ISF Academy
New kindergarten section provides children with a bilingual education from the onset.
It was heart-warming to see the reaction of students of Independent School Foundation (ISF) Academy Pre-School upon Dr Malcolm Pritchard’s arrival. The three- and four- year olds ran up to shake hands and greet him noisily in Putonghua, finding it funny that they were speaking Chinese to a foreigner.
Pritchard, who is executive director of the pre-school and head of school at ISF Academy, is fluent in Chinese and, as such, a good advertisement for an approach which promises students a fully bilingual education.
“This is both achievable and extremely beneficial to the children and, in fact, many of them are trilingual,” he says.
Founded by the Independent School Foundation, which at the time was chaired by Hong Kong’s Nobel Prize winning physicist Charles Kao, the ISF Academy was launched in 2003 to offer independent bilingual primary and secondary education. The foundation always intended to teach kindergarten pupils too, and the preschool for ages three and four finally opened last year.
However, there is no “through train”, so pre-school students still have to apply anew for admittance to the foundation year at the ISF Academy, where they start at around age five. Clearly, though, a proven ability to speak both Chinese and English, and familiarity with the school’s overall philosophy is a definite advantage.
ISF uses the International Primary Curriculum (IPC), with the goal of instilling a natural curiosity, critical thinking, and a love of learning. “I want children to come to school and like being here, to be cheerful and love learning,” Pritchard says.
