Jom Belajar English! (JBE) is a 4 week parent-accompanied phonics programme that will run twice throughout the year. JBE engages Malay families with children aged 4 to 6 years old. It aims to empower parents with basic phonics and the knowledge they need to teach English at home. Through our sessions, we hope parents can gain the skills and confidence to improve their home learning environment. 

During JBE, we teach both Jolly Phonics and SmallTalk parenting strategies. SmallTalk strategies are also currently adopted by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) Singapore and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services in Australia. The strategies are focused on improving everyday interactions with your child and making every interaction a learning experience. Overall, our programme is conducted by professional and experienced educators from our sister organization, Curious Thoughts Academy. 

JBE features classic stories from the Malay Annals such as Sang Nila Utama, Hang Nadim, Sang Kancil and Badang which uses these stories to teach phonics and useful pedagogical skills! 

In June, 7 families embarked on a journey with us through our first run of JBE. It was a meaningful experience seeing the families learn and participate in the activities. All in all, we couldn’t have done it without the support and encouragement from our sponsors, donors and volunteers.

With Canadian International School’s contribution of $1,000 worth of Cold Storage Vouchers, the families that achieved great attendance received $50 vouchers to take home. Dover Court International School as well as Windstedt School contributed bags and books to us which we used as the basis of our Learning Kits. Our Learning Kits included stationery, colour pencils, pencil cases, books and educational games to help encourage the children to continue striving for excellence in their education.

A very special thanks to our food sponsors for JBE - Saleha from @_basilandbakes, Elley Agos from @ellemartsg, Tipah from @whentpahbakes, Sofea & Peter from @manisenzo, Nurul, Siti and Mdm Aminah. 

In October, we had our second run of Jom Belajar English!

This time, we partnered with KidSTART @ Fei Yue to support 5 Malay families from the low income spectrum as they embarked on a 4 week journey with us. We sang songs, participated in an interactive storytelling session and learnt our letter sounds through fun activities! We even retold our favourite folklores such as Badang and Sang Nila Utama.

In collaboration with TinyPlayClub, the children experienced and took part in play invitations with a twist of Phonics. The activities for each week were multi-sensory which included water play, play dough, arts & craft and more! Thank you to TinyPlayClub for joining us in bringing so much joy and laughter to the children, and we are excited to see what next year brings.

Thank you also to our sponsors for their unwavering support in contributing delicious dinners for our families. Firstly, thank you to Layang-Layang In’syirah and Basil&Bakes, 2 local home-based businesses on Instagram, for their generous contribution of truly delicious desserts! Also, a huge thank you to our local community – Isabella, Juni, and our anonymous group of friendly neighbors – for their food sponsorships. And of course, thank you to our awesome team of volunteers for your passion and dedication to engaging the children.