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

[emmanuel]

yup, puntong's toilet is acceptable, i saw it too. in fact i have been to cambridge at Mei Hwan and Serangoon Country Club too. Of course, Serangoon one is the best cos brand new and VERY large and spacious. But too far for us after consideration.


Mei Hwan--outside still ok, Inside a bit squeezy and messy. maybe i went during lunch time, so the floor was full of food! classrooms also smaller but packed with kids.

sup not very enthu. i asked then she ans kind and almost didnt wanna give me reg forms when i asked for it! I was really abt to reg, just wanna bring home and fill up, but she told me, maybe when I FINALLY want then come get it again. Duh?!?!? I thought that was rather stupXX of her. Like pushing customer away?! Usually sups will jump at it when parent said want to sign up, right?! also i noted that she has zero safety precaution! whenever we walked thru a gate/door, she left it open, yes even the main door! with kids standing just near it.

They almost wanna follow behind us if not for ME clsoing the gate/door for her (by then, she already walked away!)

Kekeke...sorry me visited quite a no of schs, so have many comments.....

[emmanuel]

yup, puntong's toilet is acceptable, i saw it too. in fact i have been to cambridge at Mei Hwan and Serangoon Country Club too. Of course, Serangoon one is the best cos brand new and VERY large and spacious. But too far for us after consideration.


Mei Hwan--outside still ok, Inside a bit squeezy and messy. maybe i went during lunch time, so the floor was full of food! classrooms also smaller but packed with kids.

sup not very enthu. i asked then she ans kind and almost didnt wanna give me reg forms when i asked for it! I was really abt to reg, just wanna bring home and fill up, but she told me, maybe when I FINALLY want then come get it again. Duh?!?!? I thought that was rather stupXX of her. Like pushing customer away?! Usually sups will jump at it when parent said want to sign up, right?! also i noted that she has zero safety precaution! whenever we walked thru a gate/door, she left it open, yes even the main door! with kids standing just near it.

They almost wanna follow behind us if not for ME clsoing the gate/door for her (by then, she already walked away!)

Kekeke...sorry me visited quite a no of schs, so have many comments.....

[smurf]

hmm, to me, safety is the most important issue lor…more important than curriculum…can u imagine the child follow other people??? :x

[Mimama]

Emmanuel, have you checked out Sunny Bunny Montessori? If Pontong is nearby, Sunny Bunny should be quite nearby too. It is located downstairs of the HDB block and I think they occupy two or three units. The centre is relatively new as the owner took over from previous owner a few years ago. Not a lot of children but i noticed that their toys and montessori materials are actually quite new and quite a lot.


Haven’t heard a lot of feedback here but it may be a place that you can visit.

[emmanuel]

hi mimama


you been inside sunny bunny before?

[Mimama]

Hi Emmanuel, I visited the place before and spoke to the person in charge. Was shown the materials and been briefed their teaching method. Have not sat in for classes though.

[emmanuel]

I visited too. the sup was thorough and gave me a relatively detailed walk-through of the curriculum. I like the clean toilet and indeed, they have a wide range of materials--both play and learning.


However, it was the people factor that made me decided not to enrol. To me, teachers are very impt in giving me a piece of mind when I'm away from my child. I didn't see passion or warmth or love in them towards the children.

What I saw was \"emotionless\" looking teachers--both chn and Eng (not talking about the infant bay). I went there 2nd time to take another look on another occassion just to make sure my observation was valid. I saw a group of about five to sixe children \"bullying\" a boy who was trying to read a book. Think they are Nur.

The group kept poking at him, attempting to snatch his book, pulling his shirt etc.....he was obviously in distress. All this happened for about 1 min with their teacher (facing them), looking at another direction. They already made a scene, I could hear the noise from behind some closed windows, I was sure she could see and hear too, since she was facing them.

But she didn't no anything. After 1 min or so, she turned her body slightly and merely pointed at the group. By then, they already dispersed! The poor boy wasleft sitting there sobbing for awhile. She didn't even console him! I was close to heart-break, imagining it was my kid.

The teachers also gave me a very \"sian\" look when I gave them eye contact. I had seen many schs, some better ones had teachers smiling or simply knod their heads at me when I looked at them. It tells me alot abt their state of emotion at wrk. A happy teacher begets happy children, I firmly believe.

These are just solely my personal exp with sunny bunny. No doubt, I could see they are not stingy in spending $$ on children's learning materials, some monte schs I went were miserable in that, eg character montessori (amk branch). Well, hearsay on this sch too. If you want I can also give my comments.

[pinkapple]

me wanta hear abt amk CM leh.

[Mimama]

Thanks for sharing, Emmanuel. I agree that teacher is an important factor but sometimes it may not be possible to observe thoroughly their behaviour. These teachers may actually put up an act when parents are around to visit. So it is sometimes quite hard to conclude if the teachers were good or bad in a particular centres.


Out of curiosity, may I ask when was the last time you visited the centre? Was wondering if the teacher is still there.

In the end, where did you place your child?

There aren’t many around the vicinity unless let the child take a school bus.

[emmanuel]

hmm…am detecting something here. Perhaps, I’m over sensitive. Anyways, the last I went was only less than 3 weeks back.


Well, for schs that had trs smiling, like you said, may be putting on an "act". At least they bothered to do so. They didn’t have to. It takes effort to even put on a smile.

And come on, if a smile is fake, or a friendly knod of the head is an act, I’m sure this can be felt/seen. Genuinity exudes from within. And how do you fake passion? How do one fake love for children?

I’m becoming more aware of comments on Sunny Bunny as I had read some forums about how compliments were uncovered to be "fake" by insider. Think I shall not comment anymore henceforth on this sch. As for me, no go for this school is what I wanna state for myself.

So, Mimama, did you enrol your child eventually?