When we started deciding on moving from our condo in Ortigas to a house in Antipolo, our decision heavily relied on an opening in Assumption Antipolo for our eldest who at the time was turning Grade 3. After looking at some potential houses on sale, I inquired at AA’s admission office and luckily, they are opening their Grade 3 class!
It was just perfect timing and we felt that we were really being pushed to move. It’s like when you feel that everything points to that direction and you just have to stop thinking. You do it!
My eldest is from Poveda since Kinder 1 and she has so many great friends there that she didn’t want to leave. It was a hard decision for her at first. I remember feeling very guilty that we were thinking of moving her away from her friends.
Summer in the new school
What we did was we enrolled her on a summer tennis camp in Assumption Antipolo so that she will have the “feel” of the school and hopefully meet new friends even before the school year starts. It was a great decision because my daughter grew familiar with the school and the premises considering that it’s such a huge campus. By the first day of school, she knew her way.
Warmest of Welcome
It was a year of firsts for my daughter and for our entire family but Assumption Antipolo made is so much easy for my girl. We never had the crying bouts like I would expect. She was really happy with her school, her teachers and her classmates. In fact, she ran for batch representative/class president and won! I was really surprised that she came out of her shell at such a short stay with the new school.
The Grade 3 girls, all 17 of them, are pretty famous in their first year because they were “favorites”. Always special mention during school gatherings, masses and celebrations. They always get the loudest cheer from their Ates in the higher grades and in High school.
Academic Excellence
Assumption Antipolo has the highest rating from PAASCU and that says a lot about their capacity to enrich my daughter academic wise. But that’s not just it. It’s a Catholic school with Sisters supporting the school administration and that’s really my big take there. I am a product of a Dominican school and I know that it has really helped me in my “adulting” years.
Yesterday was the last day of school and I have been in close contact with the teachers and the administration because we’re part of the Family Council officers (unknowingly, we became close friends with the FC President during our summer trips in AA and she asked me and Troy to be the Grade 3 Chaircouple! )
The girls had alternative classes for a whole week or more where they became cashiers, assistant cook, helper, etc for a day. The school organizes activities for the girls that helps with their skills and talents as well.
The parents are also part of the education system. We have projects together (even the junior nurseries have this!) as a family. Parents have recollections and free seminars about parenting, safety, etc.
The kids are taught to be independent, to know sacrifice, to be Christ-like, to be kind, to be loving, to be simple and prayerful.
Family First
My husband and I might have a little fear with our move but today, it’s pretty clear that we made a great choice. We both had great adjustment with our travel time from Antipolo to our office in Ortigas (hello, traffic!) But we were able to work around it and still be with our girls most of the time.
