The 1 km and 2 km Rule: How Home-School Distance Decides P1 Places
How MOE measures home-school distance for Primary 1 registration, what the 1 km, 1–2 km and beyond-2 km bands are worth, and why they only matter when a phase goes to a ballot.
SG Block Index · rules checked 18 August 2026 · block data from snapshot 2026-11
How MOE measures it
MOE measures the distance from the school’s boundary to the outline of the residential building at your registered address, using SLA’s OneMap. Two consequences follow, and both surprise people:
- It is not walking distance. A block separated from the school by a canal, an expressway or a rail corridor can be inside the 1 km band while being a 20-minute walk away. The band says nothing about how the school run actually feels.
- It is not measured postal-code to postal-code. Because it runs from school boundary to building outline, a large school site or a long block can shift the answer near a band edge. This is why an unofficial measurement and MOE’s can disagree by a few dozen metres.
The only authoritative check is MOE’s SchoolFinder, which reports your band for a given address and school.
What the bands are worth
Nothing, until a phase is oversubscribed. Then everything — see how balloting works. MOE fills places from Citizens within 1 km downwards, and the ballot runs only in the band where the places run out. So the 1 km band is not a queue-jump; it is a position in a queue that may or may not be reached.
The practical read: at an undersubscribed school, distance is irrelevant. At a school that balloted within the 1 km band last year, a 1.1 km address is effectively out of contention in Phase 2C. Most schools sit between those two poles.
The ring data on this site
For each of the 182 primary schools in the snapshot, we list the scored HDB blocks inside its 1 km ring and its 1–2 km ring — 5,954 distinct blocks sit inside at least one primary school’s 1 km ring. The rings vary enormously with where a school sits:
Admiralty Primary School in Woodlands has 80 scored HDB blocks inside 1 km; Methodist Girls' School (Primary) in Bukit Timah has 1. A school on the edge of a landed estate or an industrial area can have a 1 km ring with almost no HDB in it, which changes who its Phase 2C applicants realistically are.
Widest HDB catchments
| School | Town | Blocks in 1 km | 1–2 km |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admiralty Primary School | Woodlands | 80 | 80 |
| Ahmad Ibrahim Primary School | Yishun | 80 | 80 |
| Alexandra Primary School | Bukit Merah | 80 | 80 |
| Anchor Green Primary School | Seng Kang | 80 | 80 |
| Ang Mo Kio Primary School | Ang Mo Kio | 80 | 80 |
| Angsana Primary School | Tampines | 80 | 80 |
| Beacon Primary School | Bukit Panjang | 80 | 80 |
| Bedok Green Primary School | Bedok | 80 | 80 |
| Bendemeer Primary School | Kallang | 80 | 80 |
| Boon Lay Garden Primary School | Jurong West | 80 | 80 |
| Bukit Panjang Primary School | Bukit Panjang | 80 | 80 |
| Bukit View Primary School | Bukit Batok | 80 | 80 |
Tightest HDB catchments
Fewest scored HDB blocks inside 1 km. A short list here usually means landed housing, private condominiums, water or industry inside the ring — not that the school is remote.
| School | Town | Blocks in 1 km | 1–2 km |
|---|---|---|---|
| Methodist Girls' School (Primary) | Bukit Timah | 1 | 35 |
| Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) | Central | 2 | 73 |
| Raffles Girls' Primary School | Bukit Timah | 2 | 5 |
| Nanyang Primary School | Bukit Timah | 7 | 35 |
| Chij Our Lady Queen Of Peace | Bukit Panjang | 13 | 80 |
| Tanjong Katong Primary School | Marine Parade | 17 | 80 |
| Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School | Bukit Timah | 20 | 22 |
| St. Margaret'S School (Primary) | Central | 20 | 80 |
| Bukit Timah Primary School | Bukit Timah | 21 | 80 |
| St. Joseph'S Institution Junior | Novena | 27 | 80 |
| Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) | Queenstown | 28 | 80 |
| Henry Park Primary School | Bukit Timah | 28 | 80 |
The condition attached
A place won through distance priority comes with a residence commitment: see the 30-month stay rule. And if you are considering moving to get inside a band, read what that actually buys you first.
Frequently asked questions
- How does MOE measure home-school distance?
- From the school's boundary to the outline of the residential building at your registered address, using SLA's OneMap. It is not walking distance and not a postal-code-to-postal-code measurement. Check your band on MOE's SchoolFinder.
- Does living within 1 km guarantee a place?
- No. It places you in the top band for your citizenship group when a phase is oversubscribed. If that band alone exceeds the available places, the ballot runs within it.
- How many HDB blocks are within 1 km of a primary school?
- 5,954 of the 10,690 scored HDB blocks in the snapshot sit inside at least one primary school's 1 km ring (snapshot 2026-11).
More on the rules
How P1 Balloting Works in Singapore
Reserved places, the priority ladder, and what the computerised draw actually does.
The 30-Month Stay Rule
Use the 1 km band and you commit to the address for 30 months. Here's the fine print.
The P1 Parent Volunteer Route
Two deadlines, 40 hours, and no guarantee. The honest version.
Citizens, PRs and International Students
Citizenship outranks distance. What that means for PR and IS families.