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Activity Guides

STEM: The Main Options

A reference of the main robotics, coding, science and maths options for ages 9–12 in Singapore: school, national programmes, community, or private lessons.

Prepared by The Editorial Team

Updated 29 September 2026

Details checked September 2026. Programmes change, so confirm with the school or provider.

In the table, CCA means co-curricular activity: a group run by a school. Some means at least one school’s own page confirms it; a note in brackets says where the page doesn’t say which age group. A dash means “not covered here”, not that the option doesn’t exist.

Activity MOE school CCA Int’l school CCA National programme or competition Community Private lessons
Robotics Yes Some (age not stated) Yes (National Robotics Competition) Yes Yes
Coding Yes Some (age not stated) Yes (Code for Fun) Yes Yes
Environmental or nature science Yes — — — —
Maths olympiads — — Yes — Yes

School-based (CCA): MOE schools

Common Clubs and Societies CCAs in this area across Singapore primary schools:

  • Robotics Club
  • Infocomm Club (sometimes called ICT Club)
  • Environmental Science Club (sometimes called Green Club)

Robotics Club typically uses LEGO robotics kits, with students building and programming robots to complete set challenges. Infocomm Club typically covers coding and computational thinking, and at some schools extends into multimedia skills. Environmental Science Club covers conservation, sustainability and upcycling projects. Availability and specific focus vary by school.

School-based (CCA): international schools

International schools set their own programmes. One large international school’s activity list includes coding, robotics, an engineering-focused activity and a physics society, among others, but doesn’t say which age groups take part. Check directly with your child’s school what is running this term.

National programmes and competitions (outside any single school)

Code for Fun. A programme from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) that MOE government and government-aided primary schools can apply for each year. As of November 2024, IMDA described it as 10 hours of lessons in computational thinking and coding for upper primary students. Schools’ own pages show it running in 2026, and the level that takes part varies by school.

National Robotics Competition (NRC). Organised by Science Centre Singapore since 1999, with Ministry of Education support. Its Upper Primary category is for ages 10 to 12, with a separate Lower Primary category for ages 7 to 9. Teams build and program LEGO robots to solve challenges on a competition field.

Separately, at least one primary school’s Robotics Club page says its Primary 5 and 6 students represent the school in national-level robotics competitions, without naming a specific one.

Maths olympiads. Some maths olympiads for primary pupils are run by secondary schools, for pupils from Primary 4 to Primary 6. Schools select the pupils who represent them. At one school, both its olympiad programme and its competition selection appear on its Mathematics curriculum page. None of the pages read says whether any school selects pupils through a CCA.

Community

People’s Association community clubs list children’s coding and robotics courses on the OnePA portal, such as a coding and robotics course for ages 7 to 12.

Private lessons

Available from coding schools, robotics academies, and maths enrichment centres: coding by age band, robotics, and competitive maths preparation.

Not covered here

This page doesn’t cover general school-subject science or maths tuition aligned to the MOE syllabus, which is a different thing from the competitions and clubs above. Environmental science competitions, and environmental science activities at international schools, in the community or in private lessons, aren’t covered here. Neither are maths olympiad activities at international schools or in the community.

This page doesn’t say whether any activity is offered as a Direct School Admission talent area. Each secondary school sets its own talent areas for each year’s exercise, so check the school’s own DSA page and MOE’s DSA-Sec information.

Sources