Preschool · 18 months to 6 years
Ready for the primary years, and still asking questions.
Most parents arrive with the same two worries pulling in opposite directions. Push too hard and you get a child who can read but has stopped wanting to. Push too little and you are handing a nervous five-year-old to Primary 1.
We do not think you have to choose, and this page is our attempt to prove it rather than say it.
ECDA-licensed kindergarten · 4.9★ from 139 Google reviews
Read Write Inc phonics · Singapore Maths · an individual plan for every child
A discovery visit, at no cost.
Fragrance Empire Building, beside ARC.
One morning, in order
This is the whole method, photographed.
We could describe our approach. Most schools do. Instead here is a single morning in a single classroom, in the order it happened.
Two questions go up on the glass
Not one. Two, each underlining a different thing to test. That difference is the entire lesson: you cannot learn anything from an experiment where you changed everything at once.
They stay up all week, at the children’s eye level, where they can argue with them.
They set it up themselves
Cups, water, droppers, trays. An adult puts the materials out and then does the hardest part of the job, which is not talking.
Some of the trays will be set up wrong. Those are the useful ones.
They write down what they saw
In their own marks, on their own sheet, before anyone tells them what they were supposed to see. A four-year-old’s record is not evidence for us. It is evidence for them, tomorrow, when they have changed their mind.
And then two of them keep going
This is the frame we would put on the wall. The activity is finished, the adults have moved on, and two children are still at the table because they want to know.
That is what we are actually teaching. Everything else is scaffolding for this.
This is not a poster in the corridor. Every step above is a photograph from the same morning, and the same four steps run every week, in every subject. The cycle, written out.
A day here
Structured, and responsive.
The day has a deliberate shape. What happens inside each block follows the children.
Core curriculum
- Connection
- Phonics, literacy, numeracy
- STEAM, performing arts, sports
Inquiry
- Clay, recycling, robotics
- Mandarin
- Outdoor exploration
Extensions
- Weekly projects
- Mandarin
- Focused learning, linked to each child’s plan
We have not printed clock times against these, because the honest answer is that a block runs until the work is done.
The academic side, plainly
What actually gets taught.
Reading
Read Write Inc phonics, taught in sequence, so decoding is a skill rather than a memory test. Children read real books early because they can, not because they were drilled.
Maths
Singapore Maths, concrete to pictorial to abstract. They hold the quantity before they draw it, and draw it before they write the numeral.
Mandarin
Integrated naturally into the daily rhythm. Our Mandarin-speaking educators speak it with the children through the day, in play and activity, so it is a language in the room rather than a lesson in a slot.
We are honest about this: it is exposure and daily use, not a bilingual immersion programme.
An individual plan
Every child has an Individual Learning Plan across six developmental domains, built from what an educator watched them do and wrote down. An educator rereads it every six weeks.
Her age is not the thing being measured.
Why it looks like this
A room that expects them to stay.
Children read for longer when the place they read is worth sitting in. So the books are at floor height, the nook is built for one, and nobody is asked to sit up straight.
It is the same reasoning as the shelves in every other room. A child who has to ask an adult to reach a book asks twice, then stops asking.
What families say
The thing parents mention is never the curriculum.
Unlike many other preschools that can feel like a ‘revolving door’ … Claire and her team gave my son as much time as he needed to feel safe and confident. They met him where he was emotionally, and that made all the difference.
I have looked for a preschool that actively cares and listens to the child, never leaves a crying child assuming they’ll ‘just be ok’ … Agora is the place.
She went above and beyond by inviting me to spend a full normal school day with my daughter, allowing us to get a real feel for the teaching style, environment and teacher-child interactions.
They have taken the time to truly understand his emotional and learning needs, tailoring their approach to ensure he feels safe, valued and capable.
4.9★ from 139 Google reviews. Every quote is as the parent wrote it. We trim for length and change nothing else.
Children who need more
If your child needs more, tell us early.
One of the reviews above is from the parent of a neurodivergent child. That is worth saying plainly rather than leaving it as a hint for you to notice.
Our Head of Early Years is an ECDA Inclusion Officer, and that is who you would speak to before you enrol rather than after. We will tell you honestly whether this is the right setting for your child. Sometimes it is not, and hearing that at the start is better for a family than finding it out in month three.
Preschool fees, in full
What the fee covers, and what's charged separately.
One monthly fee, five days a week, all year round. Both columns are on this page, so you don't have to ask anyone for the second one.
In the monthly fee
- Five days a week, all year round. We staff the programme for twelve months, so the fee is the annual cost divided by twelve.
- Drop off from 7.30am, pick up by 2pm.
- An Individual Learning Plan for your child, written after four to six weeks of watching how they actually work, and reviewed every term.
- Fruit and milk every day.
- A weekly note from your child's teacher, a fortnightly newsletter, a monthly update against the learning plan, and a termly review with you.
- Insurance.
- No registration fee, no enrolment fee, no administration charge and no deposit.
Charged separately
- Snacks and lunch. We hold an ECDA Licence 'C', so there is no kitchen on site and children bring their own. We keep it cool and warm it up.
- A longer day, if you want one. The afternoon extension adds either two or four hours.
- Transport.
- Re-enrolment, if you withdraw and come back later.
There is no figure on this page, and that is deliberate. Fees change, and a number that has gone stale is worse than no number at all. Ask us and you will have the current schedule the same day — the programme fee, the extension and transport, costed out together, so you are looking at the whole thing before you decide anything.
Ask any centre in Singapore what the monthly fee is and you will get a straight answer. Ask what sits outside it and often you will not.
Before you ask us
The questions we get most.
What ages is Preschool for?
Eighteen months to six years, through to Primary 1.
Will my child be ready for Primary 1?
That is the outcome the whole programme is built around, and it is the thing we will talk about most honestly on a visit. Readiness here means a child who can decode text, handle number confidently, sit with a hard problem, and ask for help when they need it. The last two are the ones that actually decide how Primary 1 goes.
Is this play-based or academic?
Both, and we think the question contains the mistake. Phonics and maths are taught properly, in sequence, in the morning. The inquiry work is where children find out what those skills are for.
Is my child safe here?
A Child First Aider is on the floor whenever we are open. At the other end of the day, only the adults you have named in writing can collect your child.
What if my child takes a long time to cope?
Then they take a long time, and we do not run a clock on it. The reviews above are from families whose children needed longer than most. Tell us on the visit and we will tell you exactly how we would handle it.
What happens if my child’s teacher leaves?
Then a different adult does the same thing, because the practice is what gets trained rather than the personality. New educators are inducted into the Agora Training Plan before they run a room. It is the reason the reviews above talk about the team and not only about one person.
It is the first thing most parents want to know and the last thing most schools answer, so we answer it on its own page. The short version: we train the practice rather than trust the personality, so a different adult in the same room still does the same thing when a child gets stuck. How we handle that.
Book a trial
Book a trial session at our HarbourFront Centre to fully understand the programme and how it works. Please fill the form in and one of our staff will contact you to arrange it.
Centre address
HarbourFront Centre, 1 Maritime Square
#04-01 Lobby C, 099253