Julian turned 2 in January and while we wait for his school to start in August 2021, we had thoughts on enrolling him into a preschool. He is slightly advance in his learning and picks up very quickly, so starting him on school might be beneficial. Plus, he is really bored being home with Nora (our helper) playing and doing the same things over and over again.
So we started researching and here are some guides/pointers I benchmark my shortlisted schools on:
(1) Location
Find a good school that is near your house, or one that falls along the route of a family member that can send/pick your kid to and fro school. For myself, we searched along Ampang (our place), KL City Centre (husband’s workplace), and Mont’Kiara (my workplace).
We have a friend who lives in Bukit Jalil, sends his kid to a private school in Subang, and heads to work in KL City Centre. The amount of time he spends on the road and bad traffic is a killer! We definitely didn’t want to head down this route.
(2) Headmaster, Teachers, and Support Staff
These people are the biggest factors in helping me decide whether a school is good. The first preschool I visited has a clueless headmaster who couldn’t even explain the basics of her school to me, and was not helpful when I asked about another branch. If a headmaster is that clueless and unhelpful, I cannot imagine how she’d guide her team to excel for the kids.
In contrary, another school we visited had a very knowledgeable and nice school manager. When she brought us around the school, she was very patient in explaining to us, and throughout our hour-long visit, we see kids bumping into her and giving her hugs. The teachers whom Julian met along his visit made small talks with him too! What vast differences these make! Tells you a lot about the community they are building within school walls.
(3) Facilities and Environment
I’m very particular about the space that Julian will be spending half of his days in, especially as a toddler. The space should be big enough for kids to run and play, with areas designated for different activities. I’d also prefer a place that has an outdoor play area because sun is good! I visited a preschool (inside a shopping mall) that is fully indoor and confined. Felt a little stuffy in there to be honest and I don’t like the idea of being in an air-conditioned place throughout schooling hours.
All areas should also be child-proof and safe. Well designed schools with super cute kid-size furnitures and toilets get extra brownie points! Hahaha.
(4) Subjects
For me, a school with daily mandarin classes would be very ideal, but the closest I could find was 3 times a week, about an hour each time. I think the other subjects are pretty standard, like circle time, art and craft, music, water play.. but do ask anyhow, because you might be surprised! We visited a school that brings their students to a nearby forest once a week so kids could learn life skills. How awesome is that?!
Also, I find schools that offer extra after-school activities a plus point! Eg. mandarin classes, little kickers, speech and drama, robotics… Saves my time transporting Julian to additional classes and gives us more time over the weekend to spend as a family instead of having to bring him to classes.
(5) Teacher:Student Ratio
So far it’s been pretty standard for 2-3 year olds: they get about 4-5 kids to 1 teacher/assistant. This doesn’t bother us to be honest, but a small class with low student to teacher ratio would be an added advantage because it also means Julian will get more attention in learning. 🙂
(6) Parking Space and Distance to Pick Up
Imagine sending your kid to a place with minimal parking spaces – you have to make rounds after rounds just to secure a lot to do your drop off/pick up. I’m also very paranoid of crime rates so convenient parking spaces with short walking distance appeals to me.
(7) Security
During your visit to the school, evaluate how difficult it is for you to get into school space – was it difficult? Because if it wasn’t, it’s probably easy peasy for random strangers to get in as well. Big no no!
(8) School Fees
As a first time parent, we didn’t know what to expect really. Preschool nowadays can make your wallet bleed really badly hahaha. I’m very thankful we’re blessed to have the means to afford the schools we’ve shortlisted so far. Spend some time evaluating the school fees with your partner and decide whether it is something your family can afford in the long run. A friend of mine enrolled her son into a prestigious school, but now has to pull him out because they got a second child and couldn’t afford paying double fees. So take that into consideration too!
(9) Other Superficial Pointers (hahahahaha!)
Nice cute uniforms would definitely be an added brownie point in my books.
Well-kept and spacious classrooms with artwork pasted everywhere! And the world map too (hahaha I don’t know why but I just like ok).
Classroom with attached toilets – so cool!
Daily photos update of what your child did at school – Big NO-NO for me. If you are spending so much time taking photos of all the kids, chances are you aren’t paying much attention to them and wasting all that time away.
Here are some other factors that you can take into consideration when choosing a preschool (however, I didn’t because it didn’t matter so much to my husband and I):
(10) Teaching Methods and Syllabus
So you have the traditional, the Montessori, the Waldorf, the Reggio Emilia, the IB, and many more.. but most, if you really drill to the core, are crossbreeds. Whatever method they claim to adopt, to me, is all for the good of the kids so this didn’t really matter to me.
(11) Meals
I know some parents are really anal about the food that’s served to the kids – must be organic, must be no-salt, no-sugar, no-this, no-that. To be honest, if a school fits all the other criteria above, I doubt they would serve shitty food lah. So eventually this wasn’t our concern. We’re not strict with Julian’s diet and we encourage him to try as many variety of food as he can. If this concerns you, request for their meal plans – they usually have the entire month planned out.
(12) Student Mix
You might also want to evaluate whether the student mix is something that would bother you. For us, Julian will be enrolled into an international school when he’s older, so we’d prefer for the mix to be more locals. However, this didn’t really play a role in our decision making.
(13) Kid’s Reaction (During School Visitation)
This should play a big part in our decision making, but because Julian is just 2… he happy with all the schools we visited and had fun exploring. So this didn’t help us. If your kid starts crying from the start of the visit till the end, then okay maybe just write that school off okay hahahaha.
That’s about it. I did not include “cleanliness” because that’s a given. I also did not include the “knowledge and experience level of staff” because I don’t think you can judge just by one 30-60 minute visit. It’s definitely something you’d only find out when your kid starts attending the school.
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