Playschool · 6 months to 3 years · Parent-accompanied
Stay as long as your child needs you to.
Playschool is a session you attend with your child. You sit on the floor beside her for the whole of it, and you keep doing that for as many weeks as she needs. Drop-off is entirely optional. When she's ready to go a little further from you, she will, a little at a time.
That's the whole arrangement. It runs for as long as you both want it to.
A trial session, and do bring your child. Fragrance Empire Building, beside ARC.
The part parents worry about
The first goodbye.
Here's what parents tell us before anything else.
“She will cry all morning.”
Some children do cry, on the first morning and sometimes on the fifth. Here she cries into your shoulder rather than a stranger's, because you are already in the room. You stay put, and she goes back to the circle when she is ready.
“She will be one of many, and nobody will really see her.”
You're in the room, three feet away, so you can see for yourself how often someone looks at your child and how long they keep looking.
“Is she safe here?”
Child First Aiders are on site at all times, as regulations require. Anyone collecting a child must be named on the registration form and introduced to the Head of Early Years and the teachers first.
A child who feels safe is a child who will try something new. Everything else follows that.
What a session looks like
Most of it happens on the floor.
- Coming in
You take your shoes off and sit down
You're in the room, on the floor, for the whole session. That's the arrangement on the first morning, and it doesn't change until you want it to.
- The materials
Things that can be used more than one way
One basket, and everything in it works more than one way. A scarf is a scarf, then it's weather, then it's a hiding place.
- The snack
Healthy, and eaten together
The centre has no kitchen, so it's a snack rather than a cooked meal.
- The letting go
She goes further than she did last week
You'll notice it before we do, which is the point of you being there. Drop-off, if you ever want it, happens at her pace, a little at a time.
Who's in the room
You're one of the adults in it.
Our teachers run the session. The other grown-ups in the room are parents, grandparents and helpers who came in with a child and stayed. That is why the room stays steady when one child doesn't.
It also means that the first time your child chooses to walk away from you, walking back takes four seconds.
The number of adults changes with who came that morning. On a typical session it's our teachers plus a grown-up for close to every child.
Come on an ordinary morning and count them yourself.
What families say
From parents who were in the room.
We appreciated the flexibility of the programme as other schools are usually unaccompanied or did not give us the option to enter the premises.
I can be flexible as a parent, and either stay with her or leave her in the hands of experienced, always friendly, and open to engage with educators.
As soon as we walk in my son gets the biggest smile and high-fives the whole staff.
He has thrived in their care, growing more confident and engaged through their perfectly tailored activities.
4.9★ from 139 Google reviews. Parents' own words, shortened where they ran long.
The practical details
Worth knowing before you come.
In short
- Fragrance Empire Building
beside ARC, by Labrador Park MRT - We have just moved in
same Agora, renovated top to bottom - Healthy snacks
no kitchen at the centre, so nothing is cooked here - Drop-off is optional
start it whenever your child is ready - +65 6252 5585
weekdays
Weekends
Weekend Wonders: the same room, on a Saturday morning.
If weekday mornings don't work, Playschool runs at the weekend too. One hour, ten children, ten grown-ups and one facilitator. You stay in the room for all of it, exactly as you would midweek.
- From 6 months
- 1 hour, plus 30 min free play
- 10-week term
- 10 sessions, $400
- First class free
Four classes run across Saturday and Sunday mornings. Each is a ten-week term of hour-long sessions, and the room stays open for another half hour afterwards so nobody has to leave the moment it ends. You go home with a note each week naming one thing to try before the next class.
Children work towards bronze, silver and gold over the term, and collect a badge and certificate at the end. Miss a week and we'll fit you in on the other weekend day, or carry it into the following term.
Saturday · 9–10am
Build & Bond
Sensory bins and construction. Children plan, sequence and build — first alongside each other, then, later in the term, with each other. Fine motor work and spatial reasoning, in the shape of a very large box of blocks.
Dates, fees and bookingSaturday · 10.30–11.30am
Rhythm & Rhyme
Music, scarves and movement. Familiar stories get acted out rather than read: sung, moved through, played back. Most children start the term watching and finish it joining in.
Dates, fees and bookingSunday · 9–10am
Art Explorers
Paint, texture and taste-safe materials. Messy hands, big ideas. The term moves from colour and texture through to design, and ends with children making something they chose themselves.
Dates, fees and bookingSunday · 10.30–11.30am
Mini Movers
Balance beams, obstacle courses and soft play. Across the term the class works through power, agility, strength, co-ordination, balance, control and stamina — which in the room looks like climbing on things and getting better at it.
Dates, fees and bookingTerm dates and current fees sit on each course page, which is the one place we keep up to date.
FAQs
Questions parents ask.
Do I have to leave her?
You can stay for every session, right through the programme. Plenty of families do exactly that.
Why do you call it Playschool?
It is a school session rather than a drop-in class. Your child comes to the same room, with the same teachers, on the same day each week, and you come with her. Preschool is the separate programme, with its own entry cohort.
My child has additional needs. Can you take her?
We can take children with mild to moderate additional needs. Tell us what to expect when you book and we will give you a yes or a no before you travel.
How old does she need to be?
Playschool runs from six months to three years, with a grown-up in the room throughout. Within that band it is less about age than whether she will settle near other children with you beside her, and you know that better than we do. Bring her to the visit and we will work it out together.
What does it cost?
We go through fees with you at the visit and put them in writing. You decide afterwards, in your own time.
Book a trial
Book a trial session and see a Playschool morning for yourself. Fill in the form and one of our team will contact you within 24 hours to arrange it.
Centre address
Fragrance Empire Building, 456 Alexandra Rd, #01-03, Singapore 119962