A Silicon Valley-inspired pre-school teached kids to survive the digital age, with cookery and coding classes

It costs $1,867 per month for a full day programme and $1,711 for a half-day program.

Trehaus

• A preschool inspired by Silicon Valley promises to teach kids how to survive the digital age.
• The school's programs are themed by career paths, like engineer, athlete, and chef.
• The programs teach children the skills needed for a given career path, like coding or cooking.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

An exclusive preschool is promising to teach tots skills like grit, adaptability, and empathy to survive the digital age.

Trehaus preschool in Singapore, which accepts children between two months and six years of age, told Insider that it will be accepting its first intake of students in September.

According to the preschool, costs $1,867 per month for a full-day program and $1,711 for a half-day program.

Children will be taught about grit through a "no failure, only feedback" policy.

Trehaus

After adding in various fees and a refundable deposit, the cost of enrolling a child in Trehaus under the full-day program will set parents back $22,680 per year.

Calling itself a "Silicon Valley-inspired preschool", the school's curriculum was designed by early education experts from institutions including Stanford's Bing Nursery and Silicon Valley's Khan Lab School.

The school's six programs are each themed after a career path - CEO, engineer, philanthropist, athlete, creative, and chef - and aim to teach children the skills associated with it, such as entrepreneurship, coding, public speaking, teamwork, design thinking, and cooking.

Trehaus' school head Carolina Sam said that grit, which "encompasses determination, toughness, and resilience", would help children look at failures and mistakes in a positive way.

Teachers also teach children to take calculated risks, expand their comfort zones, and learn emotional skills.

Trehaus

"This plays a large role in their ability to be successful in school and in life," she added.

She said that children would be taught about grit through a "no failure, only feedback" policy that encourages them to work on their abilities and treat failure positively.

Teachers also teach children to take calculated risks, expand their comfort zones, and learn emotional skills, such as how to self-soothe and self-regulate.

Apart from a bilingual English and Mandarin program, Trehaus is also offering a pure Mandarin immersion program to give students a head start in reading and writing Chinese.

Trehaus is also offering a pure Mandarin immersion program to give students a head start in reading and writing Chinese.

Trehaus

Trehaus founder Dr. Elaine Kim said the preschool hopes to prepare children for "a future disrupted by technology", where soft skills become more important than hard skills.

"More than 50% of the jobs that [sic] exist in the next 50 years don't even exist today," said Kim. "The skills children learn in our program will prepare them for this future."

To help children gain skills quickly, "loving" and "nurturing" teachers will act as co-parents, Trehaus said.

The school boasts a teacher-child ratio of 1:5, which is at least twice as much as the recommended minimum.

The school's curriculum was designed by early education experts from institutions including Stanford's Bing Nursery and Silicon Valley's Khan Lab School.

Trehaus

In comparison, the country's government guidelines stipulate that preschools must have a teacher-child ratio of at least 1:12 for those aged two to three, 1:18 for those aged three to four, 1:20 for five-year-olds, and 1:25 for six-year-olds.

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