First Term Guide for Singapore Primary Schools

A child’s mental and emotional readiness is crucial to starting the year on the right foot and I’ve written this article to address that with 4 main groups of students.

Primary 1: Dealing with a new environment

This first step into a new environment is daunting to many children. Many will have separation anxiety, and some parents will do too. It’s very important to speak to your child about this the night before and the first morning that you send your child to school. Be excited about it.

Your child can feel your anxiousness and will likely carry that for the whole day.

The same is true with confidence and excitement. Empower your child to have a good day. When you get to the school, let them go. The teachers are professionals and know what they are doing. Encourage your child to make new friends. It’s a whole new adventure.

You should also have a conversation with your child about the following contingencies:

1. Having an “accident”

Not all kids are adequately toilet trained for their first day. Schools are well prepared for classroom “accidents”.

Your child should not feel embarrassed and should immediately approach their teacher for help, especially before his or her classmates pick up on the scent. Imagine five or six kids shouting to the teacher that your child pooped in their pants. Kids are brutally honest.

A helpful staff will accompany your child to the general office where they have stock of fresh new shorts and skirts. Laundry services will unlikely be provided.

2. Having an accident

If your child can see blood, bone or blue and black bruising, they need medical attention. If it’s too painful to walk, your child should get a friend to go to the General Office for help. Outside of the classroom, teach your child that the General Office is the go-to place for assistance. They will inform the form teacher if necessary.

No blood, bone or blue black bruising? Dust it off and carry on playing.

3. Handling money

It would be good to make a trip down to the school to check out the canteen prices. Give your child only what he or she needs. It would be good to discuss with them how they would spend their money.

For example, if you have $2, what will you buy? This would also be a good time to talk about healthy and unhealthy food choices.

Most importantly, teach your children to keep their money with them and out of sight. Most thefts happen during recess when other students sneak past the prefects and into the empty classrooms.

Primary 3: Academic shift

Many children are unprepared for the shift from portfolios to more standard examination formats.

Practices vary from school to school; however, assessments will generally become more formal. The shift from qualitative feedback, i.e. “Good job!” and “Great effort!”, to more quantitative results, i.e. scores and grades, can be very confusing.

Help your child understand what the scores mean. It is much more than pass or fail. Better yet, help your child understand the importance of mistakes, identify the gaps and how to overcome them.

Tasks at this level also need more thinking, particularly analysis and reflection. While Primary 1 and 2 curricula is more geared towards learning “what”, your child will now need to also consider “why”. Why are things being done that way? Why are they even doing certain things? Your child will need to own their own learning development.

Primary 5: Increased difficulty

The biggest change you should prepare your child, as well as yourself, for, is the drop in grades; particularly in Mathematics and Science.

There will be a sudden increase in the difficulty and requirements for both subjects. This is due to a whole lot more content being compressed into the year.

Schools usually do this to complete the syllabus earlier in the year for Primary 6, giving them more time to do revision before the PSLE. Do not be alarmed if your child does not perform as well as they did in Primary 4. This is normal.

Definitely, do not scold or punish your child. The sudden change is already stressful and demoralising as it is. Help them to cope. Support them or get them support if you need to.

Primary 6: Last check

This is the crucial year. I would suggest sitting down with your child and running through a checklist of what they should have mastered in Primary 5.

Gear them up for the revision phase which usually starts in Term 2.

If your child is not doing well academically, don’t let them make generic pigeon-holing statements like, “I’m bad at Maths.” In fact, if you have a tendency to describe your child in those terms, you should stop.

Instead, help them be specific about where the gaps are. I reject those statements in my classroom and I counter with, for example, “There are only some topics in Maths that you need help with. You are good at some topics too.”

Then, as I’ve probably already done a diagnostic on them, I would let them know where their strengths are, and where their weaknesses are. I will then follow up with some remediation on those weak areas. Help your child to do the same – to know their own strengths and weaknesses.

If your child is doing well, self-assessment is even more crucial. There will always be gaps. Don’t let them be complacent. They should spend less time practising things they are already good at, although they should not totally neglect them. Instead, they should invest time to be critical of themselves and continue to work towards doing their utmost best.

As parents, you can play a huge part in helping your child start the year right. As the proverb goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Help your child make it a great first step.

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