Minister highlights NurtureStars Mount Faber’s SPARK award in speech

“Beyond achieving certification, many preschools now regularly use SPARK to improve their practices. Parents look to SPARK as a mark of quality assurance when enrolling their children in centres.” This was highlighted by Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State for Social and Family Development, in her speech at the virtual Certificate Presentation Ceremony on 10 November 2021.

She also shared that NurtureStars @ SAFRA Mount Faber was one of the awardees whose curriculum “is geared towards developing positive learning dispositions in children”.

NurtureStars Preschool, a joint venture between Kinderland International Education and the Singapore Armed Forces Reservist Association (SAFRA), was last year awarded the Singapore Preschool Accreditation Framework (SPARK) Commendation Certificate. It was among 26 preschools to be accredited with the Commendation award, out of a total of 115 preschools which met the standards for certification in 2021.

NurtureStars’ Senior Principal Ms Eunice Tang was subsequently featured in an article on the SPARK award in the latest issue of Beanstalk, the official magazine of the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA). During the interview, Ms Tang shared that NurtureStars used the Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) Framework as a guide and SPARK as an assessment tool to improve its teaching and learning practices.

Ms Tang said that improvements at NurtureStars over the years have benefited its children and fostered their love of learning. She cited one parent’s feedback that her child has grown into “a confident, independent boy” who is able to “think out of the box”.

NurtureStars runs a childcare centre in each of the six SAFRA recreations clubs mainly located at Jurong West, Mount Faber, Punggol, Tampines, Toa Payoh and Yishun for national servicemen and their families.

Kinderland International Education is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Crestar Education Group.