One is housed in a heritage building, another is designed to be as cosy as home. LYNN WEE visits new preschools to find out what makes them special.
One is housed in a heritage building, another is designed to be as cosy as home. LYNN WEE visits new preschools to find out what makes them special.
THE ODYSSEY AT STILL ROAD
What’s special Housed in a heritage building that used to be The Grand Hotel decades ago, Odyssey at Still Road wows you with its indoor and outdoor spaces.
Its 21,000 sq ft campus includes a spacious outdoor area with mature trees, a ship-themed wooden play structure and a water play area with showers attached to tree trunks.
Along the side garden, there’s a “stream” where kids can scoop up little canal fish and guppies with a fishing net – this helps them learn about eye-hand coordination – and a “mud kitchen” to encourage outdoor play, mess and all.
Inside, corridor walls are lined with artwork by the children, and greenery comes in the form of an indoor herb garden.
Opened in July last year, Odyssey follows a Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum. It believes that children express themselves in a hundred different languages and that the environment plays the role of the third teacher.
With that philosophy in mind, the school focuses on the creative arts by providing kids with an array of materials – from clay to acrylic paints and even 3-D pens – to help them discover, communicate and learn, a spokesman explains. It even has a dedicated atelier for art.
Its music programme allows children to explore different elements, such as rhythm, pace and tone through percussion instruments, movement, and song and dance. Kindergarteners are taught to use apps like Garageband to compose their own music. Both the art and music programmes are taught by specialists.
This is also the first Odyssey centre to provide infant care for babies from nine to 17 months at a ratio of two children to one educarer. Learning materials that incorporate lights and sounds are strategically placed in the infant room for little ones to explore.
This centre also offers an early-years Chinese language immersion programme for toddlers from 18 months to three years old, where the day-to-day interaction, curriculum and projects are all taught in Chinese.
They’re served organic food, and the centre’s high- level security system means only registered guardians can enter the infant room through a facial recognition program.
Throughout all age groups, parents are kept up to date of their child’s development stages with pictures and videos that are uploaded on a portal.
Even though the fees don’t come cheap, there is a waiting list for its tots and pre-nursery classes.
How much The full-day childcare programme costs $2,300, while full-day infant care costs $3,000. Half-day and extended day programmes start from $2,000 and $2,800, respectively.
Fees are before GST and government subsidies.
Find out more http://www.theodyssey.sg
THE LITTLE SKOOL-HOUSE AT DOWNTOWN EAST
What’s special Explorerkid indoor playground at Downtown East has downsized to make way for this new preschool, which opened its doors in August 2016.
Spanning 9,460 sq ft, the school can accommodate over 200 students, but is capped at 160 to ensure kids have adequate space to move around.
Children feel like they’re at home, thanks to details such as classrooms designed to look like little houses, and cosy language corners with sofas and armchairs.
The centre has an open space area, which doubles as a place for the children to have activities such as telematches and mini gym sessions, helping them improve on their gross motor skills.
The classrooms are also separated with folding doors – a flexible design to incorporate a bigger space area when needed, and ceilings are specifically installed with cloud-shaped acoustic boards. The latter helps absorb the noise proliferated by the high ceiling and in doing so, maintains an ideal environment for the little ones.
The school follows a relationship-based curriculum for toddlers up to age three, where the focus is on building bonds with their teacher.
As children this age find it hard to regulate themselves, teachers allow them to roam about during lesson time and explore other learning materials in the classroom. This proves to be a more effective form of learning for kids in this age group, explains Felicia Yan, principal of The Little Skool-House at Downtown East.
On the other hand, storybooks are used as a springboard to introduce concepts of developmental areas such as numeracy, aesthetic and creative expressions, and social and emotional development. The school also utilises magazines and newspapers to expose the kids to language and literacy, as the stories help them piece bits of information together.
Children will also have access to Explorerkid two to three times a week (an hour each time), which helps to hone skills like problem- solving and communication, as well as physical skills to build agility.
Connected to the school is the Early Literacy Centre (pictured above, right), which opened in October 2016. More than just a reading area with over 1,000 books in English and Chinese, it also has a stage for the little ones to dramatise their story adventures.
Kids are encouraged to express their creativity with artwork using recycled materials, such as milk tins, bottle caps and egg cartons.
Pupils in this school get free membership, and are allocated a designated time during curriculum hours to utilise the various materials and mediums. The centre is also open to the public for a small fee, and targets children aged one to eight.
How much The infant-care programme costs $1,900, while the childcare programme costs $1,500. Fees are before GST and government subsidies.
Membership fee for the Early Literacy Centre is at $53.50 for 12 months, or $29.96 per child and one accompanying adult for a single admission of two hours. Find out more http://www.littleskoolhouse.com
LORNA WHISTON PRESCHOOL AT THE SPORTS HUB
What’s special The Lorna Whiston preschool at Raintree Cove along East Coast Park has an exciting new home – it’s slated to open this month at the Singapore Sports Hub.
Its 7,800 sq ft space covers both indoor and outdoor play area, and can accommodate up to 150 kids. Optimising its location, children can utilise the hub’s playground, as well as access selected aqua facilities on the second and third level for 10 to 15 minutes (for the younger kids), and up to 30 minutes (for the older kids) during curriculum time.
The preschool will introduce the Mini Master Classes as part of its full-day programme, where the little ones will be exposed to arts and crafts, speech and drama, reading and phonics, music and movement, as well as design and cookery.
The school will see a well-stocked library with more than $60,000 worth of books, providing kids with easy accessibility to a wide range of books as part of its key focus to instil a love for reading. How much The full-day programme for all levels costs $2,100 per month, and the half-day programme costs $1,785. Fees are before GST and government subsidies. Find out more http://www.lornawhiston.com
PHOTOGRAPHY (MAIN): VERONICA TAY. ART DIRECTION & STYLING: LOY SZE JIN. TOYS: THE BETTER TOY STORE.
