Why I withdrew my kids from childcare twice

First Childcare 🚫

We registered our first born with a government school that is conveniently right below our house.

My son went in at 2 years old N1 and caught hfmd on the first week. 2nd week in school, was crying non-stop (for hours until his voice was hoarse), poor teacher had to keep carrying him. We decided that he was not ready for school and withdrew him.

2nd Childcare 🤷‍♀️

Subsequently we enrolled him when he was 3 years old at a government Mega school across the road. He was adapting quite well and his teacher’s feedback was good.

Things were going fine until 1 year later my son was promoted to N2 and had a change of teacher and principal. I started to receive calls of my son getting fights and refusing to follow instructions. A meeting was called by the principal with all his past and present teachers to address the issue. Previous teacher mentioned that he is sometimes mischievous but was not an issue. Feedback from the new teacher mentioned that she is unable to manage him hence disrupting the class.

Principle suggested could it be things that happened at home new born brother, family quarrel at home? The principal recommended us to send my son for assessment but did not mentioned that it also could be her new inexperienced teacher who was unable to manage. I was floored by this suggestion. Their tone and response is like a quick fix solution, your son is the issue not us, send him for assessment because we cannot handle him. I was disappointed in how they handled the issue and decided to change school. There were also other incidents that made me decided to change school. Call it a mother’s intuition, I knew I had to do it.

I realised that all pre-school teachers in Singapore have a lot on their hands, even with aunties to help with cleaning up, feeding or bringing kids to toilet. The teachers have to decorate classroom do lesson plans, submit development report in video/ documentation of every child in addition to the teaching and managing the kids. Here I am can’t even handle a toddler meltdown. I do understand the limitations and bandwidth of the teacher so I don’t blame the teacher.

Therefore this time I decided the criteria for the next school shall be:

1️⃣ Low teacher to student ratio (Preferably a smaller school with tight knitted team)

2️⃣ Teaching focus on values (I try to look at the school’s management and culture of how they handle issues) My husband did question me on how I assess their management or culture, I told him gut feel lol. Ok serious, I will look out for how they response to my questions, how the teachers conduct the lessons (are they looking stressed), do the kids look content, comfortable?

3rd Childcare🙌

I found the ideal school for my kids! This private school does not focus much on academic as they are value-centric, there is not much homework thus lesser reports for teachers I assume? It is a vegetarian school hence less popular which means less student to teacher ratio! Yay! I highlight to the school that my child is not easy to handle, they assured me that they have experience in managing. The only inconvenience is that I have to travel further to fetch the kids. School fees are higher but not exorbitant like mind champ.

3 years on, my first son had graduated, didi and mei mei are currently in this school. So far so good for us! This is simply my personal experience and preference I’m comfortable with. Does not indicate I’m right, each to its own.