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ADDRESS: 408-B UPPER EAST COAST ROAD SINGAPORE 466484
CONTACT: +65 64483346
this school has no curriculum, after sending my daughter there, I was shocked to find this out.
Now I am sending her to St Hilda Primary, my very big concern is whether she can cope.
I am so frustrated and feel cheated by a Christian School, their only sales theme is "Strong Chinese", I can send to Chinese enrichment and get better chinese teachers.
I would think there is some kind of regulating body requiring all these pre-schools to offer real education not some kind of lip service to parents.
feel like complaining to MCYS why can they allow schools to operate & draw on government grants without curriculum .
Agree with Bruce & Robin, the whole semester seems to be focused on the year end concert.
to the other mothers do check with the teachers more and really ask what they are doing.
I found out after speaking to the teacher that they are the ones deciding on what to teach. so if you goto another class other tearchers might teach other things.
On what ms korea wrote, that teachers are the ones deciding on what to teach. That is a shock! This sounds like the type of curriculum they had at NAFA.
Hey guys,
This is really unfair comments about the school and its staff!
My elder son was in Holy Grace and now my second child is also in the Kindergarten. I must say I have seen many wonderful changes made to the curriculum and activities since the new Principal came on board. Since I fetch my child to school everyday, talks to the teachers and Principal whenever possible as well as participates in most of the activities that the school orgainzed, thus I am quite sure of what's going on in school.
I do not agree that the children are rowdy and fights in class. The children are always engaged in activities even if they are not involved in computer and gym class. My child does not participate in the computer class but the form teacher make sure that she is engaged with something.
There are many schools island wide that has computer and gym as enrichment during curriculum time too! I am also not saying that the children in Holy Grace are angels, but they are generally well behaved in school. All children fight with siblings at home once in a while too what more in school!
My elder child is now in St Hilda Pri and is doing well. Most other parents whom I spoke with do not have concern that their child are not able to cope in Primary school.
My children has good thoughts about their teachers in Kindy.
that's good for you Karen.
However, how do you know what the children are doing when they do not pay for gym or computer. I've witnessed it with my own eyes. I was contemplating removing my child from participating in the extra charged classes like computer as there were only 6 kids in the computer class. I'd requested to see what the other kids were doing in class. After much persuasion they allowed me to take a peek. What a shock. The other kids in class were running around and being rowdy while one teacher was busy cutting some stuff for her lesson preparation while another teacher was busy sorting stuff in the cupboard.
As they claim, they use this time to revise with kids who do not attend the such classes. Which ultimately, makes most parents feel that their child is better off getting free revision. However, non of this seems to be the case!
Let's put it this way. You pay for what you get. Scrutinize your choice of kindergarten for your precious child. Don't just rely on advertisement banners or hear-say. Times have change. The school's reputation has changed. The are better options available in the market. Give your child the best. They are only pre-schoolers once. Give them a headstart to their education. Do your homework thoroughly before you decide. There are other better options out there.
Hey Wayne
I was blown away by your comment.
As a parent, after witnessing and experiencing all these,instead of removing your child from the school, you choose to rant here.
In my humble opinion, your intention, character and how you treat your child is very much questionable.
As Ris Low puts it best, what the shingz!
And a word of reminder, if you are doing something dirty, don't drag God into the picture. Don't you have fear of God at all?
Hi,
Both my children are currently attending Holy grace kindergarten. I am an educator and I am very careful with my selection of school for my children. My children esp the eldest boy has attended many schools from pat's school to Montessori school but we settled with Holy grace kindergarten for many reasons.
1) All the teachers are very experience and very low turn over rate.
2) The Chinese curriculum is strong. I am selling Chinese books to many school and I know that this school is willing to spend on books for the children.
3) Teachers are very very caring and dedicated. I can site many examples that teachers has shown so much love for the children.
I am a parent and I feel that it will be such a waste to see the teachers in the school to be discouraged by such comments. Good schools are hard to come by, esp chinese school (this is one of the only 3 school in singapore).
I am not sure what whether the negative comments posted earlier are true but my experience with the school has been a positive one. Parents can drop me an email and I can share with you how i feel abt the school. jennywee02@yahoo.com
Jenny
NOT a Teacher, NOT the principal, Just a Parent and satisfied customer.
My older child attended Holy Grace 5 yrs back. People put their maids to queue overnight. We queued before the sun rose, all for the sake of getting a spot in the kindy. My son benefited greatly and is doing very well in St Hilda despite having no one in the family speaking a word of English (neither do both sets of grandparents!).
However, since his Nursery enrolment, there was a change of 2 principals and now the current one. Many 'enrichment' classes were introduced. What I did/do not like is the fact that these classes replaces the class times within the 3 hrs. I mentioned to the principal and nothing was do. Alot of other kindys hv the 4th hour outside their usual 3-hour kindy time, to computer lessons, making it optional and non intrusive to those not taking it. But I signed him up anyway to make him feel 'in'. He learnt nothing. In fact we found that he learnt more from those $10-15 CDs bot from Popular. We took him out. Thank God he had only K2 to finish under the new principal, I said.
A yr later I placed my daughter in another Christian kindy for Nursery. Unfortunately their Mandarin emphasis was only 33%, though my dd improved tremendously on her general knowledge (at age 3!). But for the sake of her spoken Mandarin and word recognition, I reconsidered Holy Grace again. I told the principal upon enrolment that the only reason I'm putting dd back is due to the strong Mandarin emphasis, the same reason most parents in HG are doing this. She said it is not true as many parents want more English.
9 mths went by.... my dd's spoken Mandarin did improve under this particular China teacher. But people started leaving over time... both students and teachers. The very good Mandarin teacher who had been teaching for a few yrs and is very dedicated left due in April, to bad blood with the principal. The English teacher is rumoured to be leaving in 2 wks. More mothers approached the principal n demanded for their upcoming Nursery kids' deposits to be refunded. Some complained abt the weightage of Mandarin being reduced to 60% now. New principal's method of running this kindy is not in line with what their banner says... HG was famous for its strong Mandarin, now principal wants to please those who are asking for more English. Mothers also found out that our kids have little time studying now. Parents' Day concert... Year End concert... a check with other moms and we find out all our kids come home telling us that they do nothing besides practising for concert everyday! Other times, they are split up into 4 groups with 2 language teachers taking turns repeating materials to them. So what happen to the other 2 groups without teachers?
I must say I'm very saddened and lost by the changes to this kindy. I don't know where to put my dd now. The teachers themselves (those who left) blurt out that the kids are learning very little. My dd will soon see missing teachers, missing classmates... and all they do is sing and run around till school's over. Management is not doing anything bcos they need to standby the principal that they chose. They refused to listen to the teachers n parents instead.
Yes i too have heard from my friends who had sent their kids to Holy Grace that their children do not learn much, one of them hates Mandarin and is poor in the language too, English and Math skills are not good too. One of them is pulling her kid out of the school and putting him in a Montessori school where the quality of teaching is better. So please look around and find a better Kinder for your children.
Nothing is constant in this world! Look through the newspaper and you see so many kindy looking for teachers. I just saw St Hildas looking for Eng Trs on Saturday and so many others as well. Come on, do you stay in the same working place for life? This is a constant changing world, pp would want to change a new environment after a few years for various reasons!
My children are in Holy Grace Nursery and K2 they enjoy school so much that they want to go even on weekends. I am very happy with my kids performance and progress. The current arrangement that the teachers take the children in smaller gp is so much better and they have better attention with the children. I spoke with the teachers during parents teachers meeting and they are very positive with the changes. I even requested to observe how lessons was conducted and to my surpsise, the children were orderly and everyone was doing their work in small gp and I was totally amazed that the children were not distracted even though there were few activities going on at the same time!
Anyway when we register our children, the admin lady already told us that only Nursery prog has 80% Chinese and in K1 & K2 60% cos it is only fair that the school make sure that the children will not be in a cultural shock when they go to Primary school where all are most subjects are taught in Eng!
The school has not change their policy but your memory fail you!
I just ask that you do not discourage or put down the staff who are still there and are dedicated to teaching atleast for both my children's classes.
There are good teachers still in Holy Grace and being a member of the church and knowing who runs the school, I have faith that Holy Grace Kindergarten is a good place for my children's early learning!
I would like to comment that Holy Grace curriculum is good especially their Chinese. I made some comparasion and found that dispite the recent changes in school, they still have more Chinese compared to most other kindy. I went to check out another so call more Chinese Kindy near Novena but realise that the Principal is new 2!
I will still put my child at Holy Grace. No point changing school cos, this days the turn over in schools are high everywhere you go. If I change, my child will have more to adjust to like new environment, new teachers, new teaching method etc. Importantly, my baby is still very happy there even after her Chinese teacher left in April. My child says he likes the new teacher, so.... I think children are adaptable, if the new teacher is good they will forget the one before.
Dear All
I read all comments w some interest. A while ago, I was also toying with the idea of sending my child to HG , well , again due to the "popular known fact that they are strong in mandarin" ...
I hope I will be allowed to state my fair share of comments without antagonising "supporters" of HG.
I am not sure if anyone else experienced what i encountered. I called up the Admin (mdm wong) last year to enquire about the school. I am not sure if it was because the school is so popular that Mdm Wong didn't care much to answer my queries over the phone. She sounded "offended" when i said i would like to arrange for a school visit. She then started to raise concerns over HFMD and how visitors aren't allowed. While I understood her well-intent, i was shocked as I only wanted to ask about the curriculum and have a face-to-face meet and find out more about the school. After explaining that I need not view the classrooms, she replied "what is it that we can't discuss over the phone" ... My mind straightaway told me that if I can't meet anyone to discuss face-to-face, then , do they expect me to enrol my child without ever visiting the school grounds & getting to know the curriculum??? Maybe they really expect all parents to merely sign up blindly?
Needless to say, I didn't send my child to HG. Earlier this year, after persuasion from my mum to reconsider sending my child to a "chinese kindergarten" (cos none of us speak mandarin at home) , I decided to put aside "previous bad experience" and tried calling HG again... this time round, Mdm Wong agreed to see me but she reiterated many times "meet only in the school office" ... what's worse, she asked me to go at an hour where she was so busy handling parents' queries, collecting payments....that i sat there for almost 30 mins !!!! Which was just as well for me...cos i heard some parents asking her why the Chinese teacher "changed again" ... i heard her mentioning reasons like "the china teacher work visa got problem" and "oh the teacher resigned"...
I was feeling quite uncomfortable w this turnover of teachers.... and when she finally had time to meet me, i only had 1 question for her... what is your average class size for Nursery students? When she reply 30, i almost flipped... i thought 30 is quite huge for a preschool class size.. i thought 30 is the class size for Primary 1 ...
Needless to say, I didn't proceed. We have since enrolled our child into Chinese enrichment to help him brush up on his Chinese.
Don't get me wrong. I still believe HG has what it takes for it to be so popular today... but i have to caution that due to this fact (popular), they may have compromised on certain standards just to fulfill enrolment needs (eg to fulfill all enrolments, they may have increased class capacity to 30 but is this ideal for the young? Can the young really learn effectively in such large group?) I have also heard from a parent that the china chinese teachers do really resign one by one.
Not only one Chinese teacher left, but another did.. so did another English teacher. For a kindy with so few teachers, 3 teachers leaving in 1 term is appalling. When we spoke to some other form teacher and asked if the principal was changing too many things n getting loads of complaints, the teacher smiled sheepishly! She asked what were said, and I told her she should know better.. she smiled and smiled back.
My child just came home with a chinese reader book.... and she said she has never read it in class. But the earlier books she has done them in class. What happened? Principal also has the nerve to tell teachers and parents and refer herself as 'pretty'!! I would not have believe this if I had not heard her saying this in front of me. She has also been caught lying abt things once, yet pointed the blame on the kids. A check with the kids against what she told parents, proved it. A check at her former kindergarten also brought up some issues she had with them. Has anyone checked her background while she was doing her degree? The stories behind it? Go find out!
Why is HG having excursion every other month? Before one outing is done, another letter appears in the kids' bags asking for pymt fo another excursion! If the child opts out, he will miss 2 days of school (AM and PM sessions dominate each day for outing). Also K2 kids are given an option to go for student exchange programme in China! With a parent along. One whole week? What will they learn? It's a holiday, more than anything else? How about teaching some solid academic stuff with these wasted time? As it is, maths and english curriculum is behind many kindies... just check their curriculum and ask around other parents. If deteriorating Mandarin, principal blames on the teachers. She even called one English teacher 'big mouthed' for leaking her instructions out. (shaking head) . I have brought this up with the church members of this kindy.... next would be the Chairperson.