About Us
History
Established in 1980, Lorna Whiston has built a reputation for high quality education and teaching excellence across Singapore with our heritage preschools. Accepting children from 18 months to six years old, Lorna Whiston Preschools are committed to providing a safe and stimulating bilingual learning environment where children are happy, motivated and eager to learn. As a young teacher, Lorna taught in the UK before focusing upon preschool education in Singapore by opening her first Lorna Whiston School, with the aim of improving the standard of English language amongst Singaporean students. Over the years, the demand for quality English teaching has grown and so have our preschools. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, we aspire to ensure our children get the very best in terms of educational opportunities, making a difference to the lives of Singaporean children island-wide. Lorna Whiston Preschools was recently awarded the best preschool in Singapore for its bilingual education programs.
Lorna Whiston Preschools Singapore are located both on the West and East coast, offering easy access for families across the island and flexible programmes from 7am to 7pm weekdays, and Saturday morning. Both locations have been carefully selected for their safe and environmentally sound position either in the woody idyllic environs of Winchester, or the visually stunning waterside location of Kallang Wave Mall.
Focus
Our focus is to provide positive early learning experiences that encourage children to explore and discover, question and create, and that instill in them a lifelong love of learning. Our curriculum offering remains unique, with Lorna Whiston Preschools being highly regarded for our signature Bilingual Immersion Programme, Individual Reading Programme, and afternoon Enrichment Programmes.
At Lorna Whiston Preschools, we offer a stimulating, positive and nurturing learning environment which we know is the key to creating happy, motivated children who are eager to learn. By providing an interactive learning environment, children develop the confidence to explore and discover, question and create. This positive hands-on approach to learning is crucial in the formative years, when children’s first experiences at school can shape their whole future attitude towards learning.
Approach
Our approach to teaching is first and foremost through exploration and discovery. Children engage in active learning experiences that ensure they truly understand the skills and concepts being taught. All subjects are integrated, allowing our young learners to understand the connection between individual subjects and make links with the world around them.
By the time our young learners graduate at the end of Kindergarten 2, they are well-prepared to deal with the academic demands of primary school and have a strong linguistic advantage across English and Mandarin, having been through our Bilingual Immersion Programme.
We believe that language is an intrinsic tool for learning. It enables children to think, and to learn about the world around them, from cultural practices in the home or community, to the academic content of the classroom. Lorna Whiston Preschools has developed a unique Bilingual Immersion Programme that enables even our very youngest learners to communicate effectively in both English and Mandarin. Our pioneering model of providing full bilingual immersion to all preschool students has been frequently replicated but never surpassed, due to our unwavering commitment to ensuring an English-speaking teacher and a Mandarin-speaking teacher in each classroom, at all times.
The development of our preschool students is at the centre of everything we do. Our syllabus and approach to learning focuses primarily on the needs of the children. We encourage our classes to be actively engaged in the learning process, rather than passive recipients of knowledge, and we scaffold their learning carefully, so that each child becomes increasingly independent.
Aim
We aim to promote the development and growth of the whole child, not just academically, but also socially, emotionally and physically. Long term success is dependent on all these factors, with academic prowess no longer enough, when compared to a child’s peers. We achieve this holistic approach through the provision of hands-on, experimental learning opportunities, and through activities that help the child develop links with the natural world and with their community. In addition, we actively encourage the development of strong core values in each child.
Our preschool programmes are highly individualised. Children develop specific abilities at different times, at different rates and in different ways. Each child has a unique combination of aptitudes, learning needs, interests and skills. With Singapore’s best preschool Teacher : Child Ratio, Lorna Whiston Preschools teachers are able to identify and extend the strengths of each child, and support their learning needs.
With an emphasis upon being discovery based, Lorna Whiston Preschools understand that children learn best by interacting with others, and with the world around them. We believe that a quality preschool education programme should be inquiry based and should provide opportunities for children to explore the world around them, to be creative and to ask, as well as answer questions.
With extensive experience in early years education, our teachers are fully qualified, dedicated and passionate about helping children develop their individual strengths and learning skills. Our preschool teachers have been with Lorna Whiston for an average of four years, and undergo over sixty hours of teacher training annually, allowing them to continually hone their teaching skills and thematic interests.
At Lorna Whiston Preschools, we understand the importance of small class sizes in preschool. With the best student-teacher ratio amongst preschools in Singapore and two fully qualified teachers in every class, each child is given the full individual attention they need to support their academic growth, confidence and emotional readiness for entry in primary school.
Teacher : Child Ratio
Playgroup (18 months to 2 years old) 1:6
Nursery 1 (2 to 3 years old) 1:8
Nursery 2 (3 to 4 years old) 1:9
Kindergarten 1 (4 to 5 years old) 1:11
Kindergarten 2 (5 to 6 years old) 1:11