Pat's Schoolhouse

[debpch]

hi smurfy & crystalbelle,


SIGH… dun know if can tahan till she gets her castle of immunity… she has stayed at home for 2 weeks already. And, crystalbelle is right, it is quite common to see kids with cough and running nose running around…

[Koolmama]

Hi Debpch,


Is your girl at Mt Emily??

i myself am having the EXACT same problem!! My dd just started PG, the first day i went in with her i was horrified to see more than half the kids were sick... And not just \"mildly\" sick, some were coughing and coughing every 2 minutes and had mucus running down non-stop, they looked so tired and forlorn!!

i asked the teacher why didn't they stay at home and she said that alot of parents insisted to bringing their children to school even when they were sick... it was something they could not control

As i expected, within 2 days my girl caught the cold and horrible cough too... She had to miss school for a few days... Now she's better but her cough is terrible... And the worst part is, she's passed it to her daddy and me!! (i've been sick-free for the past 1 year; now am down with fever and a horrible sore throat )

Actually when i think back on those days when my elder kid was younger, this happened to him too... He was in a church kindy then. Still remember when he used to fall sick almost every week - as soon as he got better, he would catch another bug!! At that time i was maidless and every time he fell sick i would fall sick too... oh man those days when both of us were sick together were really terrible

i think the only consolation you have is that this is pretty common, and it'll take about 6 months for your kid to \"stabilise\" and catch all the resident bugs... only then will her immunity strengthen *sigh*

Cough cough... it's going to be a tough week ahead of me...

[Koolmama]

Oh yes one point to add about this discussion about Pat’s vs church kindys and also Pat’s vs other schools with lower ratios.


i think the main draw of Pat’s is that it caters for working parents, so that you can choose the option of having your child stay the full day… If this isn’t such a pressing priority for you, i’d actually recommend going for a nice, good church kindy instead and then spend money on good enrichment courses like Berries, Music for young children, MPM Maths, etc…

At least, this was what i would have done if not for the logistical problems that i had when i was expecting no. 2… My elder kid used to be in a very good church kindy and there were lots of good enrichment classes i could have sent him to… which i actually feel are better than the in-house programmes at Pat’s. For example, even after being in Pat’s for 2.5 years, his Chinese was quite bad. Spoken Chinese - okay good, since there is daily immersion but i felt that their curriculum in terms of teaching the students recognition of chinese characters and written words was not very strong… E.g. Schools like Yuquan Preschool and Berries are definitely much stronger in this area.

And as for child-teacher ratios, there are definitely schools out there with better ratios. For example, Between 2 Trees only has max 6 kids in a class!! They have SO MUCH individual attention… and their fees are cheaper than Pat’s too!! The only drawback is that their school compound isn’t very big, but that’s just a personal pref thing for me…

B2T also has a sister school called Mustard Seed - you may wanna check that out to see if their ratios are good too…

Also, when i went to visit Newton Kindy, i was impressed with the spaciousness of their classrooms and the friendliness of their staff. In fact, if i had started my girl off there in the beginning of this year, she would have been one of only 5-6 kids with 3 teachers to look after her!!! Isn’t that value for money?? Again, the reason why i didn’t go for that is 'cos firstly, i need the option of full-day care and secondly, they follow MOE holidays which means that i’d be stuck with her in June, Nov and Dec and have to think of many activities to occupy her during those times. But if these 2 reasons aren’t factors for you, by all means send your child to a church or other kindy and use the money saved to enrol him/her in good enrichment courses!!

[autumnbronze]

Hi koolmama,


Would you mind PM-ing me the fees for Between 2 Trees? Thanks much in advance.

[debpch]

Hi Koolmama,

My kid is at Tanglin... but I guess we have the same problems. SIGH.

Wah, the teacher's response sound a bit irresponsible leh... Shouldn't the teachers insist that sick kids (esp those who are visibly sick) stay at home? Otherwise, the virus would be going round and round and round...

Oh... u have gotten me a bit worried. My kid's Chinese is really bad too. So, from your experience, the curriculum @ Pat's is not really good, izzit? Has your No. 1 gone to P1 yet? How is he coping? I would be really concerned if the feedback is that Pat's does not prepare their kids for P1... Any comments? :?:

[Kabby]

my ds2 is in k2. His Chinese improved a lot after joining Pat's in Jan of K1.

Before that, he had almost no Chinese at all cos we were not in Sg.

Right now, after 1 yr, he has caught up with local kids in terms of word recognition and writing. Only his spoken language still sounds a bit \"ang moh\" and off in intonation.

So i was quite happy with the Chi std actually. Another Eurasian classmate joined 3 mths b4 him also picked it up v well. I attributed it to the immersion policy and also cos the tr is from China and ds2 is forced to speak to be understood. At home, he will reply in English even if we speak Mandarin cos he knows we understand...

I liked the Tang poetry and cultural things they intro in lessons, with the speech n drama which makes it interesting.

ds2 will go p1 nxt yr, so i can update if he can cope nxt yr, hope it helps!

[debpch]

Dear Kabalevsky,

Many thanks for your response.
Yes! Pls update on your child's progress when he goes to P1.

[princesskaris]

Can anyone with kids at PSH (Serangoon branch) provide some feedbacks on the school? I have taken a look at their curriculum and find that they have a pretty comprehensive curriculum. I especially like the bilingual immersion programme. But I’m not sure whether the exorbitant school fees can justify for the quality of the school and all…


Will the kids have an edge over their peers with the curriculum?

Anyone with kids attending pm session? Able to share the schedule? Does your kid feel tired in the afternoon?

Thanks in advance!

[dreamersloft]

I checked out Pats Schoolhouse at Arena recently and a little disappointed that the centre is quite cramped. Some classes have to share the same room. No outdoor play, only a small area within the centre itself for kids to play with those kiddy ride-ons. It's quite noisy when the kids are playing, wonder if they would affect the other ongoing classes? Also sleeping space very tight, each toddler sleep in a small little cot which is just fitting for the kid.


Understand that Pats Schoolhouse is very strong in curriculum but I'm not comfortable with the environment *sigh*

[Jworld]

Have you tried checking out other Pats branches?


I know of quite many parents who do their research and comparison and told me that Pats is one of the best in terms of curriculum and preparing the kid for P1.