Looking for Primary One School

Year end approaching and my eldest daughter will be 5 years old next year. It's time looking for primary one school for registration.

There are some question we asked ourselves whether to send her to national school (kebangsaan or jenis kebangsaan), private school or home school? One clear differentiation is national school is free education and private is not. Some thoughts we have :

1. What type of friends she will have in school? We came to conclusion that it's the area where the school is. As she starts to go to school, peer influence will exist. External influence is something we can't control. Therefore, we are building trust and communication habits at home. This will allow her to channel her thoughts to us when she comes back from school.

2. Is money a real concern? As the school fees in private go by semester, it looks small after breakdown by 3 months. The only factor that hold us back is, if private school, it's using national syllabus and maths & science is in BM except some school use Singapore syllabus concurrently. So why private?

3. We are the parents who believe in supplementing our child outdoor activities on top what the school provide. Because we believe we are building relationship while supporting her along the way. One of the reason of sending to private is the wholesome plan provided in the timetable, academic & extra curricular. If we send her to national school, we can supplement her extra curricular in the afternoon. So? Again no appealing reason yet to send her to private school.

4. I think if control is something we want, private school might be the choice. The perception is, if we as consumer pay, we will have rights to voice our concern when our child is not progressing well. Is that something parents do for their private school going children?

5. I was told, type of principal in the school is important. They determine the culture practice in school. To certain extent, I know this is true. If the principal is a loving principal, the teachers will follows.

I think end of the day, we choose based on informations that matches our family needs. Perhaps location is important for working parents either near their work place or baby sitter place. For full time mom, traffic might be a concern as stuck in traffic jam in the morning or afternoon is not fun :>

We knew this is a process..