Singapore bound: Goodstart’s next International Study Tour

Six educators from Goodstart Early Learning will tour Singapore in June 2025, building on the provider’s inaugural study tour to New Zealand which took place in 2024. 

Winners of the Educator of the Year, Educational Leader of the Year, Teacher of  the Year, Rising Star, Goodstarter of the Year, and Enabling Environments Excellence  (teacher-qualified Goodstarter) in the recent Goodies Awards have been offered the opportunity to join Chief Children’s Officer Sue Robb on this international learning journey through the support of generous corporate sponsors.  

The study tour is designed to foster knowledge educational cultural exchange, enhance  professional growth and gain global perspectives, with the aim of having participants return with insights to influence and enhance continuous practice improvement at Goodstart. 

Ms Robb said that she was both proud and excited to embark on this enriching experience to learn from practices in Singapore.  

“The Singapore education system is highly regarded for its vision to help children  develop 21st Century Competencies enabling children to thrive in and beyond school,” she said. 

“This fosters the ability to live, learn, work and adapt to rapidly changing, highly  digitalised and interconnected global environments.” 

Goodstart’s National Lead for Proficient and Advanced Teachers Doranna Wong supported this perspective, highlighting the importance of learning from the Singapore early education system.  

“Preschool education in Singapore is available to children under the age of seven and  includes a variety of program options; infant care, childcare, kindergartens and early  years centres,” she said.  

“Nurturing bilingualism in English and Mother Tongue Language (i.e. Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages) is unique to the Singapore education curriculum from the time they are in preschool nurturing children’s confidence, values, cultural identity, social and  emotional skills, literacy and numeracy.” 

“Each early learning setting offers their own educational curriculum and programs based on the Early Years Development Framework and the Nurturing Early Learners Framework that guides the development of  preschool programs in Singapore.”  

Singapore, she continued, is a cosmopolitan city state with an expatriate community, and has many international schools that offer curriculum reflective of their country of origin including Tanglin Trust school for British education, Australian International School, Stamford American International School.

It is likely that some of these schools will be included in the tour, with further details to be announced later this year. 

Goodstart extended thanks to Major Sponsor, Modern Teaching Aids, and Silver  Sponsors, Coles for Business, Optus, and Winc Australia. 

Other event series sponsors included: Educationall and Educating Kids, KGF, Buckner Brand Management and Kimberly-Clark, and lanyard sponsor CleverPatch.