CURRICULUM:

In short, our curriculum motto is
"Caring for, listening to, sharing with and respecting the children."

A good curriculum for all- round development of young children should take into prime consideration their needs and stages of development, including their physical, linguistic, intellectual, social and emotional aspects. It should also acknowledge that learning as a process is best achieved through playing games and actual experience. Thus, children should be given ample opportunity to participate in explorative activities, and to interact with people from different culture and environment.

Based on this principle, Victoria kindergartens and nurseries have, through the years, developed a curriculum that embraces the following visions:

• Respect children's uniqueness in personality, age, ability and experience.
• Provide a learning environment that supports children's development and inquiries.
• Encourage children to learn by doing, experimenting and exploring.
• Create opportunities to facilitate children's language and cultural development.
• Encourage children to accept one another and appreciate each other's work.

LEARNING THROUGH PLAY - PLATFORM OF LEARNING

• Learn from sensory explorations
• Learn through play
• Learn from interactions
• Learn from doing with one's own hands

Kindergarten Programmes (age 3-6)

Life Exploration Experience
The themes of our activities are set up according to children's experience, interests and abilities. Children will learn to explore, observe, judge, differentiate, classify and deduce ideas concerning people, matters and things from their living environment. They will develop concepts on cognition, mathematics and scientific thinking. They will also learn from interaction with other people the way to share, discuss, cooperate, accept, respect and appreciate others. Through taking part in the activities, children will accumulate experience and thus will construct their own knowledge.

Substantial Language Experience
We emphasize a bilingual learning environment. We adopt the "Whole Language Approach" and "Literacy programmes", and take the "National Literacy Strategy" as a reference in our phonics programmes. Innovative Putonghua teaching is employed to strengthen children's bilingual skills. Through interaction in a real and natural environment, with teachers and their peers, children will develop their listening, speaking, reading, writing and communication skills. Through reading, and in conjunction with story telling, discussions, sharing views, expressing opinions, interviews, and presentations, etc., children will gain experience in language use and explorations.

Aesthetic and Creativity Programme
Through taking part in music games like rhythmic activities, playing musical instruments, singing and music appreciation, children will learn to understand variations in sound and rhythm and thus will develop their appreciation of music. They will also have the opportunities to develop their imaginations and creativity, as well as express their feelings through games and movements.
In addition, children will make use of different materials and colours to create, and express their personal opinions and feelings, gaining enjoyable sensory experience. They will acquire various skills by engaging in arts and crafts activities such as drawing, colouring, collage, picture stamping and paper cutting. We also cultivate children's appreciation of beautiful things in life and help them to develop their sense of creativity.

Dynamic Movement Programme
Through physical movements, stabilization exercises and manipulation of objects in physical activities, children will develop their coordination, flexibility and agility skills. Children can express themselves and appreciate the beauty of their bodies through exploration of physical movements. Through taking part in different physical games such as cooperative and athletic games, children will enhance their self-confidence and will help them to express their emotions.

Life Education Programme
Children's self-confidence and self-respect will be developed through different learning activities. Through such enjoyable activities, they will maintain healthy emotions, and at the same time, learn the rules from participating in different activities, and acquire positive attitudes. They will also learn to share and cooperate with others through role-playing. The snack time and cookery activities enable the children to understand the concept of a healthy diet and develop good eating habits and manners.

Guided Reading
To complement with our English Curriculum, we have introduced a structured Guided Reading Programme to our K2 and K3 children. The success of this programme is due in part to the help from our parent volunteers who have participated in our Guided Reading Programme with small groups of children. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all those parents who have been, or are involved in this effective and valuable programme.

Jolly Phonics
We have recently introduced a new phonics programme: Jolly Phonics. The Jolly Phonics programme teaches children the main 42 phonetic sounds of English, not just the sounds of alphabets. After having grasp the basic pronunciations, children will be taken through the stages of blending sounds to form words and then to reading. This programme is designed to encourage children to read aloud and enjoy learning with puppets and soft toys.

Children's Learning and Development Assessment

• Teachers to observe on an ongoing basis.
• Collect individual child's observation record and work during the learning and development process.
• Professionally analyse the children's state of development by way of systematic observations and collection of their work. Record children's growing process and progress to create a children's learning profile.
• Parents and school to work together to promote children's healthy growth.
  

STREAM:

We offer three-year and four-year programmes which meet the needs of children between the age of one year eight months and six years old. The programmes are offered in two different streams: Trilingual Stream (English/Cantonese/Putonghua) and Bilingual Stream.

Trilingual Stream (English/Cantonese/Putonghua):

In the Trilingual Stream, English, Cantonese and Putonghua are used as the medium of instruction. The Chinese curriculum follows the Education Bureau's standard curriculum, whilst the English curriculum is taught through games, songs and activities which give children ample opportunities to develop a range of literacy skills. These activities place strong emphasis on fostering their interest in reading and developing their listening skills and oral expression. Children will also develop the fundamental abilities required for emergent writing. Through learning in small groups, our experienced Putonghua speaking teachers (who have obtained a Grade B in Level 2 or above in the National Putonghua Proficiency Test) will help strengthen the children’s Putonghua and develop their language potential in order to achieve the best learning effect.

Bilingual (English/Putonghua) International Stream:

The Bilingual Stream (English/Putonghua) is conducted in English and Putonghua. The curriculum, in general, is designed for children whose mother tongue is either Putonghua or English. The Chinese curriculum follows the Education Bureau's standard curriculum, whilst the English curriculum is taught through games, songs and activities which give children ample opportunities to develop a range of literacy skills. These activities place strong emphasis on fostering their interest in reading and developing their listening skills and oral expression. Children will also develop the fundamental abilities required for emergent writing. All English teachers are qualified, native speakers.