Here are some of the main factors that early years professionals advise parents to look for when choosing a kindergarten for your child:
· Does the school have qualified and experienced teachers?
· Does the kindergarten strictly adhere to a defined teacher to student ratio?
· Does the school put the safety of your child above all else?
· Does the school use a curriculum? And does this curriculum combine learning with play and a range of interesting activities?
· Does the kindergarten provide safe, nutritious food for your child?
· Does the school have the resources to facilitate your child’s learning experience?
Qualified teachers and management: Our overseas teachers all have teaching qualifications and extensive experience and have all taught in other countries. Our assistant teachers are also well qualified and experienced – some have been at the school since HIK opened in 2006 and were already experienced teachers when they joined the school. The school Principal is qualified in Early Childhood Education to Masters level and has several years’ teaching experience in Vietnam and overseas, ensuring that education always comes first at HIK
Teacher to student ratios: At HIK we make sure that our children are always given plenty of attention. For example, the ratio is three children for every teacher in the nursery, rising to seven children for every teacher for the older kindergarten students. We believe these are the lowest teacher to student ratios in Hanoi
Safety: The safety of our children runs through everything we do. Examples include:
- HIK has annual first aid training for all staff, provided by experienced trainers/doctors from an international clinic in Hanoi
- HIK takes fire prevention very seriously. The whole school is equipped with smoke detectors, alarms and an emergency lighting system. HIK has annual fire safety training for all staff and has regular fire drills practised by the children and staff.
Curriculum: The HIK teaching programme uses the British National Curriculum for Early Years as its main guideline. This is also combined with aspects of curricula from Australia and the United States. In-class activities are designed to reflect our curriculum and individual reports, produced for each child, show progress relative to this curriculum
Food: HIK employs a chef and kitchen staff who prepare our food on the premises. The menu is designed to be tasty and nutritionally balanced. All ingredients are purchased from safe sources, so we can ensure that fruit and vegetables are organic and that our food is prepared in a clean, hygienic environment
Resources: At the school, we have a huge sandpit and Jungle Jim and an undercover play area for when weather conditions don’t allow outside play. Our classrooms environments are comfortable in all conditions and we have extensive learning resources – we have well over 1,000 children’s books!
More information on all these points can be found on this website, or even better, come and see for yourself. Call +84 4 3719 1248 or email contact@hik.edu.vn for an appointment.
