MOE Kindergarten

[marmalade]

eu-ern:

Reason as to why I would end up placing ds2 in MOE kindy and kcare against my choice is because his childcare had a change in almost entire team of teachers except one that ds2 has never liked. It is to such extent that ds2, when asked what he has learnt for the day, will answer \"Nothing\". My hubby and I were very uncomfortable with the new Principal and decided to find an alternative. However, it was terrible looking for a good childcare with good carers and educators. So we ended up giving MOE kindy a try for logistical reasons. Afterall, I still have reasonable faith in govt run centres to take care of my ds2.


My only grouse is kcare don't reinforce the kindy's teaching, and screen youtube clips to kids. There's no perfect centre, so I have to live with it. My family don't watch tv programs regularly and children are not given free access to touch screen devices.

Could you share which childcare was that ? If you are not comfy sharing online, could you pm me?

With moe kindy being new, i believe the teacher retention in MOE kindy is still quite high ?

[marmalade]

eu-ern:

Curriculum all the same across MOE kindy. You can go to http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg to see.


The teachers are fine. I don't have much comments. Initially I had some reservations about a chinese teacher but after speaking with her, everything is ok. So long as my ds2 is happy to go to school n comes home happy, it is good enough for me to know that he will learn well.

But MOE being MOE, I have to supplement ds2 with enrichment outside. Afterall, what can they retain in 4hrs?

A full day childcare is a preferred option for me. I feel children learn better with reinforcement in the afternoon. Childcare settings just allow that. Kcare don't.

Could you share what enrichment do you send your ds2 to?

[eu-ern]

Hi Marmalade


My ds2 goes for English and Chinese enrichment. He also attends music and art, swimming and taekwondo. I switched him from gymnastics at 4yo to taekwondo. He was doing gym fr 18mo to develop some balancing n motor skills.

[TwinstarsMummy]

How do I calculate if I'm within 500 meters from the school I'm interested in ?

[TwinstarsMummy]

Did you go to the recent [Sat] briefing ?

I went and did a walk around tour too. Its pretty big place. Ratio is 1 teacher to 20 kids. 4hrs, AM & PM sessions.

kopibeanie:

my boy is currently in a My First Skool (MFS) in punggol. Am considering transferring him to the MOE Kindergarten (MK) at Punggol View Pri. Anyone know how the quality of the curriculum & teachers at MK compares to MFS? Any comments on the MK & KCare at Punggol View? thanks!

[marmalade]

TwinstarsMummy:

How do I calculate if I'm within 500 meters from the school I'm interested in ?

You can check this out to calculate:
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/enrol-with-us

then click on What is the admission process?

then scroll down to click on your desired moe kindy

[marmalade]

kopibeanie:

my boy is currently in a My First Skool (MFS) in punggol. Am considering transferring him to the MOE Kindergarten (MK) at Punggol View Pri. Anyone know how the quality of the curriculum & teachers at MK compares to MFS? Any comments on the MK & KCare at Punggol View? thanks!

My child is not in MFS so I can't give much advice on this.
But question is : if your child is happy at MFS, then what is your motivation for the transfer?

my personal thoughts and observation:

quality of curriculum -
you can check out :
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/our-programmes
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/our-curriculum
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/ask-us

so perhaps the above can help you compare with your experiences in MFS

other than no actual teaching of phonetics and HYPY, and no homework or worksheets to bring home, (there could be more differences, i may be wrong, but based on the previous posts and the website FAQ), i think the curriculum is pretty much the same compared to the rest of the preschools. The key here is HOW the teachers approach to engage the preschoolers.

quality of teachers - looks responsible & friendly, BUT this is only based on observation during the open house - haha...so only time will tell. It is extremely hard to get passionate and dedicated teachers nowadays so if your child look forward to go to school and enjoys his time there, then it should be fine, but then again, it takes time to see this into fruition.

as for KCare, the head of MK at pv claimed that the activities done in Kcare will be \"integrated\" with what kids learn in MK but based on what our fellow parent eu-earn has shared, MK@SK screened youtube to the kids. so i have my own reservations.

in short, i think MK is trying to emulate international schools where preschoolers also learn through play and project work to give a \"holistic development\" but at a very affordable rates for the masses with a \"distinct local flavour\".

Hope the above helps !

[TwinstarsMummy]

marmalade:

TwinstarsMummy:

How do I calculate if I'm within 500 meters from the school I'm interested in ?

You can check this out to calculate:
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/enrol-with-us

then click on What is the admission process?

then scroll down to click on your desired moe kindy

Thanks! I managed to find the listing that states block by block on the distance

[kopibeanie]

TwinstarsMummy:

Did you go to the recent [Sat] briefing ?

I went and did a walk around tour too. Its pretty big place. Ratio is 1 teacher to 20 kids. 4hrs, AM & PM sessions.

kopibeanie:

my boy is currently in a My First Skool (MFS) in punggol. Am considering transferring him to the MOE Kindergarten (MK) at Punggol View Pri. Anyone know how the quality of the curriculum & teachers at MK compares to MFS? Any comments on the MK & KCare at Punggol View? thanks!

I was late & missed the briefing. only joined the walk around. place is pretty big & impressive. facilities are better than MFS as they are located within a primary school (got own field, garden, playground, etc) & run by MOE (more budget I guess). just not sure how is the curriculum like, but then again, MFS is not that good either.

[kopibeanie]

marmalade:

kopibeanie:

my boy is currently in a My First Skool (MFS) in punggol. Am considering transferring him to the MOE Kindergarten (MK) at Punggol View Pri. Anyone know how the quality of the curriculum & teachers at MK compares to MFS? Any comments on the MK & KCare at Punggol View? thanks!

My child is not in MFS so I can't give much advice on this.
But question is : if your child is happy at MFS, then what is your motivation for the transfer?

my personal thoughts and observation:

quality of curriculum -
you can check out :
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/our-programmes
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/our-curriculum
http://www.moekindergarten.edu.sg/ask-us

so perhaps the above can help you compare with your experiences in MFS

other than no actual teaching of phonetics and HYPY, and no homework or worksheets to bring home, (there could be more differences, i may be wrong, but based on the previous posts and the website FAQ), i think the curriculum is pretty much the same compared to the rest of the preschools. The key here is HOW the teachers approach to engage the preschoolers.

quality of teachers - looks responsible & friendly, BUT this is only based on observation during the open house - haha...so only time will tell. It is extremely hard to get passionate and dedicated teachers nowadays so if your child look forward to go to school and enjoys his time there, then it should be fine, but then again, it takes time to see this into fruition.

as for KCare, the head of MK at pv claimed that the activities done in Kcare will be \"integrated\" with what kids learn in MK but based on what our fellow parent eu-earn has shared, MK@SK screened youtube to the kids. so i have my own reservations.

in short, i think MK is trying to emulate international schools where preschoolers also learn through play and project work to give a \"holistic development\" but at a very affordable rates for the masses with a \"distinct local flavour\".

Hope the above helps !

a fellow parent commented that MFS did not prepare her daughter (smart & obedient type) well for pri 1 & she's now having difficulties playing catchup. so I'm kinda worried for my boy. also I feel that MFS curriculum is kinda slow for him (e.g. they only just started teaching letters & letter sounds in N2 when he already learnt all of them from leapfrog at 18mths). actually MK & MFS' curriculum sounds pretty similar - \"learn thro play\", no spelling/ting xie, no HYPY, etc. wonder if they'll be sufficiently prepared for pri 1. guess enrichment is unavoidable. sigh. the only benefit I see in transferring him to MK is to get him used to a pri sch environment. shldn't MOE do something to the pri sch syllabus to keep them more in line with the preschool syllabus??? why is there a need for enrichment in order for the kid to cope in pri 1???