Lock Road Kindergarten – Extension of Lease
Petition from parents and friends of Lock Road Kindergarten

The parents and friends of Lock Road Kindergarten have signed this petition to request that Lock Road Kindergarten be allowed to remain at its current location and that its lease be extended. 

Reasons for our petition - Summary

Our Lock Road community of parents place high value on the current location of the kindergarten for a number of reasons, including the following:

·                Parents value the ability to access high quality kindergarten education (modelled on the British system) for their children in the Alexandra area, where many expatriate families live and work.  For around 10 years, Lock Road Kindergarten has provided a real sense of security and stability for families – this would be diminished if the kindergarten is required to move.  Allowing Lock Road Kindergarten to remain in Gilman village would contribute to the government’s goal of making Singapore “a vibrant place to live, work, learn and play” for the families of foreign talent.

·                Parents value Lock Road Kindergarten’s unique natural environment, with its large outdoor playground and outlook on natural forest.  This type of environment is not readily available at other locations and is particularly sought after by many of our parents.  We place great value on the ability of Lock Road Kindergarten to use its natural setting to provide creative and unique learning experiences for our children.

·                Parents believe that Lock Road Kindergarten’s continued presence in Gillman Village would enhance the redevelopment of the area as a creative precinct.  Lock Road Kindergarten offers a creative and artistic educational experience for our children, which is enhanced by their access to natural play spaces available at the kindergarten’s current location.

These reasons are explained more fully below.

Access to quality international education in the Alexandra area

The majority of our parents are expatriates, many of whom live and work in the Alexandra area.  A key issue for many of us in deciding whether to move to and remain in Singapore is our ability to access quality international education for our children, at a location which is convenient to our homes and places of work. 

For 10 years now, Lock Road Kindergarten has been the favored choice of kindergarten for expatriates in the area.  Lock Road Kindergarten is one of the very few kindergartens in Singapore which follows the British system.  This provides consistency for many of our children with their educational experiences in our home countries.  It also gives our families a real sense of familiarity and security.  This greatly helps expatriate families adapt to life in Singapore. 

For many of us parents, Lock Road Kindergarten has become an “institution” – a familiar and nurturing place where our children feel loved and secure.  Many parents have sent successive children to Lock Road Kindergarten and have come to rely on the stability and consistency it offers to our families.  This sense of stability is very important when you live away from your home country and it is likely to be diminished if the kindergarten is required to move to new premises.  For these reasons, we believe that allowing Lock Road Kindergarten to remain in its current location will contribute to the government’s goal of making Singapore a “vibrant place to live, work, learn and play” for the families of foreign talent.

Co-location with Gilman arts precinct

We believe that the Lock Road Kindergarten’s continued presence in Gillman Village would be consistent with the redevelopment of the area as a creative precinct.  At the kindergarten, our children are given daily opportunities to participate in art, craft and music activities and to experiment and discover with hands-on equipment and materials. Children in the Mandarin programme learn Mandarin songs and participate in cultural studies and art activities.  Children in the English programme benefit from activities such as speech and drama, cooking, and artistic experiments.

Indeed, for many parents of children at Lock Road, the fact that the kindergarten nurtures each child’s creativity and places a unique emphasis on each child’s individual expression has been a chief determinant for selecting Lock Road as the preferred introduction to their child’s formal education.  We believe that the creative educational offering provided by Lock Road Kindergarten would therefore not only be consistent with but would actually enhance plans to develop Gillman Village into a creative precinct.

The importance of Lock Road’s outdoor environment

Many of our parents highly value Lock Road Kindergarten’s unique natural environment, with its large grassy outdoor playground and outlook on natural forest. For many of us, Lock Road Kindergarten’s natural setting is one of the key factors in our decision to send our children to this kindergarten.  This type of environment is not readily available at other kindergartens in Singapore and offers many educational and developmental benefits for our children.

We value the fact that Lock Road’s current location allows our children to spend a considerable part of each day outside the classroom, learning through unstructured free play, as well as structured activities held outdoors.  Our children get to explore the natural world around them – learning about wildlife, plants, water and the weather.  In addition, our children are regular visitors to areas in the local neighbourhood, such as Hort Park and the Southern Ridges forest walk, which helps foster a love of Singapore and its wonderful attractions.  All these benefits will be lost if the kindergarten’s lease can not be extended.