St James Church Kindergarten

[greenbean2011]

how well does St James kindergarten core curriculum prepare children for Pri 1 Chinese, going non-SAP school ?

[Jworld]

chrismei:

smurf:

Does anyone knows how long is the waiting list for nursery now?? :?


Which phonics system do they use? :?

Hi Smurf

Personally, i felt that they are good at inculcate values such as empathy . Academic wise is normal but they do incoporate real life science experiment for the children such as planting.

That's very amazing.

[Celyw]

heard from my fren they dun really emphasize on academics, and chinese preparation is only so so definitely need to go enrichment class…

[greenbean2011]

:thankyou: Celyw

[greenbean2011]

can tell us what are some of the strengths of St James church kindergarten ?

[Celyw]

they are strong in character nurturing because they are church based...and having fun thru learning since they have a big outdoor compound.

[bezzlay]

My DS1 graduated from SJCK last year and he is now in P1. Academically the school has prepared him well enough to cope with primary school. They cultivate learning thru fun and play and not just systematically doing reading and writing and drilling. They have a lot of fun activities and projects. However in terms of chinese we need to read more with him or like some others mentioned to go for enrichment because they do not have tingxie so writing skills will be weaker and if kids don't speak mandarin then it will be worse.


I think parents play an important role in learning together with kids to prepare them for primary school rather than to rely on school to coach them as there is only limited time in school (3hrs) with 30 children so teachers cannot give everyone full attention and so it is important for parents to revise with them after school or read and learn more with them.

That is in terms of academic, in terms of values, the school has cultivate good values and I can see it in my DS1. He had very caring teachers every year and we are very thankful they have taught him well.

Now, DS2 is in K1 and DS3 is in pre-nursery. You can see we like the environment of the schools and we like the values cultivated in our kids. BTW, of all the enrichments we only let our DS1 and DS2 attended 1 of them. So the enrichments provided are not to make up or supplement whatever that is not taught enough in school curriculum, but to let the kids have fun on the stuff they are interested in e.g. Arts or Speech and Drama.

I hope this will give other parents who are new to the school a clearer picture SJCK.

[Caynelle]

Concerning the school not having Ting Xie, I read in the school’s K2 newsletter for Term 2 that the MOE recommends against children in kindergarten having Ting Xie as it is not age appropriate and gives stress to the children and the parents.


The school’s K2 newsletter for term 2 also says that the MOE also says that hanyu pinyin should only be taught at primary one (and not at kindergarten). Teaching hanyu pinyin to kindergarten children may cause confusion to those who are not strong in phonics.

Regarding Chinese, I think it might be difficult for children who only have exposure to Chinese during the school hours to be good at it. It is difficult to learn a language when you are only exposed to a bilingual environment 3 hours, 5 days a week. The tendency will be to use the language that you are more familiar with, in a bilingual environment. So for those who don’t speak Chinese at home, it might be difficult to rely on just the school to help their children be proficient at it. Many of my friends who send their children to Berries or other Chinese enrichment classes they tell me it is because they don’t use Mandarin at home.

[Celyw]

HI bezzlay,


is it true the computer session is included during the 3 hours session and we have to pay extra $90 for it. If we do not want to pay then our kid will just sit around the classroom while those paid will go to attend the computer session?

[bezzlay]

Celyw:

HI bezzlay,


is it true the computer session is included during the 3 hours session and we have to pay extra $90 for it. If we do not want to pay then our kid will just sit around the classroom while those paid will go to attend the computer session?

Yes, those who do not want to attend the computer session will be at the learning center. Term1 this year they allow those who did not pay to sit and participant but account wasn't given to parents but some parents complained that they do not want their kids to participate. So in Term2 it is back to the above arrangement.