St. James Church Kindergarten Parents' Club

hi junebrides
did ur dd have a confirmed place for pnpg 2010 already? or was she on waitlist?
i'm waiting to hear from SJCK to find out if my boy has a place. he's currently on waitlist for the pnpg 2010 PM session.
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wondering if i should call them up to ask..
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junebrides
hehe. thanks!
i called them last friday.. and my boy's still on wait list. she advised for me to call after May, when enrollments more or less done. then i will have a better idea if my boy will get in or not. hmmz. wait and see then, i guess...
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Hi ladies my girl is born in the yr of 2007...issit too late to register her now???any idea how long is the waitlist????

we stay in telok blangah,any idea how muhc is the school bus per month?

tks for the info
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Weishy,

I registered my DS in 2007 and he is in Nursery this year. He was no. 4 on waiting list at that time. He had a very high chance cos they leased over another plot of land last year and had openings for 10 more classes, split across several levels.

No harm trying if you don't mind parting with the registration charges.
 
Hi all,

I just callled St James and my ds is 44 on the waiting list for PNPG 2010. Asked the lady, she was telling me that the chances are very low..sigh... crossing my fingers...
 
Hi all,
St James just sent out an email to all on waiting list. They might be opening a 3rd session in the afternoon if they receive positive response.
 
Hi,

are there any mommies who are not driving and whose kids are not taking the school bus? how long does it take to walk to the bus stop at the main road?
i am trying to find out whether it is feasible to send/fetch my son to SJCK via public transport when he enrols next year. any advice regarding this will be appreciated, thanks!
 
hi Tanglin,
I've tried out the walking out route once out of curiousity. The walk to the bus stop along Holland Road should take about 5-7 mins if you cut through the carpark of Au Petit Salut (next building down Harding Road from SJCK).
But there's no shelter along the way and it can be abit troublesome on a rainy day. As you'll have to make your way down a grassy patch which I'm worried could get muddy on rainy days.
 
Hi Tanglin,

I am one of those mommy who did not have car and carry my girl to the bus stop which mentioned by Vanny. It has become a daily exercise. I considered quite lucky have some mommies offering a ride to the bus stop cuz they see me walking under the hot sun.
 
Hi Vanny,

thanks for giving me a ride after the PTC.Btw did you attend last friday talk by Dr Chua. I find it quite useful cuz pick up few tips..the chinese enrichment from ednoland is quite interesting...

Btw recently I talked to staff. the school is going to start moving back in 2012 and by 2014 all are in leedon road. I asked them my girl will be in k2 in 2012 and she still continue at harding...thank goodness..
 
Hi akoyo, yes you are right..they are having a third sessions and I am surprised how the kids take it from 2.45pm class under the hot sun leh...
 
Hi Vanny & Joyce,

i see...Thanks for your advice.
will try to gather more info from the school bus operator regarding cost & travelling time ..
 
Hi Joyce,
Hey, no problem about the ride. Didnt attend the talk though. Didnt realise they'd be moving when our girls are in K2. Actually if it's back in Leedon it'd be even closer to my home. Wouldn't it be more convenient for you then?
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So, what did you cook up for your girl to wear on Go Green day today?
 
Hi,

I have received for the Session 3 waiting list survey email. Anyone has received also for this survey 2010/2011? Tommorrow is the deadline for the reply. May I know what is your opinion then and which option will you be choosing for the reply? Thanks
 
Hi Pearl,

My boy is currently on waitlist for PN (2011) and confirmed place for N1 (2012). I also rec'd the survey today.

I think I am more concern whether the new school premise is as condusive as the current harding road one, as the big draw for sjck was because I like the greenery and quiet environment at harding road.

Anyone has any idea how the new premise will be like? will it be near main road? Noisy? (cos opp holland v rite? got greenery?

quite sad they decide to change location actually.
 
Hi yanyen,

If you dont feel comfortable, y not u just reply to them your positive option which option 1/2 to keep the place first just in case if they really decided to open session 3 at least you still have time to consider at the same time since you have paid the registration fee without the deposit for the confirmation..at the meantime, just travel down to the new location peep peep even it's not develop yet (to find out more thru the surrounding there)..what i'm worried is my dd nap time is between 230pm to 430pm (roughly) wondering can she adapt well if she's in next year..anyway, for the sake of keeping the place so i opt for option 2..(actually bit confused by option 1 and 2-dont know which one is more benefit to me)
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later then decided...hehe
 
and few more things we need to consider is will it be still the same group of teachers doing the teaching for the session 1, 2 and 3? if so, will those teachers feel tired after the session 2 and session 3 will be get affected (teaching way not so lively/interesting as compared with the previous 2 sessions) or something like this? and wondering between 245pm-545pm, when will be their outdoor activities as what Joyce did mentioned 'under the hot sun'
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Joyce,
wah.. very cool yukata idea!
My mum made an apron out of those "recycling" shopping bags for Arie to wear on top of her regular clothes. Plus she had a special "handbag" to carry.
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Think the kids must have had a lot of fun. Pity I wasnt able to go and see what others wore in school that day!

Sounds like you're really keen to get Cher into Session 1 for N next year? Then when it's time for her to attend those afternoon enrichment classes, wont the wait be long?

My colleague's girl is on wait list for PNPG next year too. She got a call to ask if she was keen on session 3.
 
hi,

may i know if it is necessary to send 2 years old to playgroup or classes if the child is going to attend prenursery at 3 years old?any recommendations?
 
hi all
is it confirmed the sch is moving ? my girl got a confirmed slot for 2011 PNPG. I live the harding road environment, hope she can finish all the way at that place.

any idea how long the waitlist now for 2011 ? have some friends interested in queuing. are they confirmed opening Session 3 ? then those kids cant attend the enrichment classes ?
 
hi all,
i'm planning to enrol my child for the 2012 PNPG. Any idea if I'd get a confirmed place or whether there's already a wait list?
Do you mommies actually attach your babies passport photos on the registration forms? Or will they allow us to submit later? Just thought it'd be kinda strange to attach my newborn's photo.
 
hi ling,
no i didnt attach pic, they wont ask for bb pic. i think 2012 PNPG should have place... I applied last yr Nov for 2011 PNPG and got it. now should be no problem for you
 
hi catherine, thanks for the info. i'll be registering end sept. hopefully can get a confirmed place.

hi mums,
are any of you interested in getting the wo hui du series of books/flash cards. there are 5 levels in all, and each level is retailing at $74. i've found a distributor who is willing to give us 15% discount (each level $62.90) if we buy in bulk.
any interest? i suppose we can try to negotiate for a better deal if we have good response.
 
Hi mums,

i am about to confirm the enrolment of my boy for the 2010 PNPG class session 3 (2.45-5.45pm). Due date is 24 July. It will be at harding road, and later when he is K1, it will be shifted to Leeden Road. I read through all the post, many says it is hot cause the areas do not have much shades.

Is there any aircon in the classrooms? Is there outdoor activities everyday?

I am staying in Clementi. So, leedon Road. is nearer to me in fact.

Any mum send their children to the school via school bus? Any minimum age requirement?

Can't think of any other concerns now.
thanks.
starynite
 
Hi Starynite,

I didn't know that they started a third session. Any idea what happens to the enrichment classes that are usually conducted from 2.45pm to 4pm?

I can't decide which session I should enrol my child for. Actually prefer the first session, but was thinking it'll be more convenient to enrol for the second session since he won't have to travel back and forth for the enrichment classes.
 
i am not sure about the enrichment classes for session 3. Actually quite limited enrichment classes available for PNPG too from their website.

They sent out a survey 2 months back asking for interest of parent to have their children attend session 3. Think they need more students when they go back to Leedon Road later.

I actually enrol my son for 2nd session where the queue or WL is not too long (120+). But since i am offered a place for this session 3, i am seriously considering enrolling him in. Though the hour is a bit odd. didn't think of all the logistic issue yet. But those are secondary, i guess...

starynite
 
i just checked with the school. only 3 enrichment class available for PNPG. kindermusic one in during school hours. The art class will be on Sat. Swimming, we need to arrange with aquaduck ourself.
 
hi starystarynite: I've just confirmed my daughter's place at St James for PNPG starting in Jan 2010 too. She already had a confirmed place for Nursery (Session 1) but we were waitlisted for PNPG. Thank goodness they opened the third session huh? I actually like the hours, as it fits neatly around nap times etc. Won't be opting for school bus as I think my kid is still a bit young to put on a bus!
 
Hi Starynite,

Congrat that sjck offers your child place.

My girl is in pgpn now session 2. Just to share with you..all classrooms are aircon. Outdoor activites ie play swing and slide etc..twice a week ie every tues and thur for her class. Mon is sandplay, wed water play..friday chapel and gym..

The outdoor can be very hot at times esp during term 2 ie the hot and dry weather..as such the kids has to put on their school hat for protection..

Few of my girl classmates is on school bus..heard the drivers and aunties in bus are good....


At the moment for art programm called baby art which run by kinderart has stopped..most of the art program start from nursery on weekends sor weekdays..

As for aquaduck..i heard that nstuctors so so only..cuz sometimes the strokes that they teach can be wrong lor..anyway the swimming lesson is basically play water...
 
Hi Yolk Sac,

how oldis yr kid? mine will be 2.5 yrs by then. can take school bus? i also worry that the journey is too long. i stay at clementi. I talked to the logistic manager that manage the bus schedule. Not out yet for session 3 of 2010. but might need to go to school at 1.15pm even though school starts at 2.45pm. scarry!

i am also thinking of either gettting a maid or nanny to look after him. cause we both have to work. and the timing is pretty odd for session 3. 2.45-5.45pm.
 
Hi Joyce,

Thanks. How old a kid can take school bus and how many auntie is in the bus to look after the children?

any bad thing or negative experience abt sjck that you want to share?

thanks starynite
 
Hi starynite
My daughter is around the same age as your son - born Jul 07. Wow, didn't realise the kids on the bus will arrive at school so much earlier. This would make the school bus not a very attractive option for us.

Why do you find the timing of Session 3 odd? I really like the timing actually. My daughter can get her nap out of the way at home before going to school. Then my mum can pick her up and we can all meet for dinner.

Hi Joyce
Thanks for the info! We did Aquaducks and you're right, it's mainly water play in a pool. Guess it's good for building water confidence. I'd be very interested in hearing your views about St James - what's with all the big enrolment queues? Is there really something special about it or is it just a case of kiasu parents hype-ing up something that really isn't worth all the hype?
 
Hi Yolk Sac,

The timing really depends on how many of the session 3 students are there and at that area. He said 1.15pm is because the journey take about 30-45 mins. and he has to reach there by 2.15pm to fetch session 2 students. The best scenario will be 1.45pm, where the bus can bring session 3 students there by 2.30pm. Hopefulyl this is the case.

I say odd cause it is in the middle of the day. Wasted lots of time as in if you have some other program on that day and you want to bring the child out. And since i am engaging a nanny, i can have half day nanny. If it is session 1 morning, may be i only need half day nanny.
 
starynite: whereabouts are you staying? the 30-45 min journey is so long because the bus uncle has to pick up other kids?

yeah the downside of session 3 is that it's hard to take the afternoon off to hang out with the kids - but i guess if i feel like spending an afternoon with my daughter, i'll just let her skip school that day *heheh!*
 
yes. i took bus, it is only 20 mins journey. for school bus, it will have to fetch a few students. definitely it will have to be 45 mins to 1 hr. So, what do you think? will u take schol bus still?
 
Nope, as I said before, I heart pain to see my little gal take the school bus at such a tender age. My parents will fetch her both ways. We are lucky in that both my family and my parents live close by.
 
Hi All,

I have just saw the confirmation email on the PNPG session 3 and will like to check if you know if we can change to session 1 or 2 when we moved to the new campus?

want to ask as well, parents who currently have their children there, is St James really good as I am still contemplating whether to send my DS there or to a montesorri school

hi Yolk Sac,
don't know whether you rem me, i am from Aug 07 thread and that was asking you about aquaducks
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ahh... hope that my DS and your DD can be classmates.
 
Hi chomecc,

My DD1 is currently in the Nursery class.
The only thing I could say is the teachers have a way with kids.

My DD is a v difficult child when it comes to transition/change of environment/separation. I'm quite surprised that she takes to the teachers v well within the 1st few weeks 'cos she has problems with the other schools we put her in and we actually need to sit in the class to accompany her.

Curriculum wise, they are not fantastic, but I guess sufficient to prepare for primary school. In fact, my DD is more advanced than the school's curriculum 'cos I've sent her to other enrichment classes before she attends SJCK and is still doing so during the weekends.

They do hv a lot of enrichment classes after school hours but I'm not sending her 'cos regular school hours with enrichment classes would be too long hours for her. With just regular school hours, she is already away from home for 5 hrs including journey to and fro school by school bus. Just dun wan to stress her with long hours away from home at a young age.

One thing to note, the school expects the parents to play an active role when it comes to prevention of H1N1 and HFMD. Parents are expected to take the temperature of the child at home before sending them to school. The school will not take the temperature, like other schools. For this, frankly I needed some adjustments and just hope for the best.

So, you will need to see what you want to achieve out of sending your child to this school.
For me, it's because my gal likes the teachers and is enjoying school....I dun hv to deal with tantrums like in the last school I sent her when she would cry every morning when going to school and my mum will keep calling me at work to tell me how pitiful she is to have to go to this school. Now, she gladly goes to school, even after the long Jun holidays and actually missed school when she has to be kept away recently for almost a week 'cos she got a flu and I din want her to spread the germs around.

Sorry for the long post.
 
Hi Blueberries,

Thank you for the very good advice. My DS also has like separation anxiety and one thing about him is he don't really like to socialise a lot.
Ahh... parents to take an active role.. well.. that i am surprised...really have to hope for the best.

oh.. can you elaborate on what you mean by curriculum wise, they are not fantastic? What do they normally do for 3 hours?

My main concern is what he gets to learn from school. Another concern is that both myself and my hubby are free thinkers, so we are concerned about DS having reglion influence at a tender age.. want to leave it to him to decide his religon faith at an older age. Does St James do a lot to influence?

Sorry for asking so many questions.
 
i took the guided tour this afternoon. walk around the school premises. Like the surroundings, and greens. Pretty clean toilet. Teachers are friendly. The vice principal brought us around. Quite nice person, but can't answer questions on detail shifting plan to Leedon Rd. As for the classes (Nursery), students are pretty noisy there. Teacher didn't really keep them in order. They are jumping and running around. May be there is a break or something.

Can see that for PG, the main focus is really social interactions and development of language skill, communication skill. And i suppose Chinese is not the main communication medium and focus here except during chinese class. For Nursery to kindergarten, it is very academic based. They have English, maths and chinese class. English and Chinese are thematic based. Structure in a way to meet primary syllabus requirement later. They have quite a lot of activities for children. Project works etc..

I think if you are looking for ordinary pre-school programs, they are definitely one of the better ones.

And one more bad thing is that, since it is session 3, there won't be any enrichment class on weekdays. Sat enrichment class is only available if there is high demand. And this will be till 2011 (PNPG turns to nursery). After it is shifted to Leedon, then session 3 will be combined with session 1 and 2 and i suppose there will be enrichment classes available in the afternoon for everyone.

So, headache...i still can't make up my mind yet!!!whether to go for it, or go to other full time childcare type like Ethon house, TELC (SIM) or Creative O. Fees abt the same cause i still need to engage nanny if i go for St James.
 
My son attended MMI for 6 months. Actually we prefer to have a program that can stimulate his mind, expose him to many different things, science, maths and languages, creativity etc. Thought montessori is the right program for him at least till 4 yrs old. After that, then he can go for more academic focus type... But, later realise no matter how good is the program or syllabus, if teacher no good, it is useless. Cause students learn from teacher and they treat teachers as role model. So, now i try to look for one with good program and teachers and environment. so hard to find...
 
Hi chomecc,

Typical timetable for Nursery level, given to us during orientation, have the following elements - English, Chinese, Mathematics, Music & Movement, Art & Craft, Devotion, Chapel, Learning centre activities, MATAL, story telling, outdoor play.
For English, they are learning sounds of the alphabets. For Maths, they are learning numbers 1-20, patterns, sequence, etc. For Chinese, mainly thematic, eg. if theme is colour, then they learn some words like red, blue, green, etc.
I've been sending my DD for phonics classes since 3. She already knows the sounds of the letters before she start schooling at SJCK. She is currently also attending Chinese enrichment class - words covered is definitely more chim than what is covered in SJCK. So that's why I said curriculum wise, they are just basic.....enuff to prepare for primary school.
Dun think they are too religious...at least my gal did not come back home to tell us abt anything related to Christianity and say prayers before she eats...hehehehe!
 
Hi Starynite,

They can take bus as soon as they enters pre nursery level. It is up to parents whether they want to put them on school bus at that young age. My girl classmates did not start at term 1 in school bus..her parents only engage school bus during term 2 in pgpn.

I always see only 1 aunty in the school bus..most of them are malays aunties. So far the mommies who put their child on sch bus are happy with the school bus driver and aunty.
 
Yolk Sac,

I have to say that the school has built a good reputation all these years that why the waiting list is much longer than Nanyang kindy.

One of the MP's son is in morning session for pre nursery, few celebrities kids are in scjk too.

SJCK has a good avenue to prepare for kids to P1 cuz of the massive enviroment in class..and the teachers are very caring towards them. Here the school wants to impart right values and cultures to the students. That is something very different from CCC..or even PCF. The curriculum so so only. The hrs of coverage is very short cuz in fact only two hrs in actual learning. The other hr is for lunch, breakfast..and cater for dissmal. As such, the hours of learning is very short compared to those CCC where the kid stay from 8am to 6pm..they certainty learn lots from them. Henceforth, lots of scjk has to do backup and go for enrichment.

Their enrichment is very good. But for me, I am not sending my girl for enrichment as I prefer to go outside which my girl is now ending berries at orchard.

The school is strong in maths and english. The flip side is mandrain. But I have to say the mandrain enrichment is very good, especially the word rapid recognition run by ednoland.

I have to say at the end of the day..see what the school can deliver is able to meet the parents expectation..otherwise have to think of alternatives lor..

Talking about school bus thingy. I bring my DD to school myself...and pick her up too..mode taxi. I just feel she is too young to take school bus and avoid the tendency of getting H1N1 and HFMD lor. So for those whose grandparents who can do the logistic..it is indeed very helpful cuz I have seen them doing that in school sending and fetching their grandchildren everyday..
 


Hi Joyce,

what area SJCK is weak at? what type of enrichment PNPG student usually go for? How they impart right values and cultures?Why do you say it is very different from Chil care centre?

Thanks,
starynite
 
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