Cedars, a renowned American educationalist and professor of psychology, once said, "People, like ceramics, form the shape of a lifetime when they are children. Early childhood is like the clay in which ceramics are made, and the kind of education given makes the dimensional form."
A meaningful educational journey often begins at an early age, not only for the inculcation of academic knowledge, but also as an important period in life for the development of personal character and social interaction.
At Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten, we offer comprehensive and sustainable development options for young children at an early age, both in terms of multicultural immersion and in the areas of personal character and social development.
Today we have invited Ms. Caroline Luo, Deputy Head of Early Years and IB PYP Coordinator, to share more details on our Kindergarten curriculum and how we work create a high quality and holistic start in life for our young learners through a fun and educational approach to develop lifelong learners out of our children.
· Deputy Academic Head of Early Years & PYP Coordinator
· Founding team member of Ardingly College Zhongshan
· Former PYP Coordinator and Director of Foreign Affairs at
Shenzhen Oriental English College
· IBO Certified Teacher in Categories C1-C3
· IB Teacher and coordinator for more than 16 years
· Cambridge Qualified Assessment Examiner
Hello, my name is Caroline and I am delighted to be here today to share some of our thoughts and details with you on our Early Years Program at Ardingly College Zhongshan.
As a school that aspires to support our children now and fully prepare them for the future, we approach education in a holistic way guided by research based approaches from Kindergarten through Senior High School.
Today I will be sharing our philosophy and curriculum framework, which is a blend of Chinese and Western cultures and educational approaches, with a focus on "language development and an immersive environment, a transdisciplinary learning approach, emphasis on Personal, Social and Physical Education, experiential learning, and developing core and life skills. We provide a holistic approach to education.
Immersive Environments
Multilingual Thinking and Development
Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten aims to create a multilingual learning environment for all children. With English as the primary language of communication, we provide an English immersion environment for children to achieve the goal of being bilingual in both English and Chinese by Grade 1. To provide a truly immersive environment the language must be used not only in the lesson, but throughout transition times, snack times, both inside the classroom and in the public areas of the campus. This is the only way to really ensure an immersive language environment for students. In addition, we provide Spanish language exploration as our 3rd language, creating additional opportunities for students and providing access to over 70% of the worlds languages.
On campus, we not only prioritise creating a multilingual environment for our students, but we also provide both pedagogical and institutional support to ensure that students are fully supported in their language learning journey. For example, our teachers complete ongoing professional development, attend our pre-semester training programme, and continue to develop themselves professionally. Our management, observation, professional development opportunities and curriculum all support an immersive learning environment for our students.
Through a series of Chinese culture topic based exploratory activities, children will acquire a diverse range of knowledge related to Chinese culture and virtues and will then learn to apply these skills in real-life situations. Like our foreign language programmes, our Chinese units of inquiry are conducted over a period of several weeks or months using a project-based approach to learning, which allows students to make connections between what they learn in the classroom to things they see, feel and experience in the real world. This allows children to fully integrate their transdisciplinary knowledge and allow children to feel more comfortable exploring and being more independent. Our teachers are there to challenge, questions, encourage and support every child in developing creative, critical, and independent thinking and problem-solving skills.
We also offer unique Chinese cultural topics such as Chinese history and festivals, Chinese art, local Guangdong culture, calligraphy, and carpentry to help children learn more about their own rich cultural heritage and develop a deep sense of Chinese cultural heritage and national identity.
Exploratory Learning
Transdisciplinary Inquiry
Our Kindergarten curriculum framework incorporates the core logic of the IB PYP by encouraging children to explore different themes through child-centred play, an inquiry-based approach to learning, authentic real-world experiences, and targeted learning and teaching activities that allow children to learn about themselves and the world around them.
Children will learn and explore through our six transdisciplinary themes making up our different units of inquiry (UOI) (who we are, where we are in space and time, how we express ourselves, how the world works, how we organise ourselves, and sharing the planet), through this transdisciplinary approach we are able to break down traditional subject boundaries and organically integrate core knowledge from across the disciplines of Language, Social Studies, Mathematics and Logic, Science, Arts, and Personal, Social, and Physical Education to design individualised learning programmes for children according to their age and ability.
Physical Exercise
Combining Chinese and International Standards
Physical exercise plays a vital role in the development of young children at all stages. We encourage students to be active and interact with their peers and to learn about teamwork and cooperation through sport.
We will employ a dedicated PE teacher to develop a PE learning programme for our students to develop core physical skills such as coordination, body control and gross motor development. Children will be supported and encouraged by their teachers throughout this process to ensure they fully understand the importance of physical activity, which includes learning about healthy lifestyles, healthy food choices and working to combine what they learn at school with what they are able to do and connect with at home.
It is worth mentioning that physical education in the early years not only incorporates the Chinese 3-6 years old Learning and Development Guidelines, but also incorporate physical activities that meet European and American physical fitness standards into the curriculum for all age groups, which covers sports, games and equipment, aiming to provide breadth and depth in our programme and maximising the development of children’s gross and fine motor skills.
Our campus has been architecturally designed with several themed activity areas, including a water play area, sand area, gardening area, running area and free play area. Each day's physical education or outdoor activities will make use of the different areas to allow for more creative exploration.
The children will be free to run around in a technology inspired campus that supports exploring, playing, and outdoor play with their best friends.
Integrated Practice
Empowered by Art and Science
As an essential part of our kindergarten classroom is STEAM-Based Learning which integrates multiple areas into several early childhood exploration activities, ensuring that children will experience a unique inquiry-based learning experience in the classroom.
STEAM integrates science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in a task-driven, process-based, multi-technology, interdisciplinary education that is driven by authentic problem solving. By acquiring basic subject knowledge and skills, children are able to take simple ideas and thoughts and develop them into reality through practical problem-solving.
Research consistently shows that students who are exposed to the arts and an interdisciplinary curriculum from an early age perform better in maths, science and other core subjects, and have greater creative and critical thinking skills.
The process of self-expression and creative practice is particularly important in the process of interdisciplinary exploration. We will use a fun and educational approach to encourage children to actively put their ideas into practice. Through the use of imagination, creativity, reasoning skills and effective communication, we try to solve problems or challenges on their own.
Performing arts, design, creative and artistic thinking exercises allow children to explore and engage with diverse media and materials, providing opportunities to encourage them to share ideas and feelings through a variety of activities such as art, music, movement, dance and role play.
Personal Socialisation
Caring for Children’s Psychological Development
The personal, social and emotional development of Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten includes the following five broad areas:
Helping young children develop a positive perception of themselves and others
Recognising and expressing their feelings in a healthy way
Build positive, healthy and respectful relationships with others
Develop social skills and be able to better manage their emotions
Understand appropriate behaviour in groups and have confidence in their own abilities
We integrate social and emotional development into the daily activities of the kindergarten. Our professionally trained teachers provide positive and research-based guidance to students when they feel angry, overwhelmed, or act out, we then help support children in dealing with their problems and emotions, allows children to reflect and explore, and learn additional positive and healthy ways of expressing themselves.
In addition, special programmes related to social studies, games, experiments, writing, drama and art activities are organised around different holidays and seasons to help children to have a clear and tangible sense of the world around them.
Reading Space
Developing Core Skills
Developing good reading habits is particularly important at the Kindergarten level. During the day, teachers give children plenty of free reading time and divide the class into small groups for interactive listening and reading exploration activities. Each child is able to develop concentration, confidence and thinking skills through group exploration, as well as personalised learning development for the students at Ardingly College Zhongshan Kindergarten.
Reading in English and Chinese is an important part of the classroom experience, and the Learning Corner and Library will help children to explore and learn to develop a lifelong love of reading and learning. In the well-lit learning corner or library, children can experience the joy of reading and awaken their inner desire for knowledge.
Daily Activities
An organic and Exciting Combination
The daily activities are carefully designed and effectively implemented by the teaching and research team. Whether it is balancing theory and practice, or the integration of the IB PYP in a multicultural environment, we are able to provide a holistic approach to support the development of our children.
In addition, our teachers will make full use of the excellent indoor and outdoor environment at Ardingly College Zhongshan to create a highly interactive programme to allow children to use all their senses. The children's activities during the day will be able to take place in any area of the campus, which means that the children will be rewarded with a learning journey that goes beyond the ordinary classroom.
I have been delighted to be able to share some details from our programme with you today. As the Deputy Academic Head of the Kindergarten, it is my sincere hope that through a research based, holistic and integrated curriculum that blends the best of Chinese and Western cultures, along with our team of dedicated, professional and well-trained teachers, we look forward to providing each child a fantastic journey.
We all understand that the early years are particularly important in guiding and shaping our children, and that home education, combined with exploratory learning at school, will work together to support the development of the whole child.
That's all I have to share today. I hope to share more of my thoughts on education and the importance of the IB system with you and every parent through our school events, and I hope that through face-to-face communication with our parents we can share our thoughts, interests, and philosophies, and work together to create the most suitable programme for every child at Ardingly College Zhongshan.
