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John Brennan

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.
“The curriculum is thematic, integrated, inquiry- and play-based, and involves a lot of exploration,” she says. “All the children learn in a fun way, with a lot of fun activities. Our interactive whiteboards, for example, are fantastic because they allow children to play games on a big screen.
“Second language-learners especially, they are not here to learn English. Their parents want them to learn it, but the kids just want to play. If you just sit them down in front of a book and say: ‘Write this, do this and do this’, they won’t learn and they won’t be happy. But if they are playing, and they don’t realise they are learning, they will learn.
“By K3, our children are writing in their journals and they can phonetically blend and segment words so they can read. There’s no homework but they do take home special reading programme books each weekend that they read with their parents and comment on and enjoy. It’s all about enjoying learning,” Charlesworth adds.
The successful emphasis that Wellborn places on fun is something that has been picked up on by those outside the school as well. Last year, English teacher Bill Avinou coached a 20-strong group of its pupils to success in a Hong Kong-wide singing contest organised by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals.
Along with the grand prize, the young performers also won the awards for articulation and diction, and for musicianship.
“One of the things the judges were very happy about was to see that the kids were enjoying themselves,” Avinou says. “Hong Kong can be a pretty competitive place but we’ve tried to emphasise to the children that it’s the taking part that is the main thing and we’ve tried to get them just to enjoy it and have fun with it. Obviously, it was great to win, and we’re all happy about that, but that wasn’t the main thing.”
K1 teacher Jillian McCormick, who has been with Wellborn for six years, following three years spent teaching in South Korea, was delighted to help Avinou prepare the school’s singers for their triumphant performances.
“I love being in the classroom and I love being with the children and seeing their progress. The same with the singing competition,” she says.
Wellborn’s 30,000-square-foot campus allows for facilities such as music rooms, an outside area set aside as an organic farm, and spacious classrooms.
“Generally there are around 30 in a class, though some classes are smaller,” Charlesworth says.
Children attend Wellborn for either half-days of three hours and 15 minutes, or whole-days of seven hours and 45 minutes, which includes some nap time.
Charlesworth explains a little of what goes into these schedules.
“The international classes are taught in English, with 20 minutes of Putonghua each day. After their nap time, the whole-day international classes can choose to do an hour’s Chinese programme, an hour of fun English activities, or an hour’s Japanese programme, as we have some Japanese students here.
“The mainstream classes are all in Cantonese, with 20 minutes of Putonghua each day, and with the English oral teachers going into the K2 and K3 classes for an hour-and-a-half each day.
“This year we have also introduced the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) approach to our teaching. This combines all these disciplines in a very practical and fun way.”
Charlesworth quotes the example of a recent class exercise in which the children had to make a circular column, a triangular column and a square column and find out which one held the most books. “The kids loved it and tried it again and again and again,” she says.
“We also do a lot of SEAL (social and emotional aspects of learning) activities. So the children learn about their feelings and their emotions; about feeling happy or sad and about working together in a team. This comes into play in the music, and the show-and-tell and the speaking-and-listening activities we do, in which the children learn to perform in front of their class, while everyone supports them,” Charlesworth adds.
“All the children learn to support each other and be strong and resilient about any setbacks that occur. What they’ve learned here with the SEAL programme can help them to be strong and capable when they go on to their primary and secondary schools.”
Charlesworth says there is a wide range of possibilities open to children who “graduate” from Wellborn.
“A lot go to DSS schools, such as Wong Kam Fai, run in association with the Baptist University, St. Margaret’s and Pui Kiu College, and international schools such as Renaissance College and Sha Tin Junior ESF, as well as the best local schools.”


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


Exploration and play are the fun way to learn

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A thematic, integrated curriculum that includes both inquiry and fun is the recipe for success at one kindergarten and play school.

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