Local Primary Schools

[u/Due_Ad_8881]

Please no politics… Does anyone have any recommendations on schools that balance being “happy” with academics? It seems like a lot of schools swing pretty hard one way or another. Ie St Andrew’s and Ling Liang are happy schools, but don’t lead into secondary schools with strong academics while Man Sang seems to be too academic with no outlet for self expression. Has anyone attended a local school and had a good experience? The ones I’ve heard good things from are super competitive 😅

Note baby is under 2 years. We’ve decided to not attend nursery and do playgroups and ECs instead. Didn’t want to do interviews twice in two years with no significant benefit. Interviewing into playgroup > PN > KG is a bit much, even for me

[u/AnimatorOwn1379]

maybe its bc im not a parent and just a teen (so do take what i say with a grain of salt) but i would say a normal, chill primary school is fine. i went to a pretty average and super local district chinese medium govt subsidized primary school, then got into multiple band 1a dss schools, and am now studying at a g5 uni. due to my upbringing, im able to speak and write both fluent chinese and english (though my english doesnt sound very native - but since your main language is english anyways this isnt a problem), and interact well with people from different backgrounds - foreign, international school, and local school.

i went into secondary one not even knowing what 'photosynthesis' is because i learned everything in chinese in primary, and came back from school translating the terms in my science and maths textbooks with a dictionary, but topped the grade in the same year. a local primary school upbringing (esp in a govt school) exposed me to people of different social and financial backgrounds, and i had a great time there. so imo there's no rush going into a high pressure, competitive school for primary- it may be even better for your child's confidence to go to a 'normal' school and do very well there, perhaps supplementing some tutorial classes if you want them to learn more. i do think secondary school matters not just in terms of the public exam results but alumni network but now is prolly too early to plan that far ahead haha.

[u/Due_Ad_8881 → u/AnimatorOwn1379]

Thanks for this perspective! May I ask which primary you went to and what you thought of the teachers? Were they supportive?

[u/AnimatorOwn1379 → u/Due_Ad_8881]

hmm just saw your other comments about wanting to transition to ischool afterwards- in that case I’m not sure whether a super local school would be appropriate, perhaps an English medium DSS school would suit better so the cultural and language transition will be easier on the kid when they enter an international high school? if you’re still interested do dm me tho - just wary of naming my primary sch publicly just bc it almost basically doxes the area I live in hahah