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Review: Sunflower Preschool @ Clementi (Jan 2021)

 H has been enrolled in Sunflower Preschool @ Clementi for about 2 - 3 months now. As I was not able to find much information about this preschool when I enrolled him, I would like to share my experience and opinion so that parents are able to have an informed choice.

*Disclaimer: I am not paid for this review*

Sunflower Preschool @ Clementi is located at Clementi Ave 3, near to the Phoon Huat shop, if you are familiar with the place. It takes up the space of a full shop, with 1st and 2nd level. Level 1 is reserved for IFC while 2nd level is for PG to K2.

The CC is quite small and I think there are not probably not more than 25 - 30 kids from infants to K2.

Do note that this may change as the centre is now under the POP scheme and their school fees are comparable to Sparkletots and MFS (actually cheaper because the centre is not GST-registered from Jan 2021.)

As H is only in IFC, I can only review for the IFC portion.


Pros:

Low teacher -student ratio - When I first enrolled H in, the teacher-student ratio is 3: 7. aka 3 teachers to 7 infants for the 5 days of IFC (not on a any one time basis) but I feel that the ratio is still reasonable as there will always be at least 2 teachers at any one time to the 7 infants. The teachers also know us by face since the kids are few.

Splitting of CC and IFC in different areas - Not sure how effective this is, but with only 7 infants, the risk of getting sick is probably lesser?

Cheaper fees - Only from Jan 2021 onwards. We paid $1000 per month before the POP scheme is in place.

Caring main teacher - Teacher Zurah is really good with kids. Hunter loves her a lot and she replies promptly whenever I have questions. 

Quarterly Parent Teacher Session - I have inquired at Sparkletots and MFS and it seems that the sessions for parents are only on a semester basis. In Sunflower, they have 4 sessions a year. I have attended one session so far and the teachers will feedback on H's milestone developments as well as his behaviour in school (which is apparently terrible by the way T.T)

Spacious area - I like that there is a big space for kids to run around in (once they are able to walk). H went in wobbling at 12 months and started walking really steadily (and learning to run) at 14 months. I would attribute this to the constant walking in IFC since he was not allowed to walk much at home (my parents were worried that he would fall).

No diaper rash - I have heard stories about infants having very bad diaper rashes but so far, there are no such instances for H. The environment in the IFC is about 26 degrees which is perfect since H is prone to heat rashes like me ><

Neutral:

Comms booklet - Even though they have an app, it is used mainly for attendance taking and the blasting of emailers to parents. The comms book is a small booklet that indicates H's feeding and sleeping time, as well as the activities he has done for the day. Sometimes, activities done are not recorded?? but it may be due to the oversight as the teachers can be very busy at times.

Mixed-age integration - From Jan 2021 onwards, the children in CC are first situated at 1st level from 7am - 8am before going up to level 2. On one hand, it sounds like a great idea with some montessori elements but is this a way of cutting cost? Time would tell.

Transparency: As the IFC is blocked off by the decals, parents can only peek in and try to locate their kid without letting their presence known. May be good or bad depending on how much privacy is viewed by the parents.

Activities: Can't really tell much but there are art and craft items that are brought back on a monthly basis. I have seen the teachers doing story telling to them too. 

Cons:

Picture taking - Apparently, there are not much photo updates as the principal claims that she encourages the teachers to jaga the kids more instead of focusing on taking photos. They do not take picture for attendance for those who are worried about security. However, in their defense, in the 2 months, I have not encountered a case where the attendance taking is wrong. (probably cuz the IFC is so small)

Assistant teacher - I am honestly not too fond of Teacher Megan; not that she is uncaring but...as she is an acquaintance of my mum, there are usually some kind of unprofessional remarks from her to my mum. E.g. she would tell my mum that the other kids in the IFC are all quiet and guai but H is different... She wasn't explicit in saying that H is not guai, but one would catch the nuance of her remarks. It made for a bit of unpleasantness when my mum comes back and repeats such remarks to us. But this is a personal opinion; it may not be the case for others as my situation is unique.

Admin matters - The principal is not exactly the best at admin. The additional subsidy that we were entitled to were delayed for the 2 months until I went to email her about it. Then, she claimed that she only received it earlier that week when the email from ECDA was sent back in Nov 2020. This may be a concern for parents who are tight in cashflow as the subsidy is only applied 1 month after the actual month of payment. For instance, I have to pay the school fee of $1000 (after basic subsidy) in Dec 2020 and the offset for the additional subsidy is only applied in Jan 2021. 


All in all, I feel that it is an acceptable IFC. All the basic requirements are met. The service is not impressive but IFC vacancies are hard to come by and for the fees (from Jan 2021), I feel parents can consider it if you are living nearby.

P.S: They allowed me to accompany H for the 1st 3 days. I only utilised a few hours on the 1st day and can't wait to go off lol. For the 2nd and 3rd day, we sent him for the full half days without accompanying him. (We were peeking in instead, which was a little hard as our view was sort of blocked) To be honest, I realised that H stopped crying after 5 - 10 mins after we left. So, parents, do not worry too much and let your kid be more independent :D

Hopefully my review has helped in your consideration of IFC in Clementi and feel free to reach out if you are interested in connecting!

Update: Apr 2022: All the teachers mentioned are no longer in the preschool. 

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