Beacon Primary School
SINGAPORE: Beacon Primary, one of two primary schools under the Education Ministry’s FutureSchools project, is proving to be a hit with parents at the Primary One registration exercise this year.
The school has been specially chosen to focus on innovative teaching approaches that use information and communications technology tools to improve learning.
Being a brand new school, the bulk of applicants have come under Phase 2C onwards.
The school said three places have been taken up in the earlier phases by parents who are grassroots leaders.
Lim Boon Cheng, Principal of Beacon Primary School, said: “We are planning to build a virtual learning environment to allow our children to explore. For example, when they are learning about the eco-system and about life cycles, they can take on the life of an ant and explore the eco-garden.”
Parents, like Joanna Lau, think their children will enjoy learning a lot better in a school that uses such novel teaching methods.
She said: “(My daughter) is more active and in school, we can see that she’s very good at computers. I think, academic-wise, the other normal schools will be quite tough for her. She’s too active to just sit still.”
Mrs Lau is one of about 236 people who have just registered their children at Beacon Primary.
Lee Chang Hsien and his wife are also hoping that their son gets a place at Beacon Primary, but they are hesitant to register him as he already has a place at another school and they are afraid of forfeiting his chance there, if Beacon Primary proves to be too popular.
Mr Lee said: “My wife will stay here until about 4pm, and she’ll report to me while I will be at the other primary school. If there is no need to ballot, I will probably withdraw my application (at the other school) so that I can apply for a place in Beacon.”
Many parents do not mind the fact that the school is still under construction and will only be completed in November.
The other primary school under the FutureSchools project is Canberra Primary School and so far it has registered over 200 students for only 96 places.
Balloting for Phase 2C at Canberra Primary will take place on 13 August.
– CNA/so