Pat's Schoolhouse

[Qus]

Hi, i am thinking of withdrawing my younger son from pat’s at mount emily. I and many of friends whom their kids used to study fell that their standard drop a lot, recently, eg quality of teachers, principal not so manageably skillful,etc.


So, i would like to hear about how is it at pat’s at tanglin.

Thanks

[Qus]

With the new principal (after ms teresa left) at pat’s mount emily, i hardly see her in the morning-staff there said she usually comes to work around 9.30-10 am, and hardly see her step out of her office.


How’s the principal at tanglin?

[Momlicious]

For those who ask about Tanglin's branch, the teachers seem to work quite closely with the kids in terms of work display and activities.

They had just finished the Lunar New Year celebrations last month and doing a tea party to showcase their curriculum and kids' performance in mid Mar.

We are fortunate to have teachers who are understanding and patient with the N2s whereby not all in the kids in the class have sustained attention span; looking @ the way my boy looks forward to interact with his teachers and friends, I won't say Tanglin is fantastic but so far so good...keeping my fingers crossed. :xedfingers:

Principal Ada Teo seems quite an approachable and understanding principal; the working environment seems congenial to be in. I had seen her sitting in to do relief for a teacher for EL!

The admin. is also quite helpful...hopefully it stays this way... :rahrah:

[Karl12]

For my case, I don’t even know when the Show and Tell session is for my K1 in aroozoo. The school never mention about this. Is it stated in the comm book?


Just browse through my DS’s class schedule in the comm book.
Realize that the time spend on academic each day is very little.
English - 30mins
Chinese - 30mins
Project time (arts) - 40 mins
Music - 30 mins

Any idea if the teachers really adhere to that sort of timing? I showed my DS words that I got from my colleagues with K1 kids from kindergartens and other childcares. These are simple words they had for spelling and 听写. He can’t read most of the words. It’s worrying how different schools can have such big differences in the things taught in K1.

Does the school give us any weekly updates on what are the words they learn each week? It will be good as we can reinforce at home. I hope they have started to introduce words to them by now. Too much of learn thru play may overkill.

Basically I am clueless on what he is doing everyday. The parents portal is empty. No pics, no Friday feedback. Occasionally I will receive a piece of paper on fastrack music. That’s all.

My nephew’s kindergarten had files for different subject and the topics taught are properly documented. My SIL know exactly what he learn everyday. His fee is 35% of pats and he only need to spend 3 hours in school to learn twice the amount of things my DS learn.

[sembgal]

Karl12:

For my case, I don't even know when the Show and Tell session is for my K1 in aroozoo. The school never mention about this. Is it stated in the comm book?


Just browse through my DS's class schedule in the comm book.
Realize that the time spend on academic each day is very little.
English - 30mins
Chinese - 30mins
Project time (arts) - 40 mins
Music - 30 mins

Any idea if the teachers really adhere to that sort of timing? I showed my DS words that I got from my colleagues with K1 kids from kindergartens and other childcares. These are simple words they had for spelling and 听写. He can't read most of the words. It's worrying how different schools can have such big differences in the things taught in K1.

Does the school give us any weekly updates on what are the words they learn each week? It will be good as we can reinforce at home. I hope they have started to introduce words to them by now. Too much of learn thru play may overkill.

Basically I am clueless on what he is doing everyday. The parents portal is empty. No pics, no Friday feedback. Occasionally I will receive a piece of paper on fastrack music. That's all.

My nephew's kindergarten had files for different subject and the topics taught are properly documented. My SIL know exactly what he learn everyday. His fee is 35% of pats and he only need to spend 3 hours in school to learn twice the amount of things my DS learn.

Have you checked the vision, mission,philosophy and core values of Pats Schoolhouse? If you do not agree with the vision, mission, philosophy and core values, perhaps it's time for a change. Pats has their curriculum of how they carried out their lesson plans which is different from other schools.
To provide quality preschool programmes with the support of our highly qualified and dedicated Principals and teachers who make a difference in the lives of the children and families under our care. We constantly challenge 'little minds' to shape the future of the nation and the world… little minds, big future.

OUR VISION

To instil in every child the gift and love of two languages and a wonderful childhood through a horizontal approach to early bilingual immersion.

OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our Philosophy of Education is to progressively make a difference in the lives of our children, so as to give them reason to celebrate their future.

CORE VALUES

Curiosity - Our students become active participants in their world rather than mere observers of it.

Creativity - Childhood is a time to get away from the obvious, safe, and expected, and produce something new. We encourage our children to think independently as this is the basis of creativity.

Confidence - Being confident means having the ability to figure things out. We provide many opportunities for our children to practice their analytical and critical thinking skills.

Continuity – Instead of telling them what to think, we engage the minds of our students to sort out their own reactions and articulate them through the medium at hand. We prepare them to take on new challenges and adapt to new environments.

[empressplace]

I have also found PSH not to be organised in their feedback and communication with parents. Their philosophy or value statements are just mission statements that will not give you any idea of how lessons are really conducted. If you really want to know the details, you should speak to the class teachers and school principal.


I have also noticed that the parents’ portal has not been updated for some time and I am starting to see Friday Feedback in paper form again which is not a bad thing, actually. You should ask for the Friday Feedback through the communication book, if this is not given to you. For K1, I believe there is a booklet of Chinese words that are taught in each term which will be given to you at the end of the term. The child practises writing the words directly in the booklet.

[Karl12]

I am in the waiting list for a kindergarden nearby. In the meantime, have to stick here for awhile.

I hope to get some updates on what he is learning now.
At least I know if my DS’s inability is due to his own forgetfulness or the school’s curriculum.

Thanks for the information. Since their lesson plans is different from other preschools, that probably explains why the other kindergarden/childcares’ children are more advance than mine. Feel bad when i see my DS sad face when he notice that his friends can read and write so much more than him. In the meantime, I will have to put him with ICR to brush up his reading skills.

[empressplace]

I don’t think PSH is a play focused school. So I am not sure if PSH kids are far behind other kids from other schools in their reading/writing skills. For a proper comparison, you may want to take the materials in question and check with the school teachers and ask about your child’s development. Different kids progress at different speeds. If PSH lag so much behind other kindergartens/childcare, there would be no queue for their places.

[Just relax]

I am rather surprised at the many comments suggesting a drop in the PSH standards. Both DSs were at Claymore and were well prepared for P1 and many of their peers from parents’ feedback were also happy and well prepared for P1. Though I must say this was when Pat Koh still owned PSH. That would be at least 5 years ago for DS2.

[Karl12]

I put mine with pat’s because of the many success stories I heard. But the feedback were quite some times back. Anyone with elder child in pri 1/2 now who is coping well in school? Hope to get some positive assurance since the chances of transferring out is low. Good preschools are hot in demand nowadays! Enquire with a few not bad ones and they were all full with long waiting lists. Finally found one kindergarten with a relatively shorter queue. Fingers crossed.


In fact I am surprise when I read about the parent in this tread who pulled out from MFS to enroll in pats. The waiting lists for MFS is no joke. I was told that unless its a new center, i can forget about queueing. Too bad the new centers are not near my place.

My colleague with two children in MFS is full of praise for them. The updates are timely and she know exactly what her boys were doing each week. Even though their enrichments are additional cost, the total fees she paid for full day + enrichment is only 50% of what I paid to pats. Heard their speech and drama from Act3 and abacus, science are well received.
Only con is the teacher student ratio is pretty high.