Little Gems Preschool @ Redhill

Little Gems was borne out of a desire of a group of like-minded early childhood educators to create a preschool where kids can grow in their curiosity, confidence and character. As a testimony to what we stand for, we have been voted by ParentsWorld to be the best preschool 2019 for fostering of confidence and risk-taking for preschoolers. This is something we are really thankful for.

In our preschool, we focus on 3 areas: Curriculum, Environment, Teachers (CET). Our curriculum is customised and dynamic, this allows us to tailor the curriculum to a child’s personal traits as much as possible. Also, our curriculum must make sense. How do we do that? We give a context to the lessons that children learn, for example, when learning numbers, we will bring our kids out to the airport to count planes!

Mr Froebel, the founder of the ‘kindergarten’, envisioned that a preschool is a ‘child’s garden’ where children are given lots of space to roam and explore. Thus, in Little Gems Preschool, we try to create an environment to expand a child’s horizon. As the old adage goes, “ the world is our oyster!”, we focus a lot on bringing our kids out on field trips such as trips to the community library, musuems and many more. The monthly outings are always a highlight for our Little Gems!

Last but not least, we spare no effort to employ the best teachers! Because the environment and curriculum are just tools; only when the tools are put into a master’s hands i.e. the teacher, our little gems will then be assured that they are in good hands!

Little Gems Preschool, truly a great place to grow… Dear Parents, we know how precious your children are to you all (that is why they are little gems!), please feel free to come by and visit our awesome school one day!!!

ABC Gems (The Alphabet Family!)

Learning must make sense! One might ask: How do we do that for our LITTLE GEMS as they learn their ABCs? We seek to do that by giving a context to the words that our little gems are introduced to.

In our ABC Gems curriculum, we seek to make 'books come to life'! Rather than teaching our children dry facts, we seek to make the facts and information more meaningful. One of the best ways to do this is through biographies. For example, when we embark on the theme of air transportation, we introduce to our Little Gems the life-story of the Wright Brothers, the inventors of the first airplane.

123 Gems (The Numbers Game!)

In our numeracy programme, the child will engage his senses in a natural environment to understand how numbers work; and through which he will observe objects and directly interact with them in order to create his own suppositions. We seek to integrate our numeracy program with our other domains to making the learning experience of our kids as seamless as possible. For example, when introducing the life story of the Wright Brothers, we will bring our kids out on a field trip to the airport to count the planes! This ties in very well with our next domain: the Explorer Gems.

Explorer Gems (The World is our Playground!)

When Mr Frobel envisioned a school for the little kids, he aptly named the school 'Kindergarten', which literally means 'children in a garden'. His belief stemmed from one where children learn best in an outdoor environment and that resonates with us. In Little Gems, we would have monthly field trips where our kids will go to different places to explore, enjoy and learn. Our field trips would be carefully planned in accordance to our school curriculum themes to ensure that the trips are not just a time of fun, but meaningful fun. The monthly trips are always a highlight for our Little Gems as we take trips in our adorable school bus!

All-Stars Squad:

Research has shown that early childhood physical education is important and improves more than just physical wellness. It also stimulates mental and emotional development in children. Many times, physical education in schools is neglected and children are usually confined to classroom settings. Little Gems believe in full development of a child – not only do mental and moral qualities count, but physical capacity is also equally important. We want our children to be healthy and fit individuals.

As such, Little Gems provides an all-rounded physical education to develop our children’s physical aspect, ranging from simple stretching, balancing and flexibility to more rigorous exercises like trampoline jumping, rock climbing, running and trekking. Enrichment programmes such as swimming and cycling are also offered in semesterly basis.

IntelliGems:

During the preschool years, young children are developing a sense of initiative and creativity. They are exploring the ability to create and communicate using a variety of media. Digital technologies provide one more outlet for them to demonstrate their creativity and learning.

Little Gems aims to incorporate our children’s learning with appropriate interactive media that is designed to give children another form of learning experience. For instance, they learn computer literacy such as typing and developing slides; they learn to create videos and e-story books etc. The school offers termly programmes such as robotics, coding and Scratch as well.

AlphaKids Prep Programme:

AlphaKids, targeting the K2s, helps equip the children for formal schooling as well. They will acquire enhanced literacy and numeracy skills, as well as problem-solving, critical thinking and social skills to help them in their transition to Primary One the following year.