writing

Recently Aiden has learnt to write his name. He takes great care to get the shapes right - joining up the little parts of letters that didn't get closed properly.

primary school woes

mae's entry:

I thought I was being overly "kiasu" (slang for antsy or afraid of losing out) by doing some reseach on which primary school to send Aiden to (Primary 1 starts the year kids turn 7). Aiden is 3.5 years old now, i.e. turning 4 this year.

So imagine my surprise and annoyance when I discovered that a school we were hoping to send Aiden to had:
(1) closed submissions for the Parent Volunteer Program for kids born in Aiden's year i.e. Primary 1 commencing in 2012!!!
(2) was NOT within a 2km radius as we had initially thought. We are *just* on the outskirts, say another 200-300m.

For those not familiar with the Singapore school admissions entry, here is the system of entry in descending order of hierarchy:

Phase 1: A sibling is attending the school of choice (aka The Hallowed Category)

We had the foresight to have 2 kids of the same gender precisely because of the admissions process. If Aiden gets into a good school now, this will benefit Elliot later.

Phase 2A: Parents who are an alumni of the school (aka the Old Boys Club)
Clearly not an option since Andy didn't attend school here. Someone suggested we get a divorce, I marry someone who attended a good school and get a divorce once Aiden is accepted. Funny, twisted, yet oddly methodical advice. But we're not *that* desperate, thank you.

Phase 2B: There are 3 possibilities (aka We Will Give You A Glimmer of Hope)
parents who are from a clan/church/association that's affiliated to the school

OR

a parent who is a community leader (they didn't specify what community...we do have a wonderful community of aphids that's flourishing. but if they count, we won't exterminate them)

OR

a parent who has volunteered at the school.

Phase 2C: The Category of Doom

This is if you're ineligible for any of the above categories.

But wait there's more:

Should the number of applicants in any phase exceed the number of places, there is balloting based on distance to the school - first, a 1km radius, then 2km radius, followed by those that live beyond the revered radius, aka the Land of Doom (please refer to the Category of Doom above)

It was some consolation that we found out the number of parents who signed up for the Parent Volunteer Programme in the abovementioned school exceeded the number of vacancies by two-fold, so balloting would take place, and we probably would not have gone through the programme knowing we didn't have a good chance of placement (since we live in the Land of Doom).

But it just showed that the admissions process is well underway for the better schools and NOW is the time to start planning.