Hi all,
I'm at Hougang and my boy is attending pre-N at Catholic Kindy and he absolutely loves it since day 1. I was looking for a Catholic education for my boy and was deciding between Catholic Kindy and Nativity Church Kindy and eventually decided on the former tho it's further away from my home. Pretty much a leap of faith cos I can't get much reviews on the school and there's no website either.
Catholic Kindy has a lovely open-air playground, big enough for the kids to run around freely. The kids do not get confined and cooped up in just their own classroom but they do move around the school a fair bit for music in the music room on the upper floor, the TV room, etc. The principal is a nice lady who welcomes the kids at the gates every other day. The teachers are very very patient with the kids and I totally salute them. When my boy had a fall and bumped his head, they called me up at the end of the class to inform me. They even call me up again later in the afternoon to check if he's ok. Tho it's been a month and there are still one or two crying kids in the class, the teachers do not leave the kids alone to cry (my colleague told me her niece is still crying at playgroup and her teachers just leave her alone). When they can't handle (cos they need to start on the lessons proper... it's been a month already!), they will get additional help from the music teacher. I can't give comments on the curriculum and stuff, whether there's more sit down writing + worksheets, etc, since my boy is only attending pre-N.
The school has no aircon and that's a plus to me. The building may be a bit on the old side, but that's not a concern either.
Catholic Kindy is established in 1969 by The Marist Brothers. The Marist Brothers is a Catholic teaching order dedicated to the Christian education of children and young people. Tho the kindy's daily operations is now run by lay people, the supervisor is a Marist Brother. With a school steeped in such rich traditions, I'm sure I can entrust my boy to them and be assured that they will do their part in imparting the correct moral and spiritual values for character development, which I feel is more important at this very young age than things like learning how to count from 1 to 100 and being able to recite from A to Z.
It's been a month and I'm happy to say that the kindy has given my boy a very positive experience. It's very heartening when his chinese teacher told me we shldnt be too hard on the kids when they misbehave, to remind but not to scold or nag, cos they are still too young to understand that their actions can hv negative impact. If they begin to feel that there's so much restrictions and NOs in school, they will begin to dislike it.
Btw, I think their registration for 2010 will be sometime in March. So do look out for it.