Exploration and play are the fun way to learn

A thematic, integrated curriculum that includes both inquiry and fun is the recipe for success at one kindergarten and play school, writes John Brennan.

What strikes you first on entering Wellborn Anglo-Chinese Kindergarten / International Play School in Ma On Shan is how light and – especially for Hong Kong – spacious the campus is.

Two open and airy playgrounds, one for two- to-three-year-olds and one for three- to-six-year-olds, stand in front of a single-storey building that, currently, comfortably houses around 400 children.

Wellborn has clear educational goals for both its international section – for which English is the primary medium of instruction – and its mainstream, taught in Cantonese.

“We have a really well-developed curriculum that’s new and international-based, but which also accommodates Hong Kong expectations,” explains June Charlesworth, Wellborn’s vice-principal. “Children learn to read and write here, which they won’t, necessarily, at a lot of other international kindergartens. Our children leave ready to go on to primary school, whether local or international. Even though many children start at our school with no English, they leave fluent.”

However, Charlesworth stresses that the school does not attempt to simply pump information into its students – an approach she has little faith in, anyway.