Preschool · 18 months to 6 years
Ready for Primary 1, and still asking questions.
Most parents arrive with the same two worries. Push too hard and a child learns to read but stops wanting to. Push too little and you hand a nervous five-year-old to Primary 1.
Your child gets structured phonics and maths every morning, and an Individual Learning Plan their teacher rewrites every six weeks.
ECDA-licensed kindergarten · 4.9★ from 139 Google reviews
Read Write Inc phonics · Singapore Maths · an Individual Learning Plan for every child
A free discovery visit. Fragrance Empire Building, beside ARC.
One morning, step by step
One morning in one classroom.
Nine o'clock to lunch, in the order it happened. The same four steps run every week, in every subject.
Two questions go up on the window
Two, not one, each testing something different. That difference is the whole lesson: you can't learn much from an experiment where everything changed at once.
They stay up all week at the children's eye level, so there's plenty of time to debate with them.
They set it up themselves
Cups, water, droppers, trays. A teacher sets the materials out, then does the hardest part of the job: staying quiet.
Some trays will be set up wrong, and those are often the most useful ones.
They write down what they saw
In their own marks, on their own sheet, before anyone tells them what they were meant to see. A four-year-old's record is evidence for them tomorrow, when they've changed their mind.
And two of them keep going
The activity is over, the teachers have moved on, and two children are still at the table because they want to know.
That curiosity is what we're really teaching. Everything else is there to support it.
All four steps come from the same morning. Read the cycle in full
A day with us
Structured, and led by the children.
The day has a deliberate shape. What happens inside each block follows the children.
Core curriculum
- Connection
- Phonics, literacy, numeracy
- STEAM, performing arts, sports
Inquiry
- Clay, recycling, robotics
- Mandarin
- Outdoor exploration
Extensions
- Weekly projects
- Mandarin
- Focused learning, linked to each child’s plan
Each block runs until the work is done, so we'll walk you through a typical day when you visit.
The academic side, in plain terms
What your child will be taught.
Reading
Read Write Inc phonics, taught in sequence, so decoding builds properly. Children read real books early because they can.
Maths
Singapore Maths, moving from concrete to pictorial to abstract. Children hold the quantity before they draw it, and draw it before they write the numeral.
Mandarin
Mandarin runs through the day. Our Mandarin-speaking teachers use it with the children in play and in activity, so they hear it and use it constantly.
That's daily exposure and use, rather than full bilingual immersion.
Developmental domains
Every child has an Individual Learning Plan covering six developmental domains, built from what a teacher watched them do and wrote down. Their teacher rereads and updates it every six weeks.
What's measured is what they can do this term against last term.
Why the room looks like this
A room built for staying in.
Children read for longer when the place they're reading is worth sitting in. So the books sit at floor height, and the nook is built for one.
The same thinking shapes the shelves in every other room. A child who has to ask a teacher to reach a book will ask twice, then stop asking.
What families tell us
What parents mention first.
Unlike many other preschools that can feel like a ‘revolving door’ … Claire and her team gave my son as much time as he needed to feel safe and confident. They met him where he was emotionally, and that made all the difference.
I have looked for a preschool that actively cares and listens to the child, never leaves a crying child assuming they’ll ‘just be ok’ … Agora is the place.
She went above and beyond by inviting me to spend a full normal school day with my daughter, allowing us to get a real feel for the teaching style, environment and teacher-child interactions.
They have taken the time to truly understand his emotional and learning needs, tailoring their approach to ensure he feels safe, valued and capable.
If your child needs extra support
Tell us early, and we'll tell you what we can do.
Children who need extra support are welcome here, and the conversation starts before you enrol.
Our Head of Early Years is an ECDA Inclusion Officer, and she's the person you'd speak to before enrolling. She'll tell you whether this is the right setting for your child, and sometimes the answer is no. Better to know that at the start than in month three.
Preschool fees, in full
What the fee covers, and what's charged separately.
One monthly fee, five days a week, all year round.
In the monthly fee
- Five days a week, all year round. We staff the programme for twelve months, so the monthly fee is simply the annual cost divided by twelve.
- Drop off from 7.30am, pick up by 2pm.
- An Individual Learning Plan, written after four to six weeks of watching how your child actually works, and reviewed each term.
- Fruit and milk every day.
- A weekly note from your child's teacher, a fortnightly newsletter, a monthly update against the learning plan, and a termly review with you.
- Insurance.
- No registration, enrolment, admin or deposit charges.
Charged separately
- Snacks and lunch. We hold an ECDA Licence 'C', which means no kitchen on site, so children bring their own. We keep it cool and warm it up.
- A longer day, if you'd like one. The afternoon extension adds either two or four hours.
- Transport.
- Re-enrolment, if you withdraw and later come back.
Fees change each year, so ask us and you'll have the current schedule within 24 hours — programme fee, extension and transport costed out together.
You decide afterwards, in your own time.
FAQs
The questions we're asked most.
What ages is Preschool for?
Eighteen months to six years, through to Primary 1.
Will my child be ready for Primary 1?
Readiness here means a child who can decode text, handle numbers confidently, sit with a hard problem, and ask for help when they need it. The last two are the ones that actually decide how Primary 1 goes.
Is this play-based or academic?
Both. Phonics and maths are taught in sequence each morning, and the inquiry work is where children find out what those skills are for.
Is my child safe here?
A Child First Aider is on site whenever we're open, and only the people you've named can collect your child at the end of the day.
What if my child takes a long time to cope?
They can take as long as they need. Some settle in a morning, some take a term. Tell us at the visit and we'll explain exactly how we'd handle it.
What happens if my child’s teacher leaves?
Another teacher does the same thing, because we train the practice rather than rely on personality. New teachers complete the Agora Training Plan before they run a room.
Book a visit
Come and see a morning. You'll watch a class in progress, meet the teachers who'd have your child, and go through the fees. Fill in the form and we'll be in touch within 24 hours.
Centre address
Fragrance Empire Building, 456 Alexandra Rd, #01-03, Singapore 119962