Creating opportunities for every child’s holistic development

Since joining Little Skool-House in 2012, Nur’Aqilah Binte Abdul Malek has helped many young children say their first words, develop an interest in learning, and grow into sociable and independent individuals. In addition, she has partnered the children’s parents to help them develop to their fullest potential. For her contributions to the early childhood education sector, Nur’Aqilah was conferred the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.

Nur’Aqilah Binte Abdul Malek, English Teacher at Little Skool-House (On-The-Green), received the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.

Building a strong foundation for infants and toddlers to develop holistically is Nur’Aqilah Binte Abdul Malek’s forte.

Since joining Little Skool-House in 2012, she has helped many young children say their first words, develop an interest in learning, and grow into sociable and independent individuals. Nur’Aqilah has also built trusting relationships with these children and their families, and partnered them in their child’s growth and development.

“All children should have the opportunity to explore, learn and develop holistically,” said Nur’Aqilah, who teaches Nursery 1 children at Little Skool-House (On-The-Green) this year.

“A child’s development is often perceived in terms of academic achievements. However, I believe that a child’s holistic development should also include language skills, social skills, physical skills, emotional skills, cognitive skills and self-help skills. When I work with children, I create opportunities for them to enhance all these skills.”

Nur’Aqilah does this by introducing open-ended activities such as play dough exploration, and providing support, language skills and a space for the children to explore by themselves. She believes in creating opportunities not only for children between the ages of four to six, but also for infants and toddlers as they are forming language skills, building relationships and enhancing their self-esteem at the tender age.

“By giving these young children a space to learn and explore on their own, with guidance from educators, they will grow to be more confident, which leads to more fruitful learning and development,” she said.

Nur’Aqilah Binte Abdul Malek, English Teacher at Little Skool-House (On-The-Green), engaging with students in an activity.

In Nur’Aqilah’s class, the three-year-olds under her care are given the autonomy to pick up materials of their interest and practise self-help skills such as dressing themselves, which in turn develops their eye-hand coordination and fine motor strength.

As part of her attempts to incorporate early math and science activities to prepare young children for their future learning, she created coloured binoculars to help children explore and learn about colours. As the children looked at their environment through the binoculars and spoke about the things they saw, the process enhanced their observation and language skills.

“Nur’Aqilah has worked with children who were initially non-verbal in their responses when they first joined the school. She uses her daily observation to learn these children’s non verbal cues and tries to verbalise their thoughts and respond to their needs. With a consistent communication built between Nur’Aqilah and these children, many of them have been able to express themselves more confidently and built up their language skills under her care,” said Avril Wong, Centre Principal, Little Skool-House (On-The-Green).

“A child’s development is often perceived in terms of academic achievements. However, I believe that a child’s holistic development should also include language skills, social skills, physical skills, emotional skills, cognitive skills and self-help skills. When I work with children, I create opportunities for them to enhance all these skills.”

– Nur’Aqilah Binte Abdul Malek
English Teacher
Little Skool-House (On-The-Green)

Close partnerships with families

Nur’Aqilah also believes in partnering children’s families to achieve the best possible outcome for the child.

Under her list of ‘Weekly Planned Activities’ for each child, Nur’Aqilah included a section filled with suggestions or ideas for parents to work on with their child at home. During this year’s Earth Week, she invited parents to take their child to Marina Barrage to enjoy a picnic together, and visit the Sustainable Singapore Gallery for their child to learn about creating a clean and green environment.

Due to the recent COVID-19 measures, Nur’Aqilah also proposed a few ideas to keep parents engaged in their children’s learning. One such activity is themed “A Day with My Family”, in which the children chose activities they would like to experience with their family over a few weekends. At the end of it, the children brought posters filled with pictures of their experiences and shared them with their classmates. This inculcated in the child a sense of belonging towards their family, and fostered home-school partnership.

“Nur’Aqilah has built wonderful rapport with the families of the children under her care. With her vast knowledge of early childhood, she readily shares suggestions and ideas for parents in relation to the children’s development. With any new child joining the school, she would also keep parents updated with simple updates of the child’s transition during the first week and use various communication platforms to keep parents informed on how the child has settled into school. She also informs parents of their child’s development needs that require additional attention to,” said Avril. “This has helped parents build strong trusting relationships and communication with Nur’Aqilah and the school.”

For her decade of experience in developing children holistically and her proactive partnership with parents to achieve the best outcome for their child, Nur’Aqilah has been conferred the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer award by the Early Childhood Development Agency in 2021.