Junior School Profile
Introduction
Clair Harrington-Wilcox, Head of Junior School
Welcome to the Junior School.
Here, we seek to nurture our children whatever their unique and individual passions and talents. We are constantly striving for new ways to develop children's potential so they can achieve their own ‘personal best’, regardless of their starting point. We are the only school outside the UK to be awarded UNICEF's RRSA Gold Award, a testament to our holistic approach and commitment to the pastoral care of our children.
The Junior School’s broad and balanced curriculum and co-curriculum programme inspire, motivate, and challenge children, and foster a lifelong love of learning.
Tanglin’s core values of Respect, Responsibility, and Purpose are fully embraced in the Junior School, ensuring children develop into well-rounded, community-spirited, and responsible, international young people who achieve high levels of academic success. Ultimately, what characterises our Junior School children are their independence, resilience, and willingness to participate.
Our impressive facilities feature a wide range of unique learning spaces that are enhanced by specialist teaching across sport, art, music, technology, dance and drama. Among these is the new Junior Arts Centre (JAC); a vibrant space designed to spark creativity, imagination, and innovation in young learners for generations to come.
Our teachers encourage close home/school links and open lines of communication between parents and staff. We run regular workshops for parents to support the learning journey and learning showcase sessions in which children can share their learning informally with parents.
We look forward to welcoming you soon.
What is…?
The English Speaking Board (ESB)
Founded in 1963, the English Speaking Board is a national awarding body that offers a range of qualifications in communication skills. In Junior School, children take part in ESB assessments each year, delivering individual presentations in Year 3 and building to debating in Year 6. The children receive consistently outstanding results. Throughout the academic year, children develop their speaking and listening skills through leading assemblies, reading poetry at open mic events, and engaging with our inspirational visitors.
The RRSA Gold Award
Unicef’s Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) places the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the core of school ethos and curriculum. It offers meaningful learning, sparks interest in global issues, and empowers children to know and exercise their rights, leading happy, healthy lives as responsible, active citizens.
We are proud to have won the Ethical Values Education category at the International School Awards. As the only school outside the UK awarded Gold status, our Library’s unique UNCRC collection may be one of the world’s only dedicated resources of its kind. This award reflects our exceptional pastoral care, fostering global citizenship and wellbeing awareness in every child. Tanglin has also earned the International School of the Year title from ISC Research, recognising outstanding initiatives in international schools worldwide.
IAPS
The Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) is the membership association for Headteachers of leading prep schools throughout the world. As Clair Harrington-Wilcox is a member of IAPS, the Junior School bears its prestigious kite mark of quality and is counted among the most prestigious prep schools in the world.
“I was so impressed by the Year 6 ESB speakers. I genuinely felt I was seeing young leaders in the making.” – Junior School Parent
Pastoral
At Tanglin Trust School, pastoral care is a central pillar of the school’s philosophy. The quality of care provided reflects a deep commitment to the wellbeing of every student, ensuring that they are supported not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and personally.
“Positivity permeates the school. The teachers are confident and upbeat, which rubs off on the children, keeping everyone moving forward.”
– Junior School Parent
Pastoral Care
At Tanglin Trust School, pastoral care is a central pillar of the school’s philosophy. The quality of care provided reflects a deep commitment to the wellbeing of every student, ensuring that they are supported not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and personally. Children and their families are well supported by our dedicated pastoral team, which includes school counsellors and nurses. We are proud to be a safe and happy environment in which every child can thrive.
“Pupils respond positively to the school’s ethos of academic challenge, whether working independently or in
collaboration
with others.”
Academic
Tanglin Trust School aims to be a distinctive international learning community, utilising both British-based and international learning programmes, to nurture and inspire lifelong learners who develop international-mindedness that will allow them to contribute to the world with confidence.
Bespoke Curriculum
From Years 3 to 6 (ages 7-11 years) we have created a bespoke curriculum that not only enthuses, engages and challenges young and inquiring minds, but also promotes high levels of attainment and outstanding progress. We equip our children with the core subject skills first and then provide an exciting range of opportunities for them to apply their learning. We cater to each child's distinct and unique learning needs in an integrated context.
Our curriculum is intentionally designed to be future-ready, embedding sustainability, STEAM opportunities, service learning, and enterprise education to equip students with the skills and mindset needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
On top of academic skills and knowledge, our key drivers of self-awareness, personal development, global awareness and sense of community ensure our students become well-rounded, community-spirited and responsible young citizens.
Academic Standards
With a strong focus on academic outcomes alongside engaging and exciting learning, we benchmark Year 6 outcomes against UK national standards. 2024-25 results remained outstanding: 99% met age-related expectations in reading, with 67% exceeding; 91% met the expected standard in writing, with 25% exceeding; and in maths, 96% reached the expected level, with 54% working above agerelated expectations; and in Science, 97% reached expected standards, with 57% exceeding.
Personalised Learning Team (PLT)
At Tanglin, we aim to nurture all our students, helping them to flourish both personally and academically. With this in mind, the Junior School has a dedicated Personalised Learning Team who strives to support children in reaching their individual potential.
ENRICHMENT: In the Junior School, enrichment provision offers an additional layer of support within every class, aimed at students whose current level of understanding is amongst the highest in their year group. Through a curriculum that both stretches and inspires, we seek to ensure all students achieve ambitious outcomes, whatever their starting point. Enrichment opportunities are designed to foster depth of learning, providing targeted curriculum support that strengthens knowledge and skills as students progress on their journey towards mastery.
LEARNING SUPPORT: Enabling all children to flourish and thrive is central to our Learning Support ethos, where every child is entitled to access a broad and balanced curriculum that facilitates their individual development. Assessment tools are used to track progress, determine the correct level of support and create a personalised learning journey. Where necessary, Individual Education Plans are created, which provide achievable and measurable targets that are regularly reviewed.
PRECISION TEACHING: Excellence for all is at the heart of our Precision Teaching interventions. The aim is to further enhance and accelerate progress in reading or writing through a dynamic and responsive layer of provision that ensures all students meet and often exceed expectations. This is achieved through a bespoke curriculum, designed and delivered by an English specialist, that enables small groups of students to consolidate and deepen their understanding and application of key skills.
Parent Teacher Conferences
These termly meetings offer you the opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher on an individual basis and to review your child’s learning and next steps. Term 2 and Term 3 conferences include the opportunity to meet specialist teachers.
Reporting
Around the middle of the school year, you will be updated on your child’s progress and next steps, as well as their approach to learning. At the end of the year, you will receive a summative report that details their attainment measured against stage-related expectations, using the terminology Beginning, Developing, Advancing or Mastering.
Specialist Teaching & Facilities
Across all milestones, Junior School children access to specialist teaching with state-of-the-art facilities, in our new Junior Arts Centre and across the school.
• Enrichment Classroom
• Learning Support Rooms
• “The Snug” (Sensory Room)
• Media Suite
• Science Laboratory
• Personalised Learning Team (PLT) Room
• Training Kitchen
• Specialised Chinese Rooms
• Library
• Art rooms
• Drama Studios
• Black Box Theatre
• Green Room
• Dance Studio
• Music studio
• Music breakout spaces
• Junior Athletic Development Gym
• Indoor Sports Hall
Co-Curriculum
In the Junior School, we aim to curate a world-class co-curriculum programme, which forms a bridge between our outstanding academic curriculum and high-quality pastoral provision. At its heart, it is centred on wellbeing: learners have the opportunity to flourish and achieve their personal best in line with Article 29 in our Rights Respecting Schools Gold Award. Not only does it support our learners’ academic growth, but it also offers many other benefits in terms of the development of the whole child by nurturing those all-important soft skills, or life skills, such as social relationships, communication, collaboration and resilience.
Co-Curricular Activities
Our expansive programme encompasses cooking, rock climbing, computer game design and many more; we try to ensure that there is something for everyone. Additionally, we continue to expand our off-site provision with specialist sessions such as horse riding, climbing and tennis.
Sports
Our Junior Sport programme takes pride in delivering a broad and balanced array of sports, which enables each child to choose from a wide range of activities and flourish in those they enjoy. Our philosophy is simple - we encourage all our students to take part in as many different sports as they can and foster a true love of movement and health. Through this process, we hope each student finds their own personal, sporting path to follow. Across a year, we participate in over 14 different sports and send out over 500 students to play in various sporting teams. Our Junior Sport programme also offers children the opportunity to compete in overseas events which include Feeding Frenzy for Swimming and the Harrow Football 7’s tournament. As a member of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA), 40 Tanglin students from Years 5 and 6 have the privilege of competing in the annual FOBISIA Games, with football, athletics, tee ball and swimming events spanning three days of competition.
The Arts
Tanglin’s energetic Arts programme plays an important part in school life and involves ensembles, recitals, performances and exhibitions.
Outdoor Education
We believe learning should be enhanced through a multitude of inspirational opportunities outside the classroom, such as day trips, residential visits and acts of service learning which enable our children to excel personally and academically.
Our year group residentials include:
• YEAR 3: Singapore Zoo (one night)
• YEAR 4: Wildling – Singapore (two nights)
• YEAR 5: Sibu – Sea Gypsy (three nights)
• YEAR 6: Sarawak (four nights)
Special Opportunities
Red Dot Award
Junior School children participate in this annual award that sees children from 15 international schools across Singapore read and vote for their favourite Red Dot books, as nominated by school librarians. Participants may then choose to take part in the National Readers’ Cup, forming teams to answer questions as part of a preliminary competition. The winning teams from Tanglin Junior School go on to compete in the National Readers’ Cup with children from other international schools.
Co-Curriculum Trips
In addition to our outdoor education programme, some of our co-curriculum opportunities incorporate overseas trips. These may include:
• Junior Award Scheme for Schools (JASS) - service trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia to support Caring for Cambodia
• FOBISIA Sports - opportunity for our Year 5 and Year 6 sports teams to compete against other schools in the South, East Asia region
• FOBISIA Music - a music festival with other schools in the South, East Asia region
• SEASAC overseas specific sporting competitions in swimming and gymnastics