Our Educational Approach
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It is our belief that pedagogical approaches must take account of the way in which children learn and develop as social beings. They must respond to the social, emotional, and individual needs of children, and must be flexible enough to allow children to move at a pace and in a way that preserves their innate curiosity and sense of wonder, which are the basis for lifelong learning.
As educators, our aim is to give students the opportunity to learn in a purposeful way, and to encourage enquiry learning in organic or meaningful contexts. Care and education form a unity in our approach, as education is built on caring interactions with other children and adults. At Kaleide International School, this caring bond will ultimately encompass the world of ideas, the human-made world and the natural world.
We believe children learn best through active participation and experience. When they are allowed and encouraged to follow an interest and construct a plan to learn about it, their intrinsic motivation propels them. Children learn in an integrated, creative and play-based way when the environment is rich in relationships, resources, materials, inspiration, language and support. But this is true only if children feel safe, trusted, and have the possibility to listen and be listened to, to express their differences and be receptive to the differences of others. Learning should be authentic, and not done to please others or in response to coercion.
We want to encourage children to explore ideas about themselves and the world in which they live; to ask questions and to realise that often we need to seek answers for ourselves; to embrace diversity and ambiguity; to acquire a sense of responsibility towards themselves and others; to create meaning in their lives and, in the words of Maxine Greene, ‟to look upon the ordinary with new eyes”.
