Pats schoolhouse or Brighton Montessori at grassroot is good

[WONGA]

Just wanted to share with all, regarding Pats Schoolhouse.

I enrolled my son there when they first started the center at GRC.

When we(my wife and me) went for their open house, we found that the environment was totally different from the other 2 centres above.

It is full of open spaces, and no doubts the teachers are friendly and caring, which is what their principal Ms Elsie describe, as she said looking for a good teacher is very tough and she has certain requirements in selecting their teaching staff. Furthermore, the student to teacher ratio was also rather low.

But ever since they started running for half a year, things starts to change slowly. They started taking in more and more students per class. But this was compensated by have another assistant teacher in the same class, which make it 3 teacher, which i think earlier on someone describe these assistant as "SO-SO' types. I guess they have more teachers and so decided to increase the school fees too?

I could still remembered when i ask them why the class room was shared by 2 groups of children, but until now, i didn't get the real answers. The only solution the promised was to rotate the groups (ie. 1 group in the class room while the other outside in the open space)

Now my son has moved to another class aft a year in that "2 groups" classroom. But i guess it's the same problem, the new class group of children is far too big for the teachers to handle, and sometimes, i felt so sad when these child had to cramp up together or not getting enough attention from the teacher as they are tied up with other kids.

Until recently, i received a memo from them stating that they will be doing an 'UPGRADING" in the premises, in which they will convert the open space area into 2 more classrooms . Of course, we as parents would not know the school's real motives of creating these new classrooms from the open space, although they mentioned that this is to provide a conductive and quieter learning environment. I would rather not assume it's for getting more students thus making a profit at the end of the year. But as a parents, i couldn't stop wondering why would Pats School willing to sacrifice open spaces for classroom types of teaching, isn't that different from their original culture? I really hope they would NOT partition their class rooms any smaller for the benefit of other children, as it would make them looks like "SHICHIDA" cubical classrooms if they does.

I guess that's all i wanted to share with all parents.

[Gaja]

First Impression of Pat's Schoolhouse @ Grassroot Club - Unapproachable & Stuck-Up

#1 - Wanted to register my interest with them, told to go online when I'm at their doorstep! Explained that I faced some technical difficulties registering online... Answer was sorry... Can't help me out... Call their main hotline.
Have been to Learning Vision @ grassroot club & Mindchamps @ TPY, - answer was leave contact details, call me to arrange a visit.

#2 - Inquire about their infant care & playgroup - answer was...
Infant care full till Dec
Playgroup - priority to infant care babies (full-stop). I was expecting at least the standard reply of most centres that they are full but they can put me on waitlist, if there is a vacancy, they will contact me again.

Very bad first impression... message I got was... If your child is not in their infant care, don't bother registering your interest as they are not interested in having your child.

[quantumfoam]

Any feedback on Pat's @ tanglin is much appreciated. Thanks.