“One of my favourite things is when students actually say, ‘I am an artist’ or ‘I am a dancer’. When children believe something, they can do it. So, Little Basel is really an echo of what students believe in themselves.”

Over 2,200 people attended Little Basel, which featured prestigious guests like Hong Kong actor Alex Fong. There were more than 25 live art workshop stations across a variety of creative genres like fine art, music, dance and theatre.

From dance workshops hosted by the Hong Kong ballet, to Virtual Reality gaming studios by Dalton Learning Lab, the amount of impressive artwork on display seemed never-ending.

This was all made possible thanks to the sheer size of the DSHK school space. According to Leaven - the campus – located in the West Kowloon Cultural District -originally a mix-use space was instead converted into what is probably the most impressive early-years learning space in the entire city.

DSHK has seemingly unlimited state-of-the-art facilities, which include an indoor and covered play area, library and learning space, multiple drama/dance/music practice rooms; multiple science and robotics rooms; and a professional development centre.

However, Leaven, who has over 30 years of education experience in both the US and the mainland, said that what makes DSHK special isn’t the campus or the facilities, but rather, the school’s unique educational philosophy.

“We don’t simply teach subjects out of a textbook – we focus on getting students to look at inquiry as a broader concept,” said Leaven. “For example, we recently had the students engage in a project on bridges, which required them to look at the scientific components, mathematical components, artistic components and everything else that might go into building a bridge.”

A big focus, Leaven says, is for teachers to put children in position to find answers to problems by themselves, and to abide by the school’s motto: “I am not led, I lead.”

“For too long education has been about adults creating checklists and tests, rather than engaging with children and trusting them to decide what they believe in, and discover who they really are,” Leaven said. “We give them a vision for possibility and work with them to achieve individual learning goals.”

Another thing that separates DSHK from other schools is its dual-language curriculum.

“We aren’t just a bilingual school, we are a dual-language school, which means we want all of our students to be able to speak, read and write in both English and Putonghua,” said Leaven, who added that DSHK tries to incorporate the strengths of both Eastern and Western teaching philosophies. “And we don’t just want them to be able to master the languages, but to honour different languages and cultures as well.”

Leaven said hiring teachers qualified to teach this curriculum is a “long and arduous process”.

“They can’t just be strong candidates, that is the bare minimum. They have to be willing to learn as well,” he said.

The school is now accepting applications for playgroup up through primary. There is a kindergarten campus on Hong Kong Island known as Little Dalton Kindergarten, located in Pok Fu Lam, which Leaven describes as “intimate and cozy”.

DSHK is also looking to provide an all-through school for its students and, to that end, is working tirelessly with the Hong Kong Education Bureau to find a site for a secondary school. Although this has been a long and painstaking process, Leaven is optimistic that this will happen one day.

In addition, with more than 200 Dalton Schools worldwide, DSHK students will be introduced into one of the largest network of successful students in the entire world.