7 questions to ask your child

After PSLE: Choosing a secondary school

- Elisa Chia Correspondent

Principal Lee Han Hwa of St Andrew's School (Secondary) with his students, who won the National School Games C Division rugby boys final on Aug 20. A question parents can explore with their Primary 6 children is whether the secondary school they are considering has a CCA the kids will enjoy. PHOTO: ST ANDREW'S SCHOOL (SECONDARY) Catholic High school principal Yvonne Teo with Year 2 students Sun Zixuan (centre) and Aiden Chua. PHOTO: CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Temasek Junior College (left) has an integrated programme that admits students at the Secondary 1 level. PHOTO: TEMASEK JUNIOR COLLEGE

(ST ANDREW'S SCHOOL (SECONDARY) CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL TEMASEK JUNIOR COLLEGE)

As the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results are expected to be released between Nov 24 and 26, parents are likely discussing secondary school options with their Primary 6 children.

For those who have not secured a place through the Direct School Admission exercise, the next step involves shortlisting six schools and ranking them by preference.

This Secondary 1 posting process begins once PSLE results are out and parents have seven days to submit the choices.

Consider each of the six school choices carefully, ensuring they have diverse cutoff points. Parents and their children can use the previous year's PSLE score range listed in SchoolFinder (str.sg/iCeY) on the Ministry of Education's (MOE) website as a reference.

During a parliamentary session on Jan 8, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang encouraged students and parents to look beyond the school's cutoff points and factor in its culture and programmes, and students' interests and strengths.

He was addressing concerns that some children who sat the PSLE in 2024 did not make it to their preferred secondary schools.