"Good outcomes can come out of bad outcomes"

When we received Tai Pi's PSLE results two months back and were informed that she did not meet MOE's benchmark for homeschoolers and hence would have to re-take the PSLE, we were given two options - have her sit for the PSLE as a homeschooler again the following year or enrol her in a mainstream school as a P6 student. Apparently the benchmark for homeschoolers taking the PSLE for the 2nd time is lower - having only to qualify for the Normal Academic Stream (I didn't bother to ask the MOE why the difference in benchmark for 1st and 2nd timers and for that matter why the difference between mainstream students and homeschoolers because I don't expect any logical explanation); something Tai Pi can easily manage. However we decided to send her back to school where she could have new experiences so that 2011 would not seem a repeat of 2010.

Not just any school though. Pumpkin, who went back to school after two years of homeschooling, and Sai Pi, have been attending a nearby convent school since last year and have been pretty happy there. Tai Pi had been to the school on a number of occasions, met her sisters' classmates and even accompanied me in helping out with the P1 concert last year. She had developed a fondness for the school and wished that I had enrolled her there in P1 instead of another school also in the Katong area where she spent her first three years of primary school.

I staked out the Principal's office, waiting to catch her. She had a very busy schedule so that when I finally did get to see her, I was told I had just 5 minutes. But that was all the time it took anyway for her to agree to accept Tai Pi and so it was that Tai Pi got her wish (so it is true what they say - "be careful what you wish for"!).

"Good outcomes can come out of bad outcomes", Tai Pi declared. Yes indeed.

The three sisters, on their way to school on the first day of school in Mummy's new car (note the "P" plate on the back windscreen).