Primary One - First Day

Chirpy at 6.40am

The holidays just zoomed by and we are already in the fourth day of 2015. My son has to report to primary school and this being our first time as parents of a primary one kid, we were not really quite sure what to expect, especially my wife. Even a former school teacher like me was not very sure of the entire procedure - the first day of school for secondary one students is probably vastly different from the first day of school for primary school students.

Actually, the day started quite well. The journey was smooth and traffic was not that heavy until we reached Bishan, where the school was located. Traffic really slowed down tremendously within the proximity of the school. But I managed to get him and my wife into school on time. For Monday, I have already figured out my strategy to minimise traffic time.

When I arrived at the school hall after parking my car, I discovered that my son was already seated in his class and my wife was seated in a circle of parents. He seemed to be generally fine and did not even look in our direction when his class was led to their classroom.

After a briefing by the Parent Support Group (PSG), we went to peep at our son. He seemed to have generally settled in quite well. He was copying some information and seemed to be paying attention. 

My son and his P5 buddy


We saw him next in the canteen where he and his Primary Five buddy went to order food. Surprisingly, he ordered a burger (he dislikes bread) that cost $1.70. We tried our best to stay away and not hover around him (I saw many hovering parents), but he needed some help in paying. My wife had to quickly go help him take out the coins. But I think recess went relatively well. We lost track of him after his meal as his buddy brought him on a tour of the school.

Chaos in the canteen - never seen so many adults in a school canteen before!

His day in school ended up in near major disaster - the school had announced that children who were not taking the school bus, will go to the canteen to meet the parents. We camped in the canteen, and I bumped into some old schoolmates. We saw some students arriving in the canteen but there was no sign of my son, so my wife went to the classroom to check on him. To her horror, he was not in the classroom and learnt that he had told his teacher that he was taking a school bus. We did eventually find him - he was about to burst into tears at that point!

I guess we have only ourselves to blame. We realised that we did not go through the 'going home' procedure with him. For some reason, he remembered a conversation some time ago about him taking a school bus and assumed that it still stood. Even though the school was not clear about how to deal with students who did not take the school bus (the school said they would send them to the canteen, but the teacher kept them back in class), it was good to see that the school obviously knew that there would be confused kids and had a SOP for what to do. I managed to get information about my son because I managed to identify the bus co-ordinator and he had the information (this is the reason why schools appoint one vendor and seldom change - sometimes the cheapest quote is not the best quote, so the public can screw it if they keep complaining).

It was really an eventful day. I hope that we can 'improve' his school going experience on the second day. So we have learnt our lesson - go through the whole day with him so that he is not confused. Other than that, I think we have done quite all right. My wife has now met some of the other mothers and is contact with them. They have been sharing information on What'sApp. I think the second day should be easier. I am keeping my fingers crossed (and toes as well). 

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