Pathlight School opens Tampines campus, Punggol next

Pathlight was founded by ARC in 2004 for children on the autism spectrum aged seven to 18 who are cognitively able to follow the national curriculum, but need structured support to build life and social skills.

More than 200 guests attended its 21st anniversary celebration on Nov 18 held at the Tampines campus, which Education Minister Desmond Lee attended as guest of honour. A musical performance tracing Pathlight’s journey since 2004 was put up by students, staff, alumni and parents.

At the event, Ms Phua said the Tampines campus’ opening is “a significant milestone”, bringing Pathlight’s model to the eastern part of Singapore.

She laid out broader ambitions for Pathlight’s campus in the Punggol Digital District to be not just another school, but also a “lifelong learning education village” that would support individuals with autism from early childhood through adulthood.

This includes having a space that will involve autism and healthcare specialists, and provide social-emotional learning, physical fitness programmes, mental health support for students and life planning services for families.

Ms Phua also hopes for deeper corporate partnerships to build talent pipelines, and for the campus to be integrated with the community through shared facilities, social enterprise hubs and volunteer programmes.

“This vision addresses a critical gap in the special education landscape,” she said. “Many students from special education schools face a ‘cliff’ in learning once formal schooling ends.”

Ms Phua said that over the years, Pathlight has pioneered programmes such as placing students in satellite classrooms in mainstream schools to foster social and, where possible, academic integration.

Mr Lee said this has evolved into today’s partnerships between 29 general education and 24 special education schools.

He also lauded Pathlight’s “first commercially viable” Artist Development Programme, which allows students’ works to be sold by The Art Faculty, another ARC social enterprise that gives students income and visibility through royalties from their work.

Homemaker Yong Shu Ya, 45, moved her son, now in Primary 2, to Pathlight’s Tampines campus from one of its Ang Mo Kio sites in January.

Instead of waking up at 5.30am to catch the school bus, her son can now wake up at 7am, as school is now a 10-minute bus ride away from their home in Tampines.

She added that Pathlight offers her son more guidance compared with mainstream schools, with its smaller class sizes.

While he was falling behind his peers in Kindergarten 2, her son has grown confident in speaking since joining Pathlight, said Ms Yong.

“He dares to express himself now,” she said.