PCF/PAP Kindergartens

[allseasons]

Thanks Kaitlynangelica... :))

[kaitlynangelica]

allseasons:

Thanks Kaitlynangelica... :))

You can try glory Kindergarten too which is next to the market/hawker centre. Most pp have good reviews about it but I had a bad experience.

[san76]

Hi Hugeclaw,


All PCF are alright. Bring your kid there, if he/ she likes the environment, that is the right school. If you choose the school that he/she didnt like, they cant enjoy their days there. At K2, there will be many thing being taught in PCF. My son graduated from PCF last year. But make sure that your kid will tell you who and what happen in sch. Even though they are the one who got the punishment for being playful or anything, they must not be afraid to tell you. My son was punished to mop the floor when he spill the bottle of water. The teacher asked him to clean instead of helping him. My son came home and told me. What a sch!!! But overall the education is still good.

[tamarind]

raisintan:

Hi all,


I’m one of the many mummies who has benefitted from Tamarind’s postings and sharings. And of course some of the other mummies who have spent time and effort to write and share tips in this forum. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you!

My child is attending the same PCF centre (thanks to Tamarind after her postings caught my attention). While I do share some of the observations as Tamarind and had my initial reservations, I’m now quite happy with the school overall. Definitely value for money and most importantly, my child doesn’t need to travel.

Indeed the standard is high. At Nursery, there is weekly homework (1 worksheet to be completed over the weekend). They’re doing a set of readers and barely 2 months into the school term, they are given a list of ~10 words to recognise/ read. These are words from the readers and are given 2 weeks for parents to reinforce learning/ teaching at home. Thereafter, the teacher will go through with them individually to see how much they’ve learnt. They have excursions too…

The current teacher is an ang moh. Whilst I’m aware that some ang mohs are not qualified in this industry (I dunno if this teacher is) but I can see that she’s doing her job well and at least she speaks good and proper English. The Chinese teacher is the passionate and energetic type who can connect with kids. Having said that, not all teachers are good as in most pre-schools. The teacher we had in 2nd half of last year was not very good I must say…

Hi raisintan,
I so glad to see you in this forum Their nursery standard is high so that the kids will be able to follow up in K1. During the 4th quarter of the year they will even have spelling in N2 ! Very simple 2 letter words like am, in, at, etc.

We don't need ang mohs with high qualifications, the most important thing is that they speak good English.

I saw Claire Ng, the centre head teaching K1 kids there. She has not taught my kids before, but I suppose she must be good since she is the head. My girl's teacher Jenny is the best ! My girl said that she does not raise her voice, yet she is able to keep the kids under control.

Imp75:

Do you ladies ever have regular feedback from the PCF teachers on your children's progress? Is this an exception or the norm?

Some of my girl's classmates' mommies regularly ask the teachers, both English and Chinese, for feedback on their kids' progress. The teachers are always ready to give feedback verbally to the mommies. But they don't have daily reports.

jedamum:

japhys:

there seem to be a higher percentage of those children from pcfs, who are unable to read well when they enter primary 1.

It was noted that there tend to be a higher percentage of them coming from pcf preschools. Some of them who came from pcfs but with good reading skills had extra enrichment lessons elsewhere...

Normal Pcf is pretty much a 'heartlanders'' preschool catering to the middle and lower income group, with most of the students whose parents do not speak english at all. Some of those who came from pcfs but with good reading skills had either have extra enrichment or come from english speaking family background.

jedamum is right. The majority of those students who go to PCF cannot afford extra enrichment classes, and their parents are unable to teach them to read at home.

I know many kids who go to other private kindergarten, also have difficulty reading, and their parents have to send them to phonics enrichment classes.

If I pay more than $500 a month for kindergarten, I would expect that my child will not need any extra enrichment in English and Chinese ! I have even heard of mommy who said that her boy's kindergarten(a very well known one) teacher asked her to send her boy to enrichment class to improve his Chinese !

I guess it is all about value for money. I have very limited financial resources so that's why I make sure that I get what I pay for.

hugeclaw:

How do I find out which one is a 'premium' PCF? My son is in K2 and is currently with a childcare center....but the school is not very academically inclined, so far, they have no plans to let the children have spelling or tingxie. Guess their focus is 'teach less, learn more'. But I must say that the children are very well exposed to current affairs and environmental issues, in fact, they have bi-weekly projects to submit based on different topics. Well, guess you can't have the best of both worlds, due to budget constraint, need to pull him out and put him into a kindergarden.

A premium PCF costs about $250 a month including enrichment classes, the normal PCF costs $107 and does not have any enrichment classes.

Your child's CC sounds good ! Actually parents can also give spelling and tingxie at home. Personally I feel that the ability to read English very well is more important, and is the key to doing well in every subject (except Chinese).

But if due to budget constraint, then PCF is very good value for money, even for the normal PCF. But it is important to choose carefully because every PCF has a different syllabus since they have different teachers.

[tamarind]

san76:

Hi Hugeclaw,


All PCF are alright. Bring your kid there, if he/ she likes the environment, that is the right school. If you choose the school that he/she didnt like, they cant enjoy their days there.

I totally agree with your advice. Actually it applies to any pre-school, whether PCF, church or private.

san76:

My son was punished to mop the floor when he spill the bottle of water. The teacher asked him to clean instead of helping him. My son came home and told me. What a sch!!!! But overall the education is still good.

I am surprised to hear about this. But some parents like this type of punishment. My hubby certainly likes his boy to be disciplined this way, though I would feel a bit heartache lah.

[hugeclaw]

Thanks for your comments! Have surveyed a few PCFs around my area, and my gosh, they’ve very different syllabus and learning environment! Some teachers can’t even communicate well enough to convince me to put my child there and some places are really old and doesn’t look ‘clean’. So far the best one I’ve seen is the one at Serangoon North Ave 1, it’s one of the premium PCFs (anyway there’re only 3 in s’pore). They’re more academically inclined compared to the rest. Spelling and tingxie started in K1 and they’ve extra speech & drama classes from Julia Gabriels…I’m quite happy with the environment too, they’re clean and new. Will bring my son there tomorrow to see the place, hope he likes it!

[happypoppy]

hugeclaw:

Thanks for your comments! Have surveyed a few PCFs around my area, and my gosh, they've very different syllabus and learning environment! Some teachers can't even communicate well enough to convince me to put my child there and some places are really old and doesn't look 'clean'. So far the best one I've seen is the one at Serangoon North Ave 1, it's one of the premium PCFs (anyway there're only 3 in s'pore). They're more academically inclined compared to the rest. Spelling and tingxie started in K1 and they've extra speech & drama classes from Julia Gabriels....I'm quite happy with the environment too, they're clean and new. Will bring my son there tomorrow to see the place, hope he likes it!

Hi Hugeclaw mummy,

Can you disclose here the locations of the 3 premium PCFs? Thanks in advance!

[hugeclaw]

I’ve enrolled my son in Blk 125 Serangoon North Ave 1. Actually found out from the PCF head office that there’s no such term as ‘premium’ program, rather they call it the ‘spice’ program which incorporated the speech & drama from julia gabriel. The school fees varies from different locations, ranges from $160 - $220.

From what I know, the pasir ris east & west + ponggol east centers do offer this spice program.
To find out more, it’s better that you call the head office at 62444600, must look for the operations staff or else they won’t know what you’re talking abt coz I’ve a hard time trying to gather info from the counter staff.

[glayz]

Hey

Any good PCF or those with the prenium service in Yishun.
I send my son to N2 in 277 Yishun…My boi REFUSE to tell me what he learn… and from what my mum is able to gather…he is STILL learning ALPHABETS!!! ( he already knew his phonics and letters before he turn 2!!! but he refuse to join them together to form words)

[happypoppy]

hugeclaw:

I've enrolled my son in Blk 125 Serangoon North Ave 1. Actually found out from the PCF head office that there's no such term as 'premium' program, rather they call it the 'spice' program which incorporated the speech & drama from julia gabriel. The school fees varies from different locations, ranges from $160 - $220.

From what I know, the pasir ris east & west + ponggol east centers do offer this spice program.
To find out more, it's better that you call the head office at 62444600, must look for the operations staff or else they won't know what you're talking abt coz I've a hard time trying to gather info from the counter staff.

Thanks for the details, hugeclaw mummy!