As a school, we hold value on the home-school partnership, and work together for the development of the individual child. Prospective parents have a selection of ways to commence that journey with us; either by attending an on-campus Information Session, a private tour, our annual Open Day or at the Hong Kong Kindergarten Fair, organised by South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper.

On  April 29 Mrs Jean Jeffries, Acting Co-Principal of Early Childhood Education (ECE) sat on the panel discussion addressing the meaningful need for “play, sleep and eat” for the young. During the discussion convened by Ruth Benny, Founder of TopSchools, which was the co-organiser of the fair, attending parents received advice from the highly experienced and trained ECE experts. Mrs Jeffries holds a Diploma of Teaching from Brisbane Kindergarten Teachers College and a Bachelor of Early Childhood Education from University of South Australia, being a practitioner for over 35 years. Her experience spans teaching both children and adults in diverse settings in different parts of Australia and Singapore, and has enjoyed teaching at Yew Chung International School (YCIS) for eight years. Her passion rests with the very young, with a particular interest ensuring that young children have access to respectful, child-centred, play-based emergent curriculums.Mrs Jeffries also addressed the huge crowds of parents with the topic of “What 21st Century Skills Does your Child Need?” This is a thought-provoking question to really help parents think ahead and imagine the world in 10 – 20 years. The presentation began with old familiar images of the first computers and big chunky mobile phones that were on sale during the mid-1990s. In just 25 years innovation and technology, in many areas, have advanced forwards at tremendous rates. Our work places, communication styles and methods of thinking are progressive, compared to our elders’, which leads to the question about how we take education as the responsible tool for preparing our children.Mrs Jeffries illustrated with examples and photographs of real situations that take place on-campus in our international kindergartens in Hong Kong, and help stimulate the following within every child:

• Communication
• Social and cultural awareness
• Collaboration
• Problem-solving
• Persistence/grit 
• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Critical thinking/problem solving
• Initiative
• Adaptability
• Risk Taking

With the trusted advisors, and the YCIS Admissions team on hand at the school’s booth for the event, parents were able to gain the first important steps towards school choice.