Founded by SMIC in 2001, SMIC has grown from a school serving the children of employees to an international school that includes kindergartens, elementary schools, and middle schools for students across the city. SMIC is now a member of the Association of Overseas Schools in East Asia (EARCOS) and has been awarded the title of "Characteristic Demonstration School". SMIC primary and secondary schools have set up preparatory courses for studying abroad, and most of the graduates go overseas to study, which is the first choice for many families who want to go abroad. Compared with other kindergarten students, SMIC kindergarten graduates are more likely to attend SMIC Elementary School, which is an advantage that attracts many parents.
The kindergarten shares the SMIC campus with primary and secondary schools, and the kindergarten has a total of 3 floors and includes 19 classrooms. Each classroom is equipped with air conditioning, ceiling projectors and air purifiers. The outdoor plaza was recently renovated for children to play and enjoy. Because it is a shared campus, except for the small kindergarten area, there are no other childlike decorations and exclusive activity venues. SMIC Kindergarten's hardware conditions are average, and it is its English curriculum and further education path that attract parents.
SMIC Kindergarten caters to children aged 3 to 6 and offers bilingual and national language programs. SMIC conducts monthly Chinese teaching activities on different topics, including Chinese, computing, art, music, general studies, etc. In the English curriculum, teachers use a variety of forms throughout the teaching content, including songs, poems, stories, games and dramas, and the children are highly engaged. SMIC's foreign teachers are native English speakers and are trained in professional English language teaching. In addition, SMIC requires parents to conduct English learning tutoring at home, and English teachers will send weekly teaching reports to inform parents of the content of this week's review and the next week's teaching, so that parents can accompany their children to practice.
SMIC's English Department offers EK2 for students aged 5-6 to prepare them for the SMIC English Elementary School. The American language class adopts the same model as the primary English department, and is taught by foreign teachers using Singaporean English textbooks. Unlike the Nursery and Kindergarten English classes, English is used as a language for learning and living, and students use English to learn subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. At the same time, EK2 also has art, sports, English, computer and Chinese classes, as well as Chinese and foreign festival celebrations, sports meetings, field trips and interviews, fire drills, first aid challenges, parent reading clubs and other activities. By the time they graduate, most of the students will be close to their native English proficiency and have a much higher chance of progressing to SMIC Elementary than other students. It can be said that EK2 is a preparation for studying abroad in the future.
SMIC Kindergarten attaches great importance to the teaching of English, and its graduates, especially those who have taken EK2, have a high level of English proficiency and can meet the admission standards of bilingual or international primary schools. In addition, SMIC Kindergarten's new campus was officially opened in 2017, which is an independent campus with no primary and secondary schools, and the overall environment is better than that of the old campus, and the difficulty of admission is lower than that of the main campus.
Kindergarten interviews, teachers will let children use toys, simple game activities, observe children's behavior habits and language ability, crying, poor discipline and weak expression skills of children pass rate is very low. In addition, SMIC Kindergarten will favor parents who actively participate in their children's education and recognize the kindergarten's teaching philosophy. In 2018, the price of the nursery class was 9,000 yuan per month; For other classes, it is $8,000. The nursery class is a class of 20 children, including two middle school teachers and two nursery teachers, and the two classes share a foreign teacher. The large, medium and small classes are 25 students per class, with one Chinese and foreign teacher and one childcare worker.
