Nanyang Kindergarten

Nanyang Kindergarten was founded in July 1934 as an affiliation of Singapore Nanyang Girls’ High School. Nanyang Kindergarten is believed to have been the first Chinese kindergarten in the whole of the Malayan Peninsular at that time. During the Second World War, the school premises were used as a field office by the British Army. School facilities were destroyed during the Japanese Occupation. After the war in 1945, with the concerted and dedicated efforts of the Board of Directors, management, staff and alumni, the School was slowly restored to its former glory. Nanyang Kindergarten grew and evolved into a kindergarten entity on its own in 1960, marked by its historic move into 118 King’s Road in the same year.

It was the vision of our wise predecessors to provide quality education for students from kindergarten through to high school. Nanyang Kindergarten shares the same rich heritage of the Nanyang Family which comprises of Nanyang Kindergarten, Nanyang Primary School and Nanyang Girls’ High School. Nanyang Kindergarten has a well established tradition and owes its present achievements to the hard work and dedication of the Board of Directors, management, staff, alumni and community leaders over the years.

Currently housed in the former campus of Nanyang Primary School at 51 Coronation Road, Nanyang Kindergarten will move to the new building on its original site at 118 King’s Road in mid 2009 which will come equipped with better facilities.

As we believe in the development of the whole child, our programme caters to bringing out the full potential of our students in every aspect. Our programme combines the traditional Chinese principles with Western approaches of hands-on learning experiences. Our Kindergarten’s curriculum is based mainly on the Integrated Thematic Approach.

Our children are exposed to various activities in this conducive learning environment which allows them to freely explore experiment, create and learn. Field trips are incorporated into our Themes to enhance children’s learning. Our students stepping out of their classroom to various places in Singapore will enable them to have their first hand learning experience about things around them in their natural context.

“Holiday Camp” is one of the programmes that are held during the school holidays. The purpose of holiday camp is to give the child an opportunity to be independent in the absence of their parents and learn to take care of his or her own needs. Games, activities and field trips to various interesting places are conducted to encourage the students to foster interaction among their peers and work in a group as a team. This allows them to grow into individuals with their own strengths.

Pre-Nursery and Nursery Programmes
Classes for Pre-nursery and Nursery are conducted entirely in a Mandarin interacting environment. This is because we believe that our students should build a strong foundation in Chinese before they enter Kindergarten One. Our teachers bring in the “Learn through Play” method to extend our young children’s learning through hands-on experience by sensory methods.

Activities such as music and movement will introduce children to rhythm and tempo. These help children to appreciate music more. Other activities include reciting short rhymes, the recognition of simple word, numberings and teaching of simple stroke of ‘Bi Hua’, Outdoor Play and Sing-along Sessions.

Kindergarten 1 and 2
Curriculums for our Kindergarten 1 and 2 are conducted in both English and Chinese. English is introduced at this stage as we believe our students should be bilingual at a young age. Besides language literacy, we also include Computer Aided Education, Mathematics, Science Discovery, Music & Movement, Art & Craft and Dramatic play.

Computer Aided Education is introduced as we would like to give the children a good head start in their learning journey. Our computer programme encompasses every major area of technology while incorporating Themes and traditional academic subjects that the children enjoy. Each curricular unit features project-based activities that are infused with interesting Themes and academic content in core subject areas such as Language, Mathematics and Science etc. Computer Aided Education teaches the children to master computer skills, educates them with the proper and logical applications of computer technology. The children build up their confidence, independence, enthusiasm and creative thinking strategies that are needed for meeting new challenges in a fun-filled learning environment.

We also introduce the learning of Mathematics to our students through games and activities which help to reinforce concepts and stimulate their thinking. The children learn mathematics concept through hands-on approach. The mathematics lessons emphasize the use of concrete and semi concrete materials in the classroom. The teachers encourage the children to talk and write about mathematics and they are stimulated to observe, discuss, explain and create mathematical communication. Learning centre is also set up to allow the children to explore mathematical concepts and internalize them.