Visit to St Joseph's Church Kindergarten & Childcare Centre

Visit to a pre-school centre (#1) - A First Taste
On 6 August 2008, we visited St Joseph's Church Kindergarten as part of our Early Childhood Education (ECE) course which is organised by the Ministry of Education's Pre-school branch and conducted by RELC (Regional Language Centre).


This plaque shows the opening of the new building of the St Joseph's Church Kindergarten and Childcare Centre in November in 2004. However the St Joseph's Kindergarten has been in existence since 1985.

The entrance to the St Joseph's Church Kindergarten...

The Childcare centre is housed in another block within the same premises

1. Overall Appearance

The Mission Statement is displayed on the wall at the foyer. It is very succintly and clearly worded as follows: "Children are a gift of God entrusted to us as parents. In partnership with parents we are dedicated to developing each child's full potential by providing outstanding early childhood care and education."
I was very impressed with this educationally sound and noble Mission Statement when I set foot in the foyer of the St Joseph's Church Kindergarten.

The Six Principles of the Curriculum Framework of the St Joseph's Church Kindergarten are prominently displayed at the entrance in the General Office. The six Principles are: Learning through Play; Supporting Learning; Learning through Integrations; Integrated Learning; Active Learning and Holistic development and Learning.

This tall statue of Christ "rising" from the koi pond at the foyer of the Church kindergarten had a very calming and soothing effect on me and, I believe, on other visitors, parents and pupils. It made the school sacred, blessed and safe.

The premises of the St Joseph's Church Kindergarten is also very attractive and cheerful because of the many tile art pieces mounted on its walls in the ground floor and first level foyer. Many of the art pieces have been painted by pupils, parents and staff - some for fund raising purposes.

Another attractive display...

One of the strengths of St Joseph's Church Kindergarten is in the area of Art which it showcases once every three years, rotating with concert performance and sports.

The spacious grounds of the kindergarten enable large play equipment such as those seen in the photograph to be installed. The pupils therefore have plenty of play areas.

Most of the classrooms we visited had a Welcome sign at the front or entrance. The general atmosphere is a friendly one which is conducive to learning.

This is the dining area in the childcare section of kindergarten. Although we did not see the dining area for the Nursery and Kindergarten, it can be assumed that it will be similar to this one.

This is an interesting and useful chart that tracks where the class is at any time.

This set of play equipment is in the corner of the hall. This Nursery pupil in the photograph obviously enjoyed being by himself instead of being with the other pupils who were watching the concert rehearsal in the front of the stage.

A corner with pupils' desk and chairs for group work. The label tells us it's for Manipulation work.

A very interesting corner in one of the classrooms. The many mobiles hanging across the classroom make this classroom very attractive.

Furniture arrangement in one of the classrooms which is very spacious with high ceilings.

The use of space in one of the kindergarten classrooms.

A large area in a corner of one of the classrooms where the pupils could rest or sleep?

4. Outdoor Areas

St Joseph Church's Kindergarten is very blessed to have spacious outdoor areas as this photograph shows. There are large equipment for climbing, riding and running around in the playground.

Another large compound where the children can play and run around. In fact the Principal, Miss Angeline Wong who personally showed us around her kindergarten commented that she and her teachers did not expect the new kindergarten to be so big.

5. Role of Teachers

The role of Teachers in this kindergarten like other pre-schools is multi-faceted. Besides teaching and instructing in the usual way of sitting in a low chair with a big book and having a group of pupils around her (which we saw in at least two classes during our visit), the kindergarten teachers have really to go on the floors to help, support and/or engage the pupils. They have to interact and meet the needs of the young charges.

In the photograph above, the class rules are simply illustrated e.g. Listen, Play together, Help to clean up and I Love my ... (picture of friends). The role of the class teachers would be to enforce these rules.

Supervising and guiding the pupils as they carry out their watering duty enthusiastically.

Instructing and demonstrating...

While one or two teachers conducted the song and dance item, the other teachers sat on the floor to help and supervise the other kids.

6. Children's Creativity

Cosy Corner - an area where the children could rest and do their own thing?

This display of the many toys available to the pupils shows that the kindergarten is well equipped - lucky children!

Another interesting corner for the pupils to explore, discover and play.

Animal toys and pictures of fish - a must in every pre school classroom.

Stuffed toys placed neatly on the ABC /Picture mat as the classroom was unoccupied at the time of the visit.

A Puzzle & Games corner. The label in Chinese is a common feature in this kindergarten as each class has two teachers - one for English and the other to teach Chinese.

This display of the pupils' work is good and we feel that there could be more of such displays to showcase the pupils' creative efforts.

Block Corner. Note also the display of colourful but standardised cuttings behind the shelf.

The creative use of a recyled box - probably a doll house?

A Home corner. Note the use of real pots on the second shelf behind.

Another colourful and interesting corner in a classroom.

Blocks of all shapes, colours and sizes - a child's play paradise.

One of the many colourful Happy Birthday display boards in a classroom - this one is in the form of a tree.

This is the Library with the colourful fencing and many posters and charts. Where are the books?

7. Social Interactions



Children at play in the playground showing child-child interactions. It is interesting to observe that these girls were playing "London Bridge is falling down..." instead of climbing/sliding on the big playground equipment.

The kindergarten is well equipped with large play equipment such as these and during our visit, we saw some of the children making use of them.

During our visit some of the classes were rehearsing for the kindergarten's National Day concert. It gave us the opportunity to have a glimpse at the concert items that the children would be performing, the group management of the pupils as well as staff working relationships. The teachers seemed to be able to work co-operatively together as a team, for example while one or two of the teachers conducted the singing with actions, the other teachers helped to get the pupils in line, or tied ribbons around their wrists while another played the organ.

On the whole, the teachers showed considerable patience and they used polite language with the children. For example, I overheard one teacher giving this instruction to one pupil, "J___, sit down please" while another said softly to another pupil whose ribbon round her wrist had come loose, "You didn't tie up is it?".

A teacher interacting with a few pupils while waiting for their turn to rehearse for their item.


8. Group Management

A class watering plants showing that the pupils were given assigned gardening duties. The pupils seemed to enjoy this duty as they passed the plastic watering can to one another, down the row.

The pupils at the computer corner in one of the classrooms. They seemed very at ease and independent in using the computer.

While four of their peers were accessing and learning computer programs at the computer corner, this group of pupils were colouring and/or doing their exercises.

9. Learning Points

9.1 From the site visit, the differences between a kindergarten and a child care centre were clearly brought across to us. St Joseph's Church Kindergarten and Childcare centre has about 420 pupils in its kindergarten and 102 pupils in the childcare section. However, it has to keep the operation of the two separate, as the kindergarten section comes under the Ministry of Education while the childcare section is under the Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

The childcare section takes in children from 18 months upwards. In the kindergarten section there are also nursery classes - N1 and N2 - besides the normal kindergarten classes K1 and K2. The difference between the childcare and kindergarten wings is that the focus of the kindergarten is more on academic while the childcare section provides child minding services besides similar academic curriculum for the nursery and kindergarten pupils. St Joseph's Church Kindergarten is therefore unique in providing both kindergarten and childcare services under one roof.

9.2 Another point that I learnt from this first pre-school visit is that a good kindergarten goes beyond adequate and quality learning resources and commercially-produced posters, displays, charts in the classrooms. A professional with a discerning eye would also look for creativity of pupils' work displayed in the classrooms as well as the quality and safety of learning resources.

9.3 I salute the work of kindergarten teachers who not only have to teach, guide, facilitate, supervise, support and protect the young children under their charge - they literally have to go down on their knees and feet to carry out their challenging and demanding work. Considering the critical role played by kindergarten teachers in laying the foundation of the education of pre-school children, it is therefore timely that the Ministry of Education is looking into improving the quality of pre-school education through several approaches including teacher quality and quality of programmes. In the process, hopefully the promotional and monetary prospects for the kindergarten and childcare teachers will improve.