple Science or Double Science+Double Humanities combination with Literature, which is not possible in that former school. Right now, DD is assigned to her dream subject combination, and she gets to study pure Literature and elective History in Sec 3.

We never regretted the decision though DD has to wake up much earlier and spends longer time on traveling, familiarizing with new environment and people, has to work her butt out in bridging the gap between the two schools' standard, and also forfeited her Sec 1 CCA points. DD is very much happier now as the teachers and pupils are much more motivated towards teaching/learning. She adapts well to the new school and has a strong sense of belonging. She is also being exposed to many leadership courses, which her former school didn't offer at all.

If you are really keen in transferring, do start it earlier and to a few schools too, before the schools are busy entertaining parents after PSLE result release and school posting, or the school principals are going on leave. These were my personal experiences. On one case shortly after the release of PSLE result, I was stopped from entering one of the appealed schools by the security officer as instruction was given to them not to allow parents who wanted to do Sec 1 appeal to enter school as the general office had received overwhelming response from parents wanting to appeal. Despite I tried explaining that I wasn't appealing for Sec 1 but for Sec 2 and had spoken to one of the staffs on phone, I was still not allowed to enter. After good 20 min or so , the security officer managed to locate that staff whom I had spoken to earlier, and was then allowed entry. I went down to school personally because they claimed that they didn't receive my appeal form together with copies of supporting document which I had mailed out 2 weeks ago. The other case was the school vice principal called to inform that they had received my appeal letter but due to principal was on leave, they could only revert to me on the following week. However one month had passed and nothing was heard since last conversion with the VP. When I emailed the VP to check on my appeal status, then he told me that they had been busy with the release of N level result and Sec 1 school posting, as such it was his oversight to inform me that my appeal was unsuccessful!

A better tomorrow wrote:What do you all think about tkss , zhonghua, and chungcheng(main) ?
Any schools to recommend for transfer ?
We are staying at Eunos .

They are all good schools with COP of 230+, maybe you would like to consider TKGS too, which is of the same range?
No harm trying for all of your preferred choices at the same time and see which one replies. I wasted too much time waiting for one school to reply before going on to the next school on our appeal list. I thought it wasn't too nice to reject any one of them should more than 1 school accepted our appeal. However it didn't occur to me then that maybe no school even wanted to accept my DD's appeal. I thought that the transfer would be easy since DD's Sec 1 result was so good. Never did I expect that she was rejected due to her PSLE result. So sad that the schools were still looking at PSLE achievement and not her Sec 1 achievement... We were truly grateful that DD's current school accepted her. On the day I went to do the paper work, the Admin Manager told me that my DD needs to work hard as her PSLE score was way much lower than school's COP.