Bilingual Immersion Preschool Programme at Lorna Whiston Singapore
Lorna Whiston Preschool's Innovative Approach to Bilingual Education
English and Mandarin are the two most widely spoken languages globally and in Singapore. Hence, building on our extensive experience over forty years, Lorna Whiston preschools employ a unique bilingual immersion programme that empowers even our youngest learners to communicate effectively in both languages. As an extension of our mission to provide a safe and stimulating bilingual learning environment, we focus on providing positive learning experiences that encourage children to explore, discover, question, and create and instil a lifelong love for learning.
This ethos, driven by passionate and dedicated teachers, ensures that by the time our children graduate at the end of kindergarten 2, they are fully bilingual in Communication, Language and Literacy. As a result, our students are armed with a powerful linguistic advantage across English and Mandarin and are well-equipped to deal with the academic demands of primary school in Singapore.
“Lorna Whiston Preschool has helped my children build a strong foundation in languages, especially Mandarin. We come from a non-Chinese speaking family, yet now my children use the language well. Having English and Mandarin-speaking teachers in the classroom at all times makes learning language very natural and effective.”
— Mrs. Sharmani Kim Winchester
Complete Bilingual Immersion Through the School Day
Lorna Whiston's pioneering Bilingual Immersion Programme provides complete dual language immersion to all preschool students. Our preschool classes are structured with a co-teaching model, ensuring an English language teacher and a Mandarin language teacher through the school day. Particularly at the preschool level, this is an effective way for emerging speakers to absorb different languages just as they’re beginning to speak themselves.
Bilingual Varied Signature Mini-Master Classes for Afternoon Students
The bilingual approach extends into our signature enrichment programmes for our afternoon students, where they benefit from a suite of specially designed Mini-Master Classes that develop a wealth of skills in different learning areas. Classes are varied daily and include Speech and Drama, Fun with Phonics, conducted by our own Lorna Whiston Enrichment Academic Team for a holistic curriculum that profoundly connects with students’ daily lives.
Students from Nursery 1 to Kindergarten 2 will also grow to appreciate more of the Chinese language and culture as our Mandarin teachers introduce them to a wide variety of Chinese literature, celebrations, craft, cuisine and traditions. Our young learners naturally build interest in Mandarin as they learn about the richness of the language and its traditions, honing their conversational skills and applying their core bilingual learning to these highly interactive lessons.
Interactive and Relatable Curriculum
Teachers strive to make learning enjoyable and relatable both inside and outside the classroom, constantly searching for the most engaging lessons and teachable moments. Through an exciting range of discussions, songs, rhymes and vocabulary-building activities, students participate in interactive learning situations guaranteed to build solid verbal skills. All subjects are integrated by focusing on a particular topic each week, allowing children to understand the connections between individual issues and how the theme relates to the broader world.
Ideal Teacher to Student Ratio for Individualised Learning
With the ideal teacher-student ratio amongst preschools in Singapore and two fully qualified teachers in every class, Lorna Whiston teachers are adept at providing individual attention and progressive feedback to enable young students to grow in confidence in both languages. Furthermore, teachers continually monitor every child’s progress with parent-teacher conferences and formal reports throughout the year, partnering parents to build a holistic developmental experience for our children.
Types of Bilingual Preschool
Education in Singapore
There is a wide variety of bilingual education approaches in Singapore, such as English-as-a-second-language, in which young learners are exposed solely to a primary language like Mandarin. Other variations include designed preschool curricula with dedicated timeslots to specific languages. On the other end of the spectrum, preschools like Lorna Whiston operate on a blended approach. Children have two co-teachers speaking different languages and interacting equally throughout the day.
Other than the language of instruction, there is a myriad of educational pedagogies, such as the Montessori method, Multiple Intelligences and Holistic Development.
Benefits of Bilingualism in Early Childhood
Language is an intrinsic tool for learning and forms a strong foundation that enables children to think, learn and express their ideas and feelings about the world around them.
Early childhood bilingualism brings about hidden benefits beyond an expanded ability for self-expression. Scientific studies have shown that learning two languages can significantly enhance mental development.
Increased ability to focus, prioritise and plan
When given a task where children must focus on one thing and ignore distracting information, bilingual children have shown themselves to be better at zooming in on the required project and can better focus, plan, prioritise and make decisions. When they are asked to shift their focus elsewhere, bilingual children also do this more effectively. Focusing and shifting attention are critical abilities that go beyond bilingualism: This ability helps us to learn and process information and function well in school rapidly and in other learning environments.
Greater mental flexibility and more proficient problem-solving skills
Bilingual children also show greater mental flexibility, displaying an ability to see the same situation in multiple ways. This capacity for divergent thinking helps them solve complex problems and spark creativity in approaching solutions to new problems. These advantages often lead to an edge in academic problem-solving, including building mathematics skills in the future.
Stronger social bonds and enhanced empathy
Beyond academics and cognitive development, bilingualism also helps build a child's social bonds. On top of opening a child's world to different language communities, bilingual children think about people differently than monolingual children by being better able to take other perspectives and communicate another person's viewpoint.
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For learning to be effective, it should be relevant and enjoyable, which is why Lorna Whiston invests heavily in quality teachers, curricula and learning environments. Recognised by the Singapore Preschool Accreditation Framework and the prestigious Singapore Quality Class, Lorna Whiston has been the bilingual preschool of choice for children and parents in Singapore since 1980.