Last week, Tee went by herself without me to sit for her assessment exam to big school. My little almost 5 year old (yes, she’s still little to me) braved it without her Mama and I am so proud of her. Remember she was supposed to sit for this exam when T2 was about to arrive? We managed to postpone it with the school 3 times before I decided that I shouldn’t push my luck, so off she went without me.

She sat in a classroom with a few peers and a lot more older kids, all sitting the entrance exam into different levels of the school and was sent out half an hour early before time was up. When the Hubs told me, I was rather concerned…..what happened? There was also a little boy crying in there and I heard from previous entrance exams that several kids would be crying. Thankfully, my girl was sent out early because she had finished her papers early and had re-checked them thus had nothing else to do. When the exam invigilator sent her out, she told the Hubs that his daughter was brilliant. Her exact words. I assume she must’ve looked through Tee’s papers to check if she had done all her work correctly.

When Tee came home, I asked her about the exam and she said it was super easy. That’s my little cocky girl. One day she’ll just have to learn the hard way because no amount of talking has been able to change her cocky attitude *sigh*

Anyway, about this school – just to highlight how different people have such different views on it.

Mother A – totally hates the school but has her kid there because her husband says so. She says the school is lousy in that they are lazy and un-proactive (like when I say I’m expecting the school to call me, she would say they would never call and if I wanted an answer, then I’d better call them and by the way, the school called on the very day that Mom told me they would never call); she feels the school lies about their stand on how their students should not be going for after school tuition when after you enter the school, you find out that EVERY student is going for tuition and if you don’t send your own kid for tuition, then your kid is going to be left far behind. She feels that the school should be helping the students excel rather than parents having to send their kids for after school tuition. There are more complaints but I can’t remember all of them now. Oh, one is that the teachers don’t care and after swimming, kids have to fend for themselves in drying their bodies and hair themselves. She also complaints that the school serves curry puff for snack and that her daughter refuses to eat school food as it is crap.

Mother B – says her son has just started loving school and although they hardly have play time in school, the kids find their own little ways to have fun. The work is very easy and her son is bored but he still has challenges in swimming (which he hates as he is short and cannot reach the floor of the pool) and Bahasa (which is not his mother tongue). She claims that she doesn’t know anyone who goes for tuition and in fact, the school offers slower kids after school tuition so you don’t have to send your kids outside for tuition. Her own son does not go for any tuition as she feels the school hours are long enough and besides, tuition is really not necessary. She feels that Mother A has a very biased view of the school because Mother A’s daughter has been crying everyday up to recently (Mother A never told me that) and because her child is not coping, her mother too is not coping.

Mother C – her daughter has no problems at all at this school but this is a mother who practices spelling with her daughter till 11pm at night just so her daughter will do well. She has nothing negative to say about the school but recently is pulling her kid out of this school into International School due to the change of syllabus from the Government to teach in Bahasa rather than English. This girl had a full afternoon of activities after school though it wasn’t academic tuition rather it was music classes, ballet classes, Mandarin classes…….you name it.

Mother D – her child has been there for 9 years and has glorious things to say about the school. In fact, her daughter loves school and recently, she was pulled out because she could no longer cope with the high standard of Bahasa but despite being in a new school, she still returns to this old school to help out and participate with their extra-curriculur activities, just because she loves the school and its culture so much.

Mother E – her daughter hates school as she feels there are too many cliques and you are either in the top crowd or you get shoved aside. She says prefects in school have a lot of power and can do almost anything to incriminate students. She also feels that it is a pressure cooker in school as everything is about your performance.

Mother F – her child is doing OK and although he is not the top in class, he has a competitive spirit, is confident and keeps striving to achieve. She says it is the culture of the school to be competitive. It is good to have healthy competition and her son loves it. He is happy in all social aspects and gets along well with his peers and teachers although he is not top in class. He does not have tuition either.

With so many differing views on one particular school, how do you decide on whether the school is right for your child or not?

Almost everyone says that Tee is suited to the school because she is naturally competitive in nature and loves academic work (although she also loves non-academic work, she is just damn ‘kiasu’ and cannot lose) and loves being the best. But what if she isn’t the best??? Will that dampen her spirits and demotivate her or will it make her strive harder? How would I know?

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Who is Mamapumpkin?
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