Returning to Singapore School – More Than SPERS

SPERS registration season starts from July each year! That’s the School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans, for Singaporean students intending to return to Singapore schools in Sec 1-3 or JC1 the following January. The tests are held in September (Sec 1-3) and November (JC1). While it’s an important step to part of getting kids back to Singapore school, there are other aspects that are as important to prepare for as well.

In 2013, my family returned to Singapore after living overseas most of the previous 12 years. My children were 14 and 16 years old and preparing to enter Singapore schools. One was scheduled to take internal school tests as she already had a school place, and the other was going to take the SPERS-JC/MI. Of course, they had been doing some studying (amidst all the packing and saying goodbyes), but we tried not to stress studies too much during what was already a challenging transition.

As teenagers, their greater concern was about making friends and fitting in. Would their schoolmates be very cliquish? Would they be teased or bullied? The experiences from three school immersion periods over the years made the prospect of Singapore school feel less strange, but they were now older, and not going to the same school as before. As TCKs, they both belonged and yet didn’t belong in Singapore. I’m glad to say that despite initial discomforts, their overall experience of settling into their new schools was relatively smooth. They fairly quickly made new friends in school and church, joined CCAs, and Singapore started to feel more familiar.

What did we do to try to ease this transition for our children? Starting early, in fact, years in advance, here are few things we did:

• We spoke positively about Singapore in general, and schools in particular, while not sugar-coating the negatives.

• We didn’t make a huge deal of the tests and school selection. Instead, we taught them the Majulah and the Pledge, and some Singlish! This eased some of the strangeness.

• We taught them a few “conversation starters” and ways to make social connections with schoolmates.

• We focused on bridging the gaps between what they learned in their overseas school and the Singapore curriculum so as not to over-burden them with studying two full curricula.

I wish all TCKs returning to Singapore an equally smooth re-entry to school with lots of new friends!

* A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is someone who has spent a significant part of their childhood living outside their passport country.