Giving children control over their learning

Hong Kong parents are changing their perception of early education and are seeking play-based learning classes for their children – something many new international kindergartens aim to provide. “We want the children to be co-creators of their learning. That is an important part of our philosophy,” says David Shirley, principal of the newly opened Avendale International Kindergarten which runs a curriculum inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach.

Reggio Emilia believes that children must have some control over their learning. They should learn by using their senses, and be encouraged to express themselves. “It’s a child-centred approach – a play-based approach in which the curriculum merges with the children’s interests,” Shirley says. “We take those interests and adapt the curriculum through our observations to cater to the children’s needs.”

Shirley has lived in Hong Kong for 12 years and was previously head of primary, and then the acting head of school, at the Australian International School. He is emphatic that play-based learning is not a chaotic free-for-all, but instead a structured process.

“Our curriculum is emergent, so we take note of the interests of the children. But we also use source materials like the Hong Kong Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide and the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, which is standard in the UK. People sometimes mistakenly think that a Reggio approach has no curriculum. But you need to have a really good knowledge of curriculum documents – if you don’t know the source documents, it becomes a challenge.”