[Ang Mo Kio/Bishan/Thomson/Toa Payoh] Preschools

[SMILEY]

phankao:

How is their Chinese standard?

Hi phankao,

Currently, my K2 son is having 30 mins Chinese lesson daily. As for spelling, they are done weekly. And on Fridays, there will be sentence writing and story reading for home revision.

[phankao]

SMILEY:

Hi phankao,


Currently, my K2 son is having 30 mins Chinese lesson daily. As for spelling, they are done weekly. And on Fridays, there will be sentence writing and story reading for home revision.

Hmm...that sounds like not much emphasis on Chinese - 30mins.

Is there any kindy around this area that is good in Chinese? Or maybe Chinese 100%?

[DotingMum]

SMILEY:

Hi phankao,


Currently, my K2 son is having 30 mins Chinese lesson daily. As for spelling, they are done weekly. And on Fridays, there will be sentence writing and story reading for home revision.

Hi Smiley,
Do they also give similar homework on other subjects like English & Math?

[phankao]

I just scoured some websites and came across this Kinderland Chinese Preschool Programme. Ah…there’s a Kinderland nearby AMK vicinity.


Any reviews on this? Is it like part of the preschool daily lesson schedule or what?

[Fur-ma]

Hi


Am new to the forum. I stay in Bishan and went hunting for a kindy for my 2005 kid. In the end, decided to keep her in cc but here’s my findings:

Marymount Kindy at the end of Marymount Rd - my neighbour’s daughter attends that and my neighbour says is good. When I went for a look see, I found that the teachers were young and looked stressed and the kids were running around without any order. No enrichment for academic subjects.

Zion BP Kindy near J8- The principal and the teachers gave me a good impression and I liked the fact that they incorporated play in learning. Have heard that they dun prepare the kids well for P1 though.

Holy Spirit kindy along upp thomson - I believe that they are discontinuing their kindy. I felt it was rather basic in that no enrichments and the teacher wasn’t confident of what the teaching method was

Hope above helps

[smurf]

Fur-ma:

Hi



Marymount Kindy at the end of Marymount Rd - my neighbour's daughter attends that and my neighbour says is good. When I went for a look see, I found that the teachers were young and looked stressed and the kids were running around without any order. No enrichment for academic subjects.

I beg to differ. the form teachers are not young, they are mostly middle aged. I think those young teachers that you see are assistant teachers.

there are enrichment for Chinese, speech and drama, etc. and some I forgot.

[Fur-ma]

smurf:

I beg to differ. the form teachers are not young, they are mostly middle aged. I think those young teachers that you see are assistant teachers.

there are enrichment for Chinese, speech and drama, etc. and some I forgot.

I could be wrong about the enrichment part although I recall that the principal told me no academic enrichment. Anyway, the kindy has been around for ages so it can't be bad. I like the principal. She seemed to be passionate about her work

[smurf]

There is Chinese enrichment which is quite academic. but parents have to pay additional cost for it. there is also english and chinese speech and drama. also there is han yu pin yin enrchment for k2.


Most enrichment are for k1 and k2 though, nursery only have gym as enrichment.

Marymount Kindy dun emphasise solely on academic, it’s sort of an all-rounder kindy. I know some PCF emphasise heavily on academic.

[jess]

luspen:

hi george


i went to look at marymount kindergarten, was told a class of K1 has 40 students!!!? it is way too populated. the admin lady was also very unfriendly.

may i know your girl now still in Zion? are all their teachers always shouting?

i am deciding between Zion and PCF for my boy next year nursery. dont know how to compare...sigh. any comments on PCF nursery in bishan?

hi - I just called Marymount due to your comment that a class of K1 has 40 students.. actually was totally shocked.

I have enrolled my girl to start pre-nursery next year in 2010.

Anyway the numbers are (officially from Marymount) with ratio of students to 2 english teachers
N1-15
N2-24
K1-32
k2-32

they have a separate teacher for chinese

[st999]

Hi,


for 18mths - N2, you may also try Bright Start Montessori. It’s located on the 2nd fl of Bishan CC, across the street from bishan bus interchange. It’s a very small centre, with only 1 classroom. Very low teacher-student ratio, for N1 and N2, they have 2 teachers and 1 helper to look after max. 16 kids. It’s 1.5 hrs for 18mths-2yrs and 2yrs-3yrs in the morning, and 3hrs for 3yrs-4yrs (N1-N2) in the afternoon.

My son was there for 1 1/2 years, and we were very happy with his development. He loved going to school there. I think they provide very good fundamental education for kids at such young age.

There are some drawbacks though:
1. the snacks they have for kids are not really nutritious, usually just bread, buns, biscuits. So I had to give him other snacks after school.
2. it’s not a childcare centre, so they close for all sorts of holidays and some extras.
3. the centre only offers program till N2, so you would have to search for school again for k1-k2.
4. the centre is so small with low t-s ratio that both parents and kids will need to adjust to larger school settings later on.

I transferred my son in the middle of N2 to a school with K1-k2 programs; I wish I hadn’t done that in such a haste.