Kindergarten

Language of instruction

Our youngest learners in Nursery* (2 years of age) enjoy a unique bilingual environment with an English speaking teacher, and two Chinese speaking teaching assistants. Both languages are integrated into classroom activities, preparing children for the Pre-Kindergarten (3 years of age) dual language immersion model.

In Pre-Kindergarten, morning classes are conducted entirely in either English or Chinese, while afternoon classes are conducted in English (providing full day students with a dual language immersion model where desired).

From the age of four, students can either enter our English immersion programme with daily French or Chinese lessons, or our bilingual programme where students learn equally in both Chinese and English.

An international curriculum

In Kindergarten, children learn through purposeful play, and our inquiry and play-based teaching approach is grounded in research and best practice. Extensive studies show hands-on exploration solidifies concepts and understanding more concretely than rote learning.

Our Nursery programme is PYP inspired, and children learn as they engage in both teacher guided and child initiated exploratory, investigative and imaginative play. Our nursery curriculum focuses on developing children’s foundational social, literacy and numeracy skills, as well as their fine and gross motor skills.

As children move into Pre-Kindergarten, they engage in topic-based learning commonly referred to as the Unit of Inquiry (UOI), and different subject areas are integrated as they explore a particular concept or topic. Students have dedicated literacy and numeracy lessons, and specialist teachers for Chinese and French. Physical education, art, music and drama are delivered by either a specialist or the homeroom teacher. Where possible, learning in these specialist areas links back to the overarching topic. Science and social studies are learnt exclusively in the context of the UOI.

CIS’ STEAM programme, the first in Singapore, supports our students’ natural curiosity and creativity. They learn to make connections across subject areas as they invent, analyse and explore concepts in STEAM.

Our Tanjong Katong (TK) Campus, is smaller and more intimate as it houses students 2 to 12 years of age. Classrooms for our youngest learners are warm, colourful, spacious and are grouped together, ensuring a strong sense of community. Each classroom has direct access to the outdoors and our newly built Outdoor Discovery Centre. Other learning spaces include a library, an amphitheatre, a STEAM makerspace and an outdoor classroom.

About CIS’ Outdoor Discovery Centres

Our Outdoor Discovery Centres are an extension of our indoor classrooms, filled with textures, sounds and smells unique to the outdoors. There are lots of purpose-built areas for children to interact with nature and run around as well as spaces where they can withdraw and quietly reflect. Spaces include a play fort, a mud kitchen, a sound garden, a natural tunnel and grassy hill, a creative play space with loose parts, a bike track and quiet areas intentionally designed to build minds and bodies, and nurture strong connections to nature.

Through play with mud, water, sand and loose objects such as sticks, stones, mesh and rope, children engage their imaginative and creative thinking while solving problems. They learn to calculate, measure, invent, estimate, specify, analyse, hypothesise and test theories, thereby developing their thinking, communication and research skills.

Our early years teachers are passionate about the children in their care, and work to ensure they feel safe, valued, secure and happy at school. In nursery and pre-kindergarten, parents are welcome to stay for the daily settling in activities, allowing their child to adjust to the concept of separation and school life.

Our teachers communicate with parents every Friday via My.CIS (our parent portal) and we share important information through our advisories and weekly newsletters. Coffee mornings, assemblies, parent seminars and hands-on workshops are hosted regularly, while parent-teacher conferences are held three times a year to discuss each child’s progress. Student learning is documented in portfolios, and we issue detailed reports twice a year.

Our open door policy ensures parents are able to meet with their child’s teachers at a mutually convenient time to discuss any concerns they may have.