Schoolhouse by the Bay

[Current SBTB Parent]

Hi,

My son graduated from SBTB spending 3 years there from Nursery. My daughter will be in K2 next year. My boy is now in St Hilda's Primary.

The feedback I want to give is that SBTB prepared my boy such that he had no problems with P1. AS mentioned, the mandarin program is excellent. Hanyu Pinyin was taught very comprehensively such that he had no problems. WHen he was in P1, the pace at which kids are taught HYPY made me thankful for SBTB preparations.

The English was also taught well. He progressed from end K1, early K2, when the teachers asked him to set goals, he wrote "I wan to ed miself and baf miself" to become a fluent reader at the end of K2. As a result, he learned spelling in P1 easily as he could apply his phonics skills.

The math program I cannot comment much. I do feel they are a little behind in that relative to PCF ones.

Throughout the year, there are so many artwork and journals with such amazing entries, so I really find sweeping comments that the kids "do nothing but play" rather unfair.

And in my opinion, all that playing is very important. They create opportunities to bond, make friends, resolve differences, social skills. These are much much more important life skills than academic excellence. My boy has a group of 5-6 friends that they go 'crazy' together. They have formed strong friendships which I believe arise from the fun they have together. We still meet up 1 year on every holiday.

As for my daughter, she enjoys going to school. She is reading CHinese very well, i'm looking forward to her picking up her English reading better. She adores her teachers. When a child is happy , they will learn.

[yummycookiz]

thanks for the affirmation of the school, current SBTB parent.

how is the turnover of the teachers in the past 1-2 yrs? i'm pretty keen on the chinese immersion approach they're taking but i'm just a little concern with the frequent movement of the "expat" teachers. are their contract typically 2-3 years? are the teachers attentive to your child's developmental needs? i'm going down to observe the kids tomorrow and make my own judgement but keen to hear the views from parents who have their kids there

[Cookiesncream]

Hi, have been following this thread coz we just moved to Singapore and I have a 2.5 yr old going 3 that I intend to send to a pre school next year January. We are currently looking for apts in the East.Anyway, I thought it would be easy to find a preschool in Singapore, but reading all the posts, it seems quite daunting!!

I just want to find a school for my LO which has a clean premise and caring teachers..any other recommendations..beside the above schools mentioned?

thanks.