I talked a little about the pri 1 registration already... and since everyone knows that Ace is going to ECPS, the next question that most people asked would be "So how is he going to school in Dubai?"
The fact of the matter is.. that when we came over, there was no school at all for Ace..
You see, Dubai is a very strange place.. despite the huge number of international schools to supply places to the "foreign talents" and their families, there is always a waiting list. Most people signed up for their schools in advance... ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE... and some even sign up at the BIRTH OF THEIR BABIES... Just last year, according to the internet article I read, there were 100 children who did not find any secondary schools to go into...
So if you think Sgp system is very hiong.. I think this one beats it:)
Anyway, back to my story.. so leh, we only decided we will come over to dubai some two months before we really did.. and it posed a little of a problem because the new term starts in early Sept and by end June, most schools already were full at sign up.. and come July and Aug, they were closed for summer holidays. So Max actually took half a day and drove to 5 different schools only to find out that most of them were already fully registered. two of them had a waiting list like 59 pax long and so the registra asked him not to even waste money trying to register himself (cos it costs $100-200 sing dollars to just register for a place lor)
The school that we were initially looking at was one of them....
In our frenzy, we seeked help from our friends in Dubai only to be told that it would be safer to register ourselves in 2-3 schools but by the time the school term ended the next day, only HORIZON had a short waiting list and allowed us to register and even asked us to send in samples of Ace's works and everything...
"Ace has a very good chance.." says the registrar after we sent her the work... since the queue waiting for a Form 2 entry is not long and they are selected based on merit, not based on who signed up first...
BUT.. the thing is that the place is NOT confirmed till the higher management is back from summer holidays in Sept... so we could do nothing but WAIT for the next two mths...
After we reached here, Max followed up with the school and we were told that Ace is invited to an assessment on the 5th of Sept. For the assessment, he has to draw a self portrait unaided and bring it along...
So being KIASU Singaporean parents, we bought Ace new pencils and colour pencils and got him to start drawing on the 3rd of Sept. Because I cannot help him, I let him decide what he wanted to draw..
But hor, he went to decide to draw the most difficult things.. RAINBOW HOUSE... gosh.. it took forever to colour it and it took Ace two days to finish it.... i almost vomit blood just nagging him to finish it...
But finally, he completed it... phew..
So on the fateful day, we were up bright and early.. tat's me getting ready. My standard hairstyle if i going somewhere nice is this wig I have because my hair dryer is still on its way here with my shipment.. I cannot blow dry my hair so everyday, ny hair is crazily turning this way and that way..
The GREEN family all ready to go for the test....
This is HORIZON school upon entry.. the school premise is rather new and the teachers and head teacher gave me a good feeling... I think Ace will like it here... Even max said now that he looked back, he was glad the other schools did not have vacancies because this school is the best amongst those he visited... and even his boss said he had initially wanted his children to come here but did not manage to get in due to waiting list..
That's my son's expression when he walked into the school.. wahahahaha.. he stressed about his assessment. I told him that the most important thing was that he enjoyed himself... because even if he did very well which I know he will, the important thing is also that they had vacancy...
Max was so kan cheong he made everyone wake at 7.15am to prepare and we reached like 20 minutes earlier than the stipulated 9am...
The head teacher came in and went round the room to shake hands with all the children present. THere were 4-5 groups of indians, some ang mos and one african family.. we are the only chinese family.. so i guess we are strange... and everyone speaks with an accent.. but luckily, they are quite easy to understand:)
Then we were told they will bring our children to a room to do an assessment and the point of it was not really to stress the children but to understand them, get to know them better and know what they can do and how they would respond to the teachers.
Ace was happy to go along by himself so we stayed behind in the waiting room to wait...
I told Max that since he din do much worrying in the pri 1 registration, now is the time for him to worry.. so I took this photo of him (and we discovered this expression is so Ace) wahahahah...
Anyway, when they finished the assessment, the teacher came back with Ace and other children and she told us, "He is an absolute star in there... I am so impressed with his drawing that I have asked him to give me this drawing so that I can put it up on my board.."
And then we were told that all the children performed well and that they would be selected upon there being any vacancy in the school.. and so, there was nothing to do again but WAIT... for another few days.. in the days after, whenever our parents contacted us, they always asked about Ace's school...
On 7th Sept, I am happy to announce, though, that Ace has been officially confirmed and recieved as a student of Horizon School! ;) Now, we just need the details and to go and buy school uniform and stuff...
PS: Ace has already gone to school for a few days and it is really so much extra work for me.. sigh, i think go school in sgp easier... update more in another post... His school bus comes at 6.30am.. so it means i got to wake 5 plus lor as I have to prepare lunch box this and that..looks like hor, i will have to live in sgp time zone while in dubai man...
Previous Post: Daddy's Birthday
No comments:
Post a Comment