P1 Registration Planner: How Long You Have, and What Is Still Reachable

Check your child’s year

Every year side by side

The exercise held in one year places children into Primary 1 the following January, so the three year columns are deliberately different numbers. Check you are reading your child’s row before acting on a date.

The two volunteer columns are MOE’s own rule applied to each year, not our forecast. The grassroots column is ours wherever it is marked as an estimate, and is explained below.

What each route needs

Parent volunteer

MOE sets two deadlines for this route and states both relative to the registration year, which is why the planner can give them for a year MOE has not yet scheduled. In MOE’s words, Phase 2B is open to a child whose parent has joined the primary school as a parent volunteer not later than 1 July of the year before P1 registration and has given at least 40 hours of voluntary service to the school by 30 June of the year of P1 registration.

See the school-by-school volunteer finder for the windows we have been able to verify.

Active community leader (grassroots)

MOE’s own text says only that the phase is open to a child whose parent is endorsed as an active grassroots leader, and sets no service period. The 2-year requirement comes from the People’s Association: two continuous years of active service immediately before you apply. Because it counts backwards from the day the exercise opens, and MOE publishes that day one year at a time, this is the one date on the page we cannot compute exactly.

Rather than print a date MOE has not published, the planner gives a month. Where MOE has published the start, it counts back exactly: the 2026 exercise opened on 30 June 2026, so the two-year point was 30 June 2024. Where it has not, the estimate is anchored on the start of June, which is earlier than the one confirmed year began, so the date shown is stricter than the real one rather than looser. Being early costs nothing here. Being late costs the route.

See the grassroots leader eligibility checker for the appointment, endorsement and 2km rules.

What this planner does not tell you

• Whether a school will accept you as a volunteer. Schools select their own, and several state that only shortlisted applicants are contacted.
• Whether either route gets your child a place. Both make a child eligible to register in Phase 2B, which can still go to a ballot.
• Your own school’s deadlines. The dates here are the national ones; a school’s window is usually earlier and is often not published at all.
• The other Phase 2B routes. A parent endorsed by a church or clan connected with the school also qualifies, on a different basis with no service period.