Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten will follow the IB PYP framework, combining the essence of Chinese and Western pedagogies. The aim of the IB PYP is to provide students with an inquiry-based transdisciplinary framework incorporating 6 Units of Inquiry. Additionally, we supplement our programme with the UK EYFS standards for learning, development and care, which prioritises A unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments and Learning and Developing. Lastly, we fully align with the Chinese Kindergarten 3 to 6 year-old guidelines which are crucial to building a strong foundation in Chinese culture and development of each child.
Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten welcomes all the children aged from 18 months to six years old. We’re dedicated to shaping and cultivating pupils who will become global citizens with profound appreciation for Chinese culture and a strong sense of national identity, who are freely and easily able to navigate through a multitude of cultural spaces, and become the leaders and creators of the future, equipped with creative and positive ambitions for the world.
Lifelong Learning to Cultivate All-round Global Citizens
We use a play based, inquiry approach, make connections to the real world and explore multiple subjects in a transdisciplinary approach connected by a common unit of inquiry. This allows each of our students to explore, question, experiment, and understand things both inside and outside their classroom and to promote their understanding of the world around them. Our approach also provides students with both the knowledge and skills needed in life through our inquiry learning cycle. We want every child to enjoy their kindergarten life and grow into a lifelong learner.
Schools are places for children to discover their interests and develop their talents. We work to support students in finding their unique talents and individual interests and where those intersect, we develop, refine, and enhance those areas. In Kindergarten, we provide children with a challenging and adventurous environment that encourages them to discover the world around them and develop a love of learning from an early age. By learning about the world around them, children learn to respect the planet and everything on it.
Cultivating young children with an international perspective will be an important skill in the future. With the rapid development of science and technology it will become increasingly more common and easier for people from different countries and regions to communicate and collaborate in the future. This requires children to be exposed to different cultures from an early age, understand the development of the world, develop and understand different perspectives, and learn to share and exchange opinions with others. Learning these skills at a young age will provide our students with a unique advantage and ensure there is no limit to where our children can work and with whom they can communicate and collaborate with in the future.
Immersive Multilingual Development
Learning to be Bilingual, Trilingual or even multilingual can enhance children's brain development by allowing them to think about problems in more than one way and understand issues in a deeper more well-rounded approach. What they learn and are exposed to at a younger age will support them in their quest to learn and master languages as they continue to get older. Learning a language at an early age is not done through repetition and drills but by being exposed to high quality language in an immersive environment which then allows children to develop these language and communication skills in a natural way. The long-term results, are children who have a much wider vocabulary and a stronger foundation on which to build on in the future.
Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten creates a multilingual learning environment. We use English as the main communication language. To ensure a truly authentic immersive environment teachers remain in English during lesson time, meals, free play or exploration time. The emphasis on English throughout most of the day except for Chinese Inquiry time ensures that children are able to easily understand and communicate in both English and Chinese and that students develop language naturally and not through drilling or rote memorisation.
In addition, we will provide children with the additional language of Spanish to create opportunities for enlightenment in a second foreign language. Through multilingual immersive learning, children can develop the skills to think in different languages, problem solve in different languages, communicate with people from all over the world, and go into the future with an advantage over their peers.
Inquiry Based Transdisciplinary Exploration
The kindergarten curriculum and framework incorporate the core elements of the IB PYP, and we encourage children to explore different themes, areas, and materials through child-centred play and inquiry, authentic scenarios and items, and targeted learning and activities. We allow children to understand themselves and the world around them through independent and guided exploration in a variety of areas.
Throughout each day the children will be engaged in play-based learning & transdisciplinary inquiry within an environment that has been carefully planned for by our expert teachers.
Our Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten environment fosters curiosity, critical thinking, creativity and promotes discovery & exploration by making learning challenging and relevant to the ‘world around them’. Children’s prior knowledge, previous learning and individual interests are used from the start and then based on student’s strengths, experiences, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, built upon from there. Children are supported and encouraged to become independent learners and creatively critical thinkers. Our goal is to ensure all children enjoy their kindergarten experience and become lifelong learners.
There are six transdisciplinary themes that make up the Units of Inquiry (UOI) : Who we are, Where we are in place and time, How we express ourselves, How the world works, How we organize ourselves, Sharing the planet. This Transdisciplinary approach while sharing a common theme breaks down traditional standalone subjects and integrates Language, Social Studies, Logic, Art, Science, and Personal, Social, Physical education (PSPE) according to ability, interest, and individual contexts allowing students to think for themselves, take responsibility for their own learning and provide them an action point to continue to develop in a holistic way.
The Space and Environment Encourage Infinite Exploration
We always encourage children to look up at the stars, look far and wide, and to explore and discover all the unknown possibilities. Through our architectural design, we have integrated our inquiry and exploratory curriculum, and ‘space exploration’ as our inspiration to provide an indoor-outdoor learning environment that allows children to be creative, to explore, and to allow their imagination to be endless, in this way the space, environment, and curriculum all work to extend and enhance imagination and learning.
The kindergarten campus is reminiscent of a space capsule that represents the exploration and longing for the future. It represents our vision of creating a space that allows for unlimited imagination for children and teachers. The interior is also designed with the universe in mind, using Mars orange, space grey, sky blue and other elements contributing to the space aesthetic. The colour tone, overall space, design details, and teaching materials all help reflect our exploratory vision world-class design.
Outdoor Spaces Inspire the Natural Creativity
Different from the traditional campus, Ardingly College Zhongshan seeks to provide students with diverse, creative, and flexible educational spaces. We have used the entire campus including the outdoor areas and the landscaping to support our vision of providing flexible educational spaces that supports students learning and academic needs, spaces for reflection and mindfulness, areas for communication, play, sports, and socialisation.
In the outdoor spaces on the ground level there are seven key areas that were developed to achieve a diversity of exploration:
Natural exploration and discovery are an integral part of students development. Having an area that is rich in plant, tree, and insect diversity allows students to have a natural and tranquil area to explore or relax.
The dramatic area features outdoor props, scenes and other equipment to allow students to create outdoor performances. Everyone from our youngest learners to our oldest students are able to play, develop, and perform.
The unique area is a space for students to explore and discover things in the natural environment through all of their senses. A place with sand, water, and nature all providing the material for students to have a multi sensorial experience.
The quiet reading, reflection, and learning area extends to the outdoor environment and has books, blankets, comfortable chairs, a lounge area with lots of sunshine. It is a perfect area for students to come for a relaxing comfortable space to unwind.
Efficient Multi-Channel Home-school Communication
We know that efficient home-school communication can support and enhance a child's growth and development. Your child’s teachers are not only there to educate and support your child, but to also work as a partner to parents and families. They are there to provide professional support and advice, to work together with families to make suggestions and comprehensive plans for the development of each individual child. We will strive to achieve effective and efficient communication and collaboration through some of the following methods:
Home-School Communication Platform
Teachers will update parents with photos or videos of their child everyday using the school app. Additionally there will be a midweek update provided to parents. Our app is the main way our families and teachers communicate with each other and where parents can ask questions, discuss issues with their child’s teachers, request leave or discuss other issues.
A one-on-one parent-teacher meeting is held each semester for each student. Parents, their Homeroom Teacher and the Expat Teacher participate together. Through these face-to-face meetings, parents can better understand the growth and development of their child, refine and adjust their child’s individual development plan, and provide and share feedback on the child.
Several open days for current students are held every semester (subject to local Epidemic prevention guidelines). We will invite parents to join the class, participate in the learning together with their child, act as a "teacher for the day", read stories together, play games and join activities together with their child, complete community service projects together, and join our field day events.
Parent Teacher Association
We encourage a strong connection between our school and our families. This is one reason why several parents from each class are invited to join our PTA which meets monthly and discusses ongoing issues in the school along with new initiatives and programmes we offer. Parents can discuss field trips, events and other areas of collaboration.
At Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten we believe in openness, transparency, and creating a school where all our families and children feel welcome.
We have a coffee area in our school, and we will hold regular, parent academies, events, teacher sharing sessions, Q&A sessions and other special events throughout the semester where parents can come, share, and learn together. This area also provides a space for parents to relax, bring a book, do some work, or socialise while their child is learning. Our goal is to provide a warm, open, and inviting campus where both our children but also our families feel at home.
