NASCANS Student Care Centre

If you’ve racked your brains over how to make algebra and fractions more palatable to your kids, you’ll be reassured to know that it’s a conundrum for many and an accomplishment for few. 

Instead of force-feeding formulas into their heads at a tuition centre, you can nurture your child’s interest in subjects like Maths by sending them to NASCANS Student Care. Fancy a lesson on angles taught with music and sports like soccer? Here’s a rundown of the school’s unique curriculum and academic approach catered towards primary school children.

This article is a part of our Influential Brands 2018 series, where we highlight the most influential brands in Singapore. NASCANS has been awarded the 2018 Top Influential Brand in the category of Student Care in Singapore.

Multiple Intelligences Approach

1. Discovering your child’s interests and talents

NASCANS uses a Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS) quiz to determine your child’s interests and natural inclinations when it comes to learning new things. 

Through a 90-question assessment, the quiz identifies the scores for 8 areas of intelligence that your child may possess:

•  Body Smart – sense of timing, physical activity
• Logic Smart – capacity to understand logical reasoning
• Music Smart – sensitivity to rhythm, tones, interest in music
• Nature Smart – curiosity towards nature
• People Smart – interpersonal relationships, sensitivity to moods and feelings
• Picture Smart – ability to visualise things
• Self Smart – deep understanding of self-reflective capabilities
• Word Smart – linguistic ability, excels in writing, reading, telling stories

The MIDAS quiz measures the child’s aptitude for the above categories by asking questions specific to each category. Based on the answers collated from the quiz, a full report is sent to the email of the parent/guardian of the child detailing the intelligence profile of the child. 

The MIDAS assessment highlights the user’s top 3 intelligences – in my case it was People Smart, Word Smart, and Music Smart. 
Image credit: MIDAS Tool

Profiles collected from completion of the MIDAS quiz aid the centre in sorting kids into classes with others who share similar profiles, as well as construct unique curriculums so that all the different areas of intelligence can be stimulated during lessons.

2. Unique curriculum specially crafted for stimulating multiple intelligences

To ensure that all the kids can benefit from the lessons in the centre, NASCANS tutors are trained to use as many different methods to teach as they can. 

This accomplishes 2 things: students can benefit from classes even if they don’t all share the same learning types, and those who aren’t as inclined in a certain area of intelligence can find better ways to improve.

Besides the standard whiteboard teaching, NASCANS’ curriculum includes the use of music and sports to convey math and science concepts. 

Musical rhythms and notation may be used to teach difficult math concepts like fractions. Teachers get students to drum and clap to beats to analyse the value of each musical note. 

Kids play sports like basketball and soccer to learn about angles and force. 
Image credit: NASCANS

Tutors organise basketball games for kids to learn about what angles are the best to shoot a ball from different positions in the court. Physics also comes into play when the kids learn about how much force is used to jump a particular height to score a slam dunk, for instance.  

Sports-related math worksheets will also require the kids to graph data, for example – finding the fastest average number of goals for each player during a soccer match.

The combination of physical activity and theory allows children to apply their academic knowledge to real-life events, ensuring their minds are always subjected to mental stimulation even when they’re not sat at their desks.

3. Parents can learn effective guiding strategies at home

Image credit: NASCANS

NASCANS gets parents on board by providing a comprehensive analysis of their child’s MIDAS profiles to help parents better understand their child’s learning style and behavioural qualities. 

The next time you catch your child fidgeting and unable to sit still for extended periods of study, instead of raging internally and feeling helpless, you’d know to change up their routine. Giving them frequent breaks or allowing them to shift their studying from one spot to another will satisfy their need for movement and keep them focused on their work. 

Lessons apply concepts and theories to real life 

The curriculum also includes lessons which are conducted specifically to enable your child to apply what is being taught to real life. 

To enhance the learning experience of children who are curious about nature, tutors organise enrichment programmes where kids are taken out for excursions or activities such as exploring the fauna and flora around the neighbourhood. Rather than just referring to images in the textbook, kids can touch and feel the plants for experiential learning. 

Tutors also prepare plenty of interactive indoor activities for kids to apply what they learn in the textbook. During our visit to the centre, we observed a class where kids were given wooden plane building kits to learn about how energy works. 

Experienced ex-MOE Teachers helming lessons 

NASCANS understands that even the theoretically best approaches may well be ineffective without the right kind of teachers. That’s why they hire tutors who have prior teaching experience in MOE schools. 

Having gone through years of teaching in local primary schools, ex-MOE tutors have a thorough understanding of the system, like how to score for exams, as well as the experience of dealing with 30 to 40 students packed into one class. Their expertise in classroom management is especially useful when they’re required to establish authority to students in the centre. 

The quality assurance doesn’t stop there. Teachers are also subjected to the MIDAS assessment so that they can play to their own strengths when engaging students with different learning styles.   

Evolving to digital platforms for immersive learning experiences

Unlike typical student cares or tuition centres, NASCANS doesn’t intend to stick to only whiteboard teaching and spamming 10-year revision papers for their tutees. 

From 2019, the school will be relying less on printed worksheets and turning to digital learning platforms with sound, colour, and moving animations. This helps to stimulate the visual-spatial-auditory senses and enable a more immersive experience when it comes to learning about various math and scientific concepts. 

Using an online platform with an automated marking system also allows kids to receive immediate feedback on their work so that they will be able to go through and the answers with their tutor and learn from their mistakes without delay. 

Joining NASCANS in 2019

Since starting in 2006, NASCANS Student Care has been constantly evolving to suit the learning profiles of 21st-century kids. They’re one of the front runners in providing a holistic education for kids, especially in their emphasis on harnessing the unique talents and intellectual gifts of each child. 

If you’re looking for a new student care centre to house your child for the coming school year, you may want to think about enrolling your child in NASCANS’ after-school care and holiday programmes.

Note: Only children enrolled in Primary 1-6 are eligible. 

NASCANS Student Care Centres (Community-based)

1. NASCANS @ Bukit Merah  
Address: 3501 Jalan Bukit Merah (Rubikon) #01-03/04 

2. NASCANS @ Choa Chu Kang 
Address: 309 Choa Chu Kang Ave 4 #04-07 (Choa Chu Kang Centre) 

3. NASCANS @ Clementi 
Address: 431 Clementi Ave 3 #01-356 

4. NASCANS @ Jurong East 
Address: 135 Jurong Gateway Road #04-339 

Telephone: 6653 8008
Email: ask@nascans.com

Find out more about NASCANS’ Student Care here!

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This post is brought to you by Influential Brands 2018.
Photography by Thaddeus Lim