Mums and dads who live in the north of Singapore, are you looking to place your kids in childcare/infant care while you’re at work? Read on for our review of Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson at Woodlands.
During our previous visits, Mrs Rachel Ding (founder of Red SchoolHouse) mentioned that Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson is known as the ‘model centre’ which she set up in 2011 to consolidate the operations of all Red SchoolHouse centres in one place.
I’ve always wondered what being the ‘model centre’ meant so I decided to find out for myself — by making a trip down to Red SchoolHouse at Midview City, which is located at Sin Ming Lane within the Upper Thomson vicinity.
As always, Rachel was there to welcome me with her signature warm smile. I arrived at the centre just as the day was about to begin for the kids, after being dropped off by their parents/caretakers.
What Does It Mean To Be A ‘Model Centre’?
I was excited to explore the vast centre — Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson is housed in a commercial building lot at Sin Ming Lane, taking up 4 levels of space, complete with a rooftop playground.
According to Rachel, Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson is known as the ‘model centre’ because the school functions as the headquarters for all Red SchoolHouse centres. In addition, the teaching staff at Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson also play the role of mentors to student teachers from renowned institutions in Singapore such as Nanyang Institute of Management, SEEDS Institute and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
Thus, the centre acts as a model teaching centre for students who are currently pursuing their higher education in early childhood education. These student teachers will be given the opportunity to gain some hands-on teaching experience under the guidance of the teaching team at the centre.
Currently, there are over 70 kids enrolled at Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson, placed under the care of 20 teachers. The centre takes in an average of 2 student teachers per term, and exposes them to the SPICE curriculum.
Innovative Lessons In Session
At Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson, lessons for the little ones are kept fun and interactive by using a variety of teaching materials and tools. One great example is the interactive whiteboard that is used for kindergarten classes.
As explained by Rachel, this learning tool is basically made up of a projection of the day’s worksheet on a huge whiteboard. Kids will take turns to complete the exercises by using a marker-like tool, which acts as a stylus that they can use to drag and drop items within the projected worksheet.
I was pretty impressed with the fact that kids are introduced to some basic workings of a computer-based activity sheet from a young age. This will help prepare them for the e-learning platform that they will be using for lessons and homework during their formal school education.
Of Playtime And Field Trips
Playtime at Red SchoolHouse provides kids ample opportunities to express their creativity and put their motor skills to work. This often takes place at the centre’s rooftop playground where they can run around freely and make use of the specially designed playground equipment.
Daily lesson plans also include art sessions outdoors, where kids are given the freedom to paint and doodle on a dedicated window panel.
Aside from the usual lessons at the centre, Rachel shares that the teachers at Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson also organise monthly field trips for the kids — to places such as the Health Promotion Board, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Butterfly Park and even an otah factory.
The SPICE Curriculum
Red SchoolHouse offers a holistic SPICE curriculum for kids between 18 months and 6 years old. Spearheaded by Rachel, the SPICE curriculum is a collaboration between a pool of local educators from Red SchoolHouse, as well as seasoned lecturers from various education institutes in Singapore.
The curriculum focuses on developing the Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional aspects of each child using a local approach, with the main goal of nurturing happy, successful children and preparing them for formal school education in Singapore.
In the SPICE curriculum, emphasis is given on hands-on learning through a collection of specially-designed teaching materials as kids are given plenty of opportunities to develop their meta cognition, as well as open-ended and higher logic reasoning from nursery to kindergarten levels.
To help them reach their highest potential, kids at Red SchoolHouse are given ample opportunities to play, explore and discover the world around them. Class sizes are kept small (below the teacher-child ratio required by the Ministry of Education/Early Childhood Development Agency) to ensure that no child gets left out during lessons.
Rachel shares that the team of teachers and educators are continuously improving the curriculum to provide more opportunities for experiential learning to train kids to be happy, successful and prudent individuals. There are also plans to facilitate an exchange learning programme with the Red SchoolHouse overseas school in Shandong Province, China.
As Red SchoolHouse Woodlands is located quite close to my home, I took the opportunity to bring my 1-year-old along with me. She’s currently quite shy around strangers, so I hope that by exposing her to new places and people, she’ll slowly learn to accept things that are unfamiliar – without bawling her eyes out!
We were greeted by Ms Kate Ho, the Director of Red SchoolHouse Woodlands, who took us around for a tour. The place was buzzing with activity at that time, as lessons and playtime were in progress at every corner. According to Kate, Red SchoolHouse Woodlands adopts an ‘open concept’ classroom style to make learning more fun and unstructured, while providing more space for all the learning corners.
Mrs Rachel Ding, the founder of Red SchoolHouse, was also there at Red SchoolHouse Woodlands to tell us a bit more about the programmes and upcoming plans for this centre.
About Red SchoolHouse Woodlands
Red SchoolHouse Woodlands started operations on 7 January 2014 and has been growing steadily since then. Today, there are more than 50 kids and infants enrolled at the centre who are placed under the care of 13 staff.
When we asked Rachel the reason why Woodlands 11 was chosen as the location to set up this new centre, she told us it was mainly due to the large population of young families in the area, which called for the need for childcare and infant care services. In addition, the area around Woodlands 11 had been reported as one of ‘hot spots’ that is set to grow rapidly in the near future.
Although things have been running quite smoothly at Red SchoolHouse Woodlands since its official opening, Rachel has greater plans in place for the kids and teachers at the centre. Some of these include the extension of the infant care services and the offering of dance classes as part of the daily programme for kids.
SPICE curriculum
Red SchoolHouse offers a holistic SPICE curriculum for kids between 18 months and 6 years old. Spearheaded by Rachel, the SPICE curriculum is a collaboration between a pool of local educators from Red SchoolHouse as well as seasoned lecturers from various education institutes in Singapore. The curriculum focuses on developing the Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative and Emotional aspects of each child using a local approach, with the main goal of nurturing happy, successful children and to get them ready for formal school education in Singapore. By adopting a holistic and innovative approach in the SPICE curriculum, emphasis is given on hands-on learning through a collection of specially-designed teaching materials as kids are given plenty of opportunities to develop their meta cognition, as well as open-ended and higher logic reasoning from nursery to kindergarten levels.
To help them reach their highest potential, kids at Red SchoolHouse are given ample opportunities to play, explore and discover the world around them. Class sizes are kept small (below the teacher-child ratio required by the Ministry of Education/Early Childhood Development Agency) to ensure that no child gets left out during lessons.
Red SchoolHouse also encourages parents to be actively involved in their kids’ day-to-day learning in preschool by giving the kids simple ‘mini projects’ that they can take home to complete with their parents. Rachel believes that this gives parents a chance to spend time bonding with their kids after a long day at work. She also mentioned that for kids who are not able to get the mini projects done with their parents at home, the teachers at the centre would be more than happy to complete them with the kids.
Play-Learn For The Little Ones
One of the highlights at Red SchoolHouse Woodlands is the availability of infant care services for babies from as young as 2 months old. Rachel shared with us that the decision to take in babies for infant care at Red SchoolHouse Woodlands was largely due to the bigger space available at the centre and the large population of parents with younger kids who reside in the area.
The daily programme for the younger ones typically consists of a short massage session at the start of the day, followed by Storytelling and Music & Movement in both English and Mandarin. Baby art classes are also offered twice a week. As babies tend to tire more quickly than the older kids, they are given 2 naptime sessions (1 in the morning, and another in the afternoon) to allow them to recharge before the next activity.
Fun-Sized Playtime
Kids at Red SchoolHouse Woodlands look forward to playtime every day for just 1 reason: the setup of a colourful indoor playground which features fun obstacles and a giant pool filled with coloured balls for kids to bounce into. Rachel shared that to make use of the wide space available, the centre specially engaged a playground specialist to construct a safe and durable play environment for the kids. She assured us that the entire structure has passed the safety requirements upon being audited by the NPSI Certified Playground Inspector.
Visit Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson today!
If you’d like to know more about the curriculum and enrichment programmes offered at Red SchoolHouse Upper Thomson (plus other exclusive registration perks), do log on to https://www.redschhs.com/ or visit the school at the following address:
34 Sin Ming Lane, Midview City
Singapore 573955
Tel: 6353 3200