Pat's Schoolhouse

[empressplace]

Tory:

I have been contemplating whether I should withdraw my girls from Pat's Schoolhouse as I feel that the school have not met my expectations in terms of the high fees that I am paying. The teachers we get are really depend on luck, like what some mummies previously commented. Some very young and no experience in managing preschool kids and simple things like providing constructive and proactive feedback to parents on child's development and performance in school. ?

I have realised that I cannot rely on teacher feedback as different people have different standards. This is especially the case for young and inexperienced teachers who may not yet have children of their own.

Tory:

From their recent newsletter, I read that some Pat's centres have conducted briefing for parents on their curriculum. After close to 2 years, my kids' centre has not organised anything like that though I thought that this was supposed to be one of Pat's selling point on parental involvement with the school.

You need to work with other parents to make a strong request to the principal before you will receive this briefing on curriculum. And I don't think PSH is that big on parental involvement. We are only asked to work on craft work with the kids once or twice. Other than that, we are supposed to leave the day to day academic stuff to them. Detailed and proactive feedback/information is not their style in my experience so I have learnt to moderate my expectations. Unless you actively seek out the teachers, all they will provide you is that Friday Feedback and the half yearly MTP session.

Tory:

With the recent removal of the English S&D, I am still perplexed by why a core enrichment is removed from the curriculum and replaced with PE. I wonder what is next.

Ahh....did you read their explanation? It's a Singapore Sports Council recommendation! We need to prepare our kids for primary one PE! :evil:

Question is - why didn't they announce the change of enrichment program together with the fee increase last year so that parents have a fair chance to decide if this is the program/school they want for their kids for the following year and if this is the package that they are happy to pay more for? But, no worries about what we think, there is a long queue of people who are happy to join the school and enjoy the PE program.

Tory:

Anyway, the reason why I am still contemplating on whether to withdraw my girls is mainly for the fact that they are very settled in their school. Can any parent update how your kids coped after you withdrew them from Pat's?

The way I see it, a child would eventually have to adjust to a completely new environment in primary one. I think children would learn to adapt. If adaptation problem is a valid and significant concern, then I suppose you may have to accept whatever changes and fee increases PSH comes up with next. :yikes:

[Tory]

breezie80,

Same centre as your dd.

Empressplace,
Sad to say that even the more mature teachers who has kids seem to be not providing feedback unless I specifically ask. I understand that I should not expecting much but as my kids spend a large proportion of their time in school, it would be appreciated if the teachers take some time to provide an update to parents on how the kids are doing. I do not expect to receive feedback everyday but once/twice a month will be good enough given that the half a year PTC does not provide a detailed progress update.

Curriculum Briefing - You mean parents have to request for this? Hmm, I did not know that I have to request for something like that for something I didn’t even know that this is happening in other centres until I read the newsletter.

Removal of English S&D - While I agree that Pat’s has every right to change the curriculum but surely, they could have replaced it with another quality enrichment. If sports is so important, why not provide proper sports enrichment like sportsball or gym by a proper instructor. I don’t need another hour of free play (PE) in the afternoon. Anyway, shouldn’t English S&D be an important built-up for their graudation musical at the end of K2?

Fee increase - Yes, thanks for reminding me that there will be another fee increase for next year. I forgot about that.

[sembgal]

I have a friend who is contemplating withdrawing her child from Pats’ @ Lim Ah Pin Rd there. Her child is always falling sick and she is considering to put her child in a PCF kindergarten instead. She is deliberating if she should make the switch as her child was put on waiting list for a long time at Pat’s previously.

[empressplace]

Tory:

Sad to say that even the more mature teachers who has kids seem to be not providing feedback unless I specifically ask. I understand that I should not expecting much but as my kids spend a large proportion of their time in school, it would be appreciated if the teachers take some time to provide an update to parents on how the kids are doing. I do not expect to receive feedback everyday but once/twice a month will be good enough given that the half a year PTC does not provide a detailed progress update. .

Yes, that's my experience in general too. I agree that it would be nice to receive a monthly feedback or at least a learning objective outline at the beginning of term. If a teacher sends an email listing the learning objectives, it shows she is engaged and focused on helping the kids to learn. This is particularly important from K1.

Tory:

Curriculum Briefing - You mean parents have to request for this? Hmm, I did not know that I have to request for something like that for something I didn't even know that this is happening in other centres until I read the newsletter. .

PSH doesn't typically do briefings.

Tory:

Removal of English S&D - While I agree that Pat's has every right to change the curriculum but surely, they could have replaced it with another quality enrichment. If sports is so important, why not provide proper sports enrichment like sportsball or gym by a proper instructor. I don't need another hour of free play (PE) in the afternoon. Anyway, shouldn't English S&D be an important built-up for their graudation musical at the end of K2? .

Exactly. I believe parents are willing to pay for quality programs, rather than to waste their kids' time on some generic PE program with little credentials to speak about.

[Mommee]

Tanglin’s Principal (Ms Ada) organized a Curriculum Briefing in March and I really enjoyed the 2-hour session. She and her teachers had taken the effort to prep for the day, as parents were invited to join in the Music class + mini Sports event after the PowerPoint presentation.

My child is in Playgroup, so I don’t have very high expectations on learning outcomes, but it was nice to see how he enjoys his music lesson.

I was surprised to hear that my friend’s 4-year-old (who has attended Pat’s for more than a year now) is still learning to recognize the alphabet.
In contrast, my 3-year-old transferred to Pat’s already knowing his upper/ lower-case letters. So there must be some truth that other schools are more academically-focussed (I.e. intensive drilling) because my child learns at average pace.

Nonetheless, I am happy with what kiddo picks up from Letterland - he hums the tunes, identifies with the characters and can now express himself with stories he makes up on the go.
I see him becoming more confident, more articulate and surprisingly close to more than 1 of his teachers. All the intangibles that warrant the premium I guess.

[msscarlet]

I’m surprised that a premium preschool like Pat’s school house doesn’t provide frequent updates/feedback.


I’ve put my child at MindChamps preschool, the Bishan branch and the teachers send out a report weekly and there’s a newsletter every month too.

[empressplace]

msscarlet:

I'm surprised that a premium preschool like Pat's school house doesn't provide frequent updates/feedback.


I've put my child at MindChamps preschool, the Bishan branch and the teachers send out a report weekly and there's a newsletter every month too.

Does Mindchamp Bishan's weekly feedback consist of child specific feedback or just what the child has covered in school?

[elmo80]

Anyone enroll their kid in Sembawang Country Club? Any comments?

[pebblez]

After withdrawing from aroozoo and now 9 mths on, my girl had been able to adapt just as well in her new school.


We have been glad with the move, she’s thriving in her new school now who have been nothing but excellent at their parent teacher communications. We are at mindchamps east coast.

[ming8110]

Hi! Am new to this forum but thought I will chip in with some feedback on Pat’s . My daughter attends Pat’s Halifax. She was in Baby Haven for half the year last year and despite only attending school only 2 or 3 times a week (sometimes only once a week), her teachers in BH tried their best to put together a nice presentation at the end of term on what she did in school during the term. I was pleasantly surprised by their efforts. They also gave us a report of sorts setting out their observations of her, how she learns, how she fares in fine motor skills etc and I must say their observations were pretty spot on despite her being in school so infrequently and only attending 2 hours each time.

This Jan, she moved up to Pat’s Halifax. While we do not get any weekly updates, we do frequently get pictures via Whatsapp from her teacher on what activities they did in school that day. Going for the parent teacher conference in 2 weeks time and will wait to see how comprehensive an update we will get but I must say that so far we are pretty happy with the school.

I am however thinking of switching her from Pat’s to a kindy simply because I don’t require the childcare services that Pat’s provides. Because they need to shower, feed the children etc in Pat’s, I feel that daughter wastes quite alot of time while all these activities are going on. Because she is only there for half a day, they leave her in the music room to "free play" while her classmates are being bathed etc. But part of me is very reluctant to pull her out 'cos she has settled down quite nicely. Any thoughts from the parents here?