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

[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?

[Mimama]

Yes I also read the comments from the forum on SB. In fact, it didn’t appear only in this forum but some other forum too. Which made me wonder, other than that "Insider", why aren’t there any other comments from other parents whose children are enrolled in SB.


No, I am still looking around for a suitable centre. Will be visiting RedSchoolHse soon and maybe one or two more before we make a decision.

Any other centres to recommend?

[emmanuel]

Posted: 19 Mar 2010 11:42 Post subject:


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me wanta hear abt amk CM leh.


Hi pinkapple, so sorry. Now then have time to reply to your request. Well, I had bad exp with CM amk. My child attended tehre. HEre is my exp;

Teachers: Rare good ones–meaning, really meant well for the children. I have no bad comments on my child’s teachers for the time there. They were ok. Took good care–be it curr and caregiving aspects. The rest, I know were just so-so. (can’t blame them cos I know some of their trs’ woes with the management. shall elaborate later)

Admin–payment: VERY BAD exp! The bosses are out to earn money only. Everything is about money. When I enrolled, they made me pay my 1st month govrt subsidy. This was not my child 1st sch. So I knew this was NOT the usual practise of schs. They insisted new parents to pay the amt, hello, I was working and it’s a gd $300 upfront on top of the $1100 deposit and 1st month’s sch fees of $1100 too. I asked ard, my sil, friends, neighbours…no one exp this, except me!

Then, I thought, never mind, let it go. Cos since they said by last month of enrolment, they would refund me this amt together with the deposit. So I left it. Didn’t think so far as to withdraw then.

But I still couldn’t fathom how this could get away with MCYS. If you do the Math, one parent is $300 (wrking), 10 parents is $$3000. On a small scale only. Imagine they have 2 own centres. How much money they have upfront from govrt! I called MCYS to find out abt this. Well, the ans was like "sitting on the fence". Officer seemed to imply they won’t do anything cos it was a mutual agreement bwtn parent and sch. Fine.

Then as I was there, made friends with some other parents too. Some last year (2009) parents who had their children graduated, just gotten their refunds (deposit and 1st mth subsidy). Meaning, withdrew in mid to late Dec 09, only got their amt back in mid Feb. And that was after they submitted one mth written notice (before end Nov09).

My friends were so pissed. They questioned the rationale for one mth notice too. And based on exp, typically schs would just settle such refunds by their next transaction period of the month.

Some of the parents told me, they kept calling the sch and some even went there face to face in Jan and Feb to ask for these refunds. BUt each time, the admin or cntr manager said they didn’t know! And passed them from one dpmt to another–Accts. And Accts also couldn’t give them a definite ans, that was the most funny part. So we figured, $$ was monopolized by the bosses lah! Accts must be just a puppet dpmt or white elephant. Look good only. But inside, empty.

It’s bad customer service I would say. For a sch that charges $1000 plus fees, we expected better service.

So now that I had also withdrew my child, I AM still waiting for mine! But I know if my patience run thin, and they still doesn’t refund, I’ll jsut make a report to CASE or small case tribunal as adviced by a legally trained friend.

In elaboration to the staff’s state of attitude I mentioned above, well, I heard the bosses also DON’T pay their staff salary and CPF on time. Some can delay for more then half a month! I can imagine the agony!

We all work hard and getting the pay at end of the month is like a reward right? NAnd it’s thier legal rights to get it anyway! So poor thing for them. So whenever I faced poor communication with their staff or saw some black faces, I tried to brush it off givng them my sympathy more often than not.

But on the other hand, I asked myself, why do I have to take it all in when I paid good money!? I was still a parent afterall and needed to be treated like one. This was also one of my deciding factor to withdraw. This is not like void deck sch with only few hundreds sch fees. I had exp with NTUC (then was still called NTUC), even them at cheaper fees gave me so much better services. Too bad I left cos of house moving.

These are what I had exp with CM amk. This place is so bad in reputation for all that they do that whn I was looking for schs, I briefly mentioned its name, I was either given a dirty look by the sups or they would comment, "Oh, that sch! I know. Heard that it’s bad." I must say I was a lil embarassed just by assosiating with it!

[pinkapple]

i see…


was considering sending my kids there cos
AMK CM seems like got very good prog and curriculum.

You had withdrew ya child based on dealings w the admin. but how abt handling of children, etc?

[emmanuel]

no i didn't withdrew cos of the admin. many other factors. admin part only came into pic when i withdrew.


handling of children--caregiving was not to my standard. I could pass instruction to tr, and things still not done. Then when I questioned, one tr passed the ball to another liek playing tai ji! \"Sorry, I'm not in the class, so I don't know\" was like a usual ans.

Then they were not pro active in helping children to wean off milk or diaper when they reach 4 yrs old. My sil and neighbours' kids schools already started working with them at the end of 3 years old--latest.

I had to ask and ask if they think my kid was ready. I had to be the one iniate things if not they would just leave it. Very frustrating lor.

Like I said, i'm paying 1000 plus fee, and I expect 1000 plus kinda service. I did my research about this lor. So rather disappointed, like no value for money.

Next was the environment. If you compare the fees with their punggol branch, and if I'm still correct, it's the same. Punggol has private pool and in a nice bunglow setting lor. AMK same fee but the place so damn run down!

My kid came home urgent one day, I asked why didn't pee in sch. The reply was \"Toilet so eeky!\" Then on PTM, I saw the toilet myself. Indeed, it reminded me of the public toilets in M'sia! I didn't wanna step in also!

Did you go visit? If not, try gg into their toilets! Ok, just my exp to share. Who knows, what I dislike may be what seems ok for you. Subjective.

[scatterbrain]

Hi all,

Am looking for a good preschool for my toddler who's turning 30mths year end. Manage to shortlist 2
1. MMI Kovan
2. Cherie hearts at serangoon north (seng siong)
Any advise on the above two? or any better recommendation?
Btw, duno if the new serangoon mall will have any child care centre? :love: