Pathlight School is the first autism-focused school in Singapore offering mainstream curriculum to students, aged 7 to 18, who are on the autism spectrum.
Pathlight School offers a unique blend of mainstream academics, leading to PSLE and GCE ‘N’ and ‘O’ level certification, as well as life-readiness skills. Its mission is to maximise the potential of every student in both academics and life skills.
As at January 2019, Pathlight School is operating in 3 locations and across 3 satellite partner schools:
Student Served
As at 31 Mar '19
of Students Assisted Financially
Financial Assistance Disbursed
Disbursed for one-time
"Back to School" Project
Pathlight School welcomed the first batch of students under the Compulsory Education Act for all children with special needs. With the Act coming into effect in 2019, there was a 14% increase in student enrolment; up from about 10% in the previous year.
Eligible to Progress to Mainstream Secondary Schools
Eligible to Progress to Institutes of Higher Learning
Eligible to Progress to Secondary 5 to Pursue GCE ‘O’ Levels
Eligible to Progress to Institutes of Higher Learning
Students in Open Employment
Students in Continuous Training
at E2C
Students in Sheltered Workshops
Students in Day Activity Centres
Several enhancements were made to the Transition to Work Culture Programme. Internship and Job Shadowing Programmes were introduced and working hours were also adjusted to prepare students to transit better into the work culture.
Pathlight School rolled out a 3-year Individual Transition Plan (“ITP”) for all students in the Secondary School and Vocational Track. Students, parents and teachers were involved in developing individualised post-school goals. Learning journeys, job shadowing and internship programmes to various industries and Institutes of Higher Learning were also organised to expose students to various pathways and smoothen their transition to post-school placements.
Nathanael Choo Ming-De (Primary 5) attained Silver Award, emerging top 20 out of 5,000 participants.
Cheong Cheng Jun (Primary 4) was one of 18 students whose artworks were featured on the National Day Parade 2018 fun packs.
Shahdan Bin Jaafar (Secondary 2) and Ong Kai Xuan (Secondary 3) won the Silver award in the Animation category, and Gold award in the Game category respectively.
The Pathlight School team, comprising Dylan Loi Jian Tong (Secondary 4) and Muhammad Mikhail Ghazi Bin Ridzuan (Secondary 3), was one of 3 Secondary School teams and the only SPED School to win. The Pathlighters created a mobile app called #JioME to create interaction opportunities for people with special needs. The app also helped to raise awareness of the challenges of people on the autism spectrum.
Pathlight School achieved the Vanda Miss Joaquim Award, the second highest accolade for environmental efforts by attaining an overall score of more than 90%.
Student enrolment continues to grow with the strong demand for Pathlight’s brand of education. Pathlight School is working closely with Ministry of Education (“MOE”) to be operationally ready and effective to cater for expansion. This includes plans to build a second purpose-built permanent campus located in the East.
Pathlight School will work on preparing students to be work-ready with more exposure for internship and job shadowing opportunities. One of these platforms is an inclusive worksite, Professor Brawn Café, located at Pathlight School Campus 1. This café will provide authentic job training for Pathlight’s senior students as part of the school’s curriculum to build important employability and life skills from young.
Pathlight School will continue to increase students’ digital literacy and ensure that they engage in lifelong and self-directed learning, so that they are better prepared for life.
Artist Development Programme (“ADP”) was initiated in 2011 to uncover the artistic talents in students and develop their potential. With ADP, student and alumni artists are coached and mentored by professional artists.
The student artist talents are exposed to numerous art media and genres and given opportunities to participate in public exhibitions. Where possible, their works are curated and incorporated into high quality merchandise sold under The Art Faculty Ltd. They earn royalties from sale of their artwork and merchandise.
Student Artist Talents
Exhibitions
Commissioned Work
A month-long community outreach programme in commemoration of World Autism Awareness Day was launched in April 2018. The campaign featured the 1st autism-themed MRT train and four MRT interchange stations in Singapore, all decked out with artworks by ADP student artists.
An initiative by Changi Airport to give space and avenue for expression for Persons with Disabilities from five organisations. ADP artists joined artists from four other special needs organisations in the exhibition of their work.
1st commissioned art piece by Choo Jian Wei and Jonathan Cai. Their artwork is exhibited on the wall mural at HDB Hub.
ADP held an End of Year Exhibition “Perspectives” at The Art Faculty in Enabling Village from 26 October to 26 December 2018. It is a development roadmap to provide ADP artists with opportunities to curate, plan, execute and present their work at their own art exhibition.
In celebration of Sesame Street’s 50th anniversary, ADP artists joined regional celebrities and influencers in decorating Oscar’s trash cans for display at Universal Studios Singapore.
The Information Technology & Design Academy (“ITDA”) is a school within a school. It provides students with meaningful and up-to-date IT and Design courses delivered by professional trainers using autism-friendly pedagogy. It aims to close the digital divide for students with special needs and get them to be work and future-ready.
ITDA trainers conduct courses as part of Pathlight School’s curriculum and oversee IT-related co-curricular activities and school holiday workshops.
In-class Courses Conducted
Students Served
Competitions Participated
With coding being the new literacy, ITDA started several initiatives:
An inaugural coding learning festival, Code Fest, for all students was launched in May 2018. Code Fest exposed students to various coding concepts to supplement what they have learnt during their IT lessons
ITDA was selected to partner Apple to introduce The Swift Accelerator Programme, Apple’s 144-hour comprehensive coding development programme for selected Secondary School students.
Learn for Life eCampus aims to provide 24/7 access to important life skills and engaging online courses for students, families and educators so that learning can be extended beyond school hours and school years.
It offers bite-sized modular content which can be used by students for independent learning. Educators can design and plan the use of such content as part of blended learning and be facilitators of learning. Families can also access the same curated learning content as observers to support their child in areas of skills learning and acquisition.
Online Courses
Courses in Development
Enrolled Learners
