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KiasuParents Huddle: P1 Registration

School Choice, P1 Readiness, and Academic Pressure

24 June 2026 (Wed)

8PM to 9.30PM

If you are:

Shortlisting schools, but not sure how to choose a "good" school?
Unsure if your child is "ready" for P1?

Join us for a 90-minute conversation, and get answers to:

How to choose a primary school when academics are a real concern
What parents can do now to prepare children for P1 routines and expectations
How to support your child without making primary school feel stressful from the start

Panellist

Chong Ee Jay

Seasoned family life educator and counsellor with over 15 years of experience

Trusted voice across English and Chinese media, including expert panels, radio, and television

Devoted husband, hands-on father, and occasional marathon runner

Panellist

Esther Foong

Family life education specialist, educator, and mother of two teenagers

14 years in Singapore’s public education system; currently supervising trainee teachers

Passionate about helping parents understand Generation Alpha and build strong family connections

Moderator

Carol Loi

Maxwell Leadership Certified Youth & Family Coach

Sign up now →

thebottomsupblog

Something else we could chat about: Should we use our SkillsFuture for fun courses?

This came up recently as a conversation topic, when an MP questioned if SkillsFuture should cover courses like wine appreciation:

One take was that this is a very narrow view of the “SkillsFuture mission.” In fact I heard that a manager/director type actually encourages her team to go for such courses, to better relate to high net worth individuals!

Personally, I think that we can (and should) split our time between upskilling and having some fun. That’s what makes us interesting. In fact, later in the year, I’m planning to sign up for dance and rock drumming classes, but those aren’t covered by SkillsFuture!

thebottomsupblog

@LaserEye I like that you laid it out for her that way; it’s very clear.

My husband is a teacher, so we get to hear his stories too. In fact recently something happened at one of his school camps, which was similar to what you recounted.

Just musing on this:

Sometimes, it can be very surprising/hurtful/jarring when we’re on the receiving end of negative behaviours. And we might feel that if we had caused any pain, even accidentally, we would have displayed much more care.

In most instances, how we handle these situations says a lot about our personality and values, and our ability to manage our own emotions. At the same time, some parents could be facing multiple stressors, e.g. financial/caregiving pressures or marital breakdowns/personal issues, which might lead to the avoidance patterns that you described…

thebottomsupblog

@LaserEye Hi! It sounds distressing for your daughter, as well as you.

Have you asked your daughter how she feels about this, and whether she thinks it was not an accident?

Are you concerned about her safety in school around that student?

thebottomsupblog

The KiasuParents PSLE Preparation guide is here!

https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/psle

thebottomsupblog

I’m into my second/final term for my specialist diploma! Even for online classes, it can be tiring especially if we’re doing this after work.

By now, I’ve taken 3 programmes that are marketed to career switchers, and just to share some tips about outcomes, based on my personal experience:

Ideally, choose courses based on personal interest, but temper your expectations about job placements. It’s healthier to view each course that you take as a stepping stone towards a new path, as opposed to guaranteed employment.
Placement success rates will vary by cohorts; anecdotally, those over 50 years old will likely experience job hunting challenges, especially for tech-related roles. Depending on job availability, offered placements may not be in an area related to the training course that you took. However, these may still be rare opportunities to work in MNCs or emerging smaller firms, so it’s good to keep an open mind.
Ageism exists. Some advice that I’ve personally received: remove all dates from resumes, trim work experience to about 10 years, and expect a low response rate for applications (when I was trying to look for a career switch role, my callback rate was about 12% and I was told it was actually not too bad for that season).
Job hunting can drag on for months, and this will usually take a toll on your morale, especially if your financial contribution to the family is needed. It’s important to have your support networks in place.
In every course/programme, there are success stories… don’t be too swayed by these. Ultimately, your ability to thrive depends on your own skill set, personality, and drive. Be flexible about what it means to “succeed”: there are also individuals who return to their previous industries to take on different opportunities with their new skills/perspectives!

thebottomsupblog

Our P1 registration “early risk assessment” data for 2026 is up!

2026 P1 Balloting Risk

I’m from the KiasuParents team. On our team, we have parents with primary schoolers, as well as parents who are familiar with affiliated schools. We can also tap into our parent network to answer any questions you might have!

My #2 is currently in secondary school. We actually ignored all the highly popular schools that were nearer to us, and went to ballot at Phase 2B for SJIJ, which was more than 2km away We were very lucky to get a place at the time; it seems much less likely now!

Our decision-making process for choosing schools was quite straightforward. We wanted a gentler environment, and schools that focused on values. I attended MGS/RGPS, so my #1 had two schools to choose from, and we chose MGS.

For both these primary schools, I would say it’s been very positive for both my kids.

thebottomsupblog

@rinsider To answer your question: My two kids were unplanned, although they came after marriage haha.

I was not the type of person who needed to have kids, although I’m very glad that I did, and I do live for them, in many ways. For one, they’ve made me improve myself so that they would have a better role model.

My life with kids is infinitely better, but I wouldn’t really want to prescribe this to someone else, as we’re all different.

If we’d had more access to resources when we were 20-somethings, be it the social media financial experts or AI, I think we might’ve done a lot of things differently too!

thebottomsupblog

PSLE Cut-Off Points for the 2026 Sec 1 Intake

New COP guide on the KiasuParents website!

You can filter by COP ≤ 9, 10 – 13, 14 – 18, ≥ 19

Or view schools by IP, affiliation, or SAP.

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