As more parents work full time, student care centres play an important role in giving your Primary school child a safe and nurturing environment after school.

A leading student care centre should offer more than just a few hours of supervision for your child. The student care centre you choose is important as the quality of teaching and the teachers will impact not only your child’s academic abilities but also his or her social-emotional skills to navigate life.

What attributes define a leading student care centre?

1. Quality curriculum and programmes

As your child will spend at least 3 hours every day, 15 hours a week and 60 hours a month at the student care centre, you should check if the student care centre has developed a quality curriculum and programmes to help your child thrive.

For example, NASCANS, a leading student care centre in Singapore, has an in-house curriculum team headed by a former MOE Primary School Head-of-Department with over 20 years of experience. NASCANS assesses each student through two Multiple Intelligences (MI) assessments, the MI 27 Profiling and MI Detailed Assessment, to identify your child’s strengths and areas for improvement.

To help your child navigate a world of complexity and uncertainty, NASCANS incorporates the “Habits of Mind” developed by Professor Arthur Costa and “Mind Mapping” techniques developed by Tony Buzan, amongst others, in its curriculum, pedagogies, and teaching methods. Your child will also follow a structured timetable to learn self-discipline, responsibility and task ownership.

Besides regular programmes, look out for ‘extra-curricular’ programmes which set apart a quality student care centre from a standard one. Some of these programmes that NASCANS creates include its Outdoor Mindful Leadership Programme, Indoor Skill-Based Development and Holiday Programmes consisting of fun, hands-on activities and outings. During these programmes, your child has opportunities to build character, develop critical thinking skills, enhance social and interaction skills, and learn how to work with his or her peers.

2. Dedicated mentors who are professionally trained

NASCANS offers experienced mentors to supervise and guide your child to understand and complete their daily school homework, run through further assessments and practice papers and provide additional tutorials in English, Mathematics, Chinese, and Science if required.

These mentors are professionally trained via NASCANS’ Oasis Programme, a newly revamped professional development framework that helps mentors map out clear career advancement pathways and boost their professional competencies.

The Oasis Programme spells out role profiles to provide greater clarity to mentors in terms of the expectations of their work at each job grade, to guide mentors to achieve the desired student, professional, and organisational outcomes that are aligned to NASCANS’ Mission and Vision.

Mentors can also partake in reflective practice under the mentorship of senior and master mentors, and through professional dialogue with their colleagues during weekly time-tabled professional learning. In their first year alone, all NASCANS mentors undergo over 150 hours of extensive training, ensuring that your child is nurtured and guided by dedicated and experienced teachers.

3. Conducive centre environment and nutritious meals

Would you prefer to spend 3 hours every day in a sterile-looking centre, or a warm and welcoming one? Understanding that safe spaces matter, NASCANS professionally designed every centre to provide your child with a conducive learning environment that is safe, friendly and cosy.

Students get to catch up on their schoolwork in rooms that are conducive for academic activity and there are also dedicated spaces to unwind with friends such as table football, basketball hoops and dartboards facilities at some centres.

Furthermore, in NASCANS Community-Based Centres, meals are carefully planned and prepared by in-house cooks to ensure that your child enjoys a diverse variety of healthy foods.

Why enrol your child at NASCANS?

Recently awarded Singapore’s Top Brand for Student Care under the annual Influential Brands ® Award and “Best Student Care Programme in Holistic Development” under Parents World’s Best of the Best Enrichment Award 2020 / 2021, NASCANS’ award-winning programme helps your child develop positive thinking habits, leadership skills and strength of character through structured and fun learning activities.

Parent surveys also revealed that over 95% of parents expressed their satisfaction with NASCANS’ quality curriculum and programmes, high safety standards, robust operational procedures, high quality of staff and prompt communication channels.

How can I enrol my child in NASCANS?

NASCANS has student care centres in over 20 locations in partner MOE schools and 5 community-based centres, providing students with “an Oasis between School and Home”. Its student care programmes in school-based centres are closely aligned to MOE’s 21st Century Competencies model and the partner school’s vision, mission, and values.

In its community-based centres, NASCANS’ student care programmes include value-added services such as small group tutorials for English, Chinese, Mathematics and Science to enhance your child’s academic performance in school. Community-based centres are located at Bukit Merah, Choa Chu Kang, Clementi, Gambas and Jurong East.

To book a centre visit or take a virtual tour, sign up at nascans.com, email ask@nascans.com or call 6653 8008.

NASCANS Community-Based Centre Locations:

Bukit Merah
Address: 3501 Jalan Bukit Merah (Rubikon), #01-03/04, S159460

Choa Chu Kang
Address: 309 Choa Chu Kang Ave 4, #04-07, S680309

Clementi
Address: 431 Clementi Ave 3, #01-356, S120431

Jurong East
Address: 135 Jurong Gateway Rd, #04-339, S600135

Gambas
Address: 2 Gambas Crescent, Nordcom II, #01-28/38, Singapore 757044

This post is written in collaboration with NASCANS.

By Julia Chan.

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