Pat's Schoolhouse

[sher_yeo]

Hi Smurfy


Yes he is in nursery. Which class is yours? Yup I received pic of him too from the school, that was helpful. But when I went to pick him up he was crying. Quite a lot was crying during bath time. Chaotic. Thank god there were lots of help around.

[BabyRR]

Hihi parents from aroozoo, may I know if any of you currently taking their alternative childcare option? I’m hesitant to let my boy go through so many transitions but cc logistics is becoming increasing stretched and workload for the new year is picking up! I’m getting really worried abt when e real start date will be. Sigh. Appreciate feedback on e alternative cc being offered. Thank you.

[Koolmama]

Ah yes, this is very familiar :evil: I remember making alot of noise about this to the bus operator few years back but they just said we can't do anything about it. It's terrible, they were charging me $400 a month for transport (becos of ERP charges) and no service given for so many weeks a year!! :razz: :razz: :razz:

riane70:

Dear Ms Patricia Koh

Wrote a email to you, but had not gotten any reply. Thus i hope you will see this message and reply soon.

My daughter is currently attending the half day childcare at Pat's schoolhouse, Lakeside. Since 2010, she has been with the school. We enrolled her in Pat's based on the fact that it offers a well rounded teaching environment and the fact that it is also a childcare where as working parents, we are able to send them while we know that they are being taken care of by professionals. My child also rely on the schoolbus to fetch her from school, luckily we could send her to school while on the way to work. Unfortunately, the school bus had to stop operation for 2 weeks (during childcare week) this coming December, and this greatly affects how we can arrange to pick her up from school.

Actually i had feedback before to the bus company and the school since 2008, but they said they could not do anything as this is the arrangement with the school and there wasn't any suggestion from the school either, we parents just have to acceppt it. And more ridiculously, they told me this is part of their operating costs which i do not comprehend, since we paid full month for their bus fares. I do not deny that the drivers should get their rest, but to completely stop for 1/2 weeks each holiday (June and Dec), means 1 whole month without transport every year.

I have my mum who is taking care of my son, and it will be very inconvenient for her to lug the boy and fetch the elder one, given her age. Even if she is to take taxi everyday, it is still inconvenient, and moreover we had paid for the school bus, but yet there is no service.

We hope that you could negotiate with the bus company to continue operation for the childcare week. If its a few days off, we as parents could still understand, but not for 1 month a year, this is too much and causes too much inconvenience. We do not have such flexibility to take leave for 2 continuous week (19th Dec to 28th Dec) and just to fetch the kids.

Appreciate your reply. Thanks.

Regards, Ching Ling

[chrisbear]

Hi Koolmama,


I have just pm you.

Earlier msg was truncated cos of server error…

Appreciate your inputs…

Thanks…

[chrisbear]

Hi Mummies,


Am new here. Does anyone have any comments about or experience with Lakeside or Whitley to share? Wld really appreciate your kind insights. Thanks!

[Koolmama]

Hi Busymom,


At least in your Halifax they are still keeping the original bundled programs... In my branch, they dropped the bundled programs without even telling us parents. All the while I thought my child was going to start Harmony Road and swimming last week, but there was no timetable given to us! When I asked, they said it was a last minute decision by the management to do away with the bundled programs. How can they make such an important decision re curriculum (1) at the very last minute (2) without informing or consulting the parents (3) on a purely business cost basis??!

In other words, Pat's Schoolhouse is becoming more and more business-centric (rather than child-centric) and this is starting to p*** me off... (dun mind my french please)

Busymom:

Thanks, this is essentially what I want to establish. How can some centres choose to drop something just like that. It just isn't fair in my opinion. Will clarify with the school again why they are doing this.

[ahbombom]

Pat’s website still mention about the extended half day programme and I noticed that imaths has been changed to creative art and cookery. Do they actually still have extended half day programme or they have stopped that totally for new nursery students or there are different practices in different centres? Does anyone know? Thanks.

[Freesia]

What do you expect when an american organisation takes over? Of course, business centric

[BbJ]

Am keen to enrol my boy in Baby Haven in 2013. However, was informed that their Halifax premises will be moved due to the North South highway construction. Anyone has any idea where they will be moving to? Thanks!

[pebblez]

Hi Mummies and Daddies,


We just visited the Aroozoo branch and the Serangoon branch this morning. The principal at the Aroozoo branch is Ms Anita and the VP is Annabelle. If I am not wrong Anita is from Baby Haven prior. We are scouting for our Nursery 2 daughter born in '08. We also have a '10 toddler.

The school building has two levels. So far, the renovation at Aroozoo seems 80% complete and the lower floor already have children in their classes but the second level is still sealed off and still awaiting some renovation work. The complex is sprawling huge, and the classrooms feel extremely empty at the moment. I have to say that the carpark at Aroozoo is large, even much larger than the building itself; same goes to the playground, felt like it could accommodate at least 100 students at the same time. Very large playground and a mini track for the little cars and bikes.

We got to Pat’s Aroozoo at around 9.30am. First impressions were that things are currently disorganized, the teacher who received us at the gate simply let us through the gates to the classroom without asking if we were here to drop off or to visit (had my toddler in my arms). So we had to wander down the corridor looking for the office before we found someone to ask and we weren’t sure if we were asking the right person. Children in the classrooms mostly looked distracted and did not seem to be taking well to the new environment, many were crying, schoolbags are quite over the place and there were also quite a few adults walking around, not sure if they were parents or teachers. Was told by a walking adult that office is not within the school building but an adjacent one level building connected to the classrooms. Signs would really help since we almost made another wrong turn before we got to the office, lol. Anita, the principal welcomed us at the office and straight away proceeded to lead us to the school building. She seemed pretty distracted herself too and there was very little eye contact with her and she also spoke quite little, leading us directly to the nursery class without introducing the rest of the space. I guess it must have been a whirlwind for her at the moment since she didn’t seem to speak much, so I didn’t ask much questions while me and husband peeped into the classrooms. After that she started to proceed off back into the office with us trailing behind, husband had to run a bit to get to her, lol. None of the teachers interacted with us. At the office, we were shown the curriculum guide and its very concise and had a lot of content but she didn’t really bring us through it instead just spoke about the daily timetable. When asked about what the children ate and if there was a menu, she said there is definitely a variety of food and stopped, so i didn’t probe. Overall, felt that this centre still had teething problems and gave me a rather cold feeling, with the teachers themselves not entirely used to the environment yet. Although I don’t personally have a lot of experience with Pat’s SH overall, but I am not so sure about this centre.

I was impressed with the Serangoon centre down the road though.
We went in through the mini gate and the office was the first room on the left that greeted us. The the road inside was all cordoned off by waist height fences t was really easy to see where the classrooms and play spaces were. There was a moment of calm and warmth the moment we went into the compound with its brown and white one level building, felt like a mini primary school. We saw at least 2 groups of children - toddlers and perhaps K1s holding hands and walking to their activity areas behind their teachers all laughing and chatting loudly, very pleasant to watch. Proceeding into the office, one of the admin lady/ teacher passed me a visiting form to fill and immediately asked which level we were applying for before telling me that there was no vacancies. I accepted that and said thats ok, I really liked the compound and would like to be brought around. Another nice lady- who looked very much like a teacher offered to show us the place, beginning with asking us if we had visited a Pat’s SH before. She was very warm and we had quite a few laughs between our conversations. She showed us and brought us into the K1 block, the K2 blocks and then the nursery block with the play area and playground. She constantly asks if I had questions and how my daughter was doing in school, which made me feel that she was quite genuine. Many teachers smiled and greeted us and we felt really welcomed. Most of the children seemed to be very well settled and none were crying, many were also paying attention to their lessons. The compound is not air conditioned but was very well ventilated. Had a bit of time to put my toddler down and he wandered right into a class of playing children and the teachers commented that they thought he was really ready for school. Left the centre with a good feeling.

We have no qualms about Pat’s curriculum and am confident that it is a set of curriculum that is well rounded and robust, but we also believe in a nurturing environment as we think that no matter how great a set of content is, children would absorb none of it if they feel unsure, uncomfortable or bothered. We would take some time to figure all these out!

Meanwhile, would be on wait list!