“When I first entered ISSP, the staff and the teachers were very warm and engaged. They're very responsive to my child's needs. After the model class, she was just very happy!” exclaims Nina, the mother of 2-year-old Amari. The preschool model class allowed Nina to witness how International School Saigon Pearl (ISSP) balances traditional concepts of academic growth with opportunities to develop skills and dreams as part of a holistic education that relies on close relationships and communication with families alongside meticulously designed learning programs.
Nina and Amari play at ISSP.
Nina and her husband both teach at esteemed international schools in Saigon and thus understand the importance of their child’s early educational foundation. When deciding where to enroll her, they visited five different schools. “The most important aspect that we were looking for with my daughter was her developing her social and emotional skills. My husband and I are not after only academic excellence … we don't want to put pressure on our child. We focus more on the social and emotional skills of our daughter. Every day when she comes home from school, she is very happy.”
Nina says ISSP’s emphasis on understanding and expressing emotions has led to noticeable growth. “Amari has improved a lot because I can see that she can manage her emotions very well. She can express her thoughts and feelings. She can say if she's happy, she's sad, she's a bit discouraged or embarrassed.”
In addition to fostering this unquantifiable sense of happiness, Nina says she sought a school with a high teacher-to-student ratio that would ensure Amari was receiving personal attention and her particular development needs were being attended to as communicated by the school.
Playing games and doing creative activities are important elements of holistic growth at ISSP.
Amari’s positive experiences and social-emotional development at the school are by careful design. From values to curriculum to parent communication, every element of the ISSP curriculum is carefully orchestrated to ensure the children grow as balanced, healthy, and confident individuals. Students are prepared not just for their next years of school but to be internationally-minded, respectful members of the community who are confident, independent lifelong learners. “The more they feel balanced, the more they feel confident. And when people are confident, they'll be prepared to take a risk with their learning and thus learn,” summarizes Jason Barton, the school’s Director of Learning and Teaching / IB PYP Coordinator.
A key component of whole-child development is instilling an action-oriented mindset. This quality, in particular, is embedded in the school’s curriculum which follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP). It is designed around six themes that support 6-8 week-long Units of Inquiry that introduce students to skills that they can put into practice.
For example, Jason says teachers look at the World Economic Forum’s frequently updated list of top skills required for people in the future when designing classroom activities to ensure the students are developing for the future.
At ISSP, every element of the curriculum is carefully coordinated to ensure that students develop holistically.
Developing for the future should be fun. ISSP’s Early Years Coordinator, Alpha Butil, uses the popular helicopter stories activity to explain. Teachers read a story to the students who then re-tell it, or add their own prompted twist on it before acting it out as a group.
To the kids, it feels no different than playing a game, but they are in fact actively honing creative and critical thinking skills while collaboratively problem-solving. While the students are having fun with the lessons, the teachers are monitoring their development to refine future activities and communicate with parents. “We are always observing the children's interests and skills to support them and develop their social-emotional skills,” Alpha says. Teachers take notes and gather data that they share amongst themselves to assess each student using a shared language engrained in the PYP. Jason adds that this information allows them to look at the children and ask “who are they and are we meeting their needs? Are they growing? Are they developing?”
Faculty meets students and parents at the front of the school to start each day.
Teachers are able to observe and respond to each student in part because of the school’s small size. Likening it to the difference between living in a small country town and a big city, Jason says students at ISSP are not liable to get lost in the crowd. The high teacher-to-student ratio also allows teachers to communicate robustly with parents. Using the Toddle app, teachers share photos, videos, and notes about classroom activities so families can take an active role in their children’s educational journeys and support classroom lessons. Meanwhile, frequent formal and informal opportunities to meet promote discussions of any issues or aspirations while building close relationships.
ISSP builds a community between families and the school through various celebrations, providing opportunities for parents to come to ISSP and witness firsthand how the school fosters the holistic development of their children.
For example, parents participate in parent-teacher conferences, student-led conferences, and direct appointments to better understand the ISSP curriculum, examine milestones and development, and devise actionable plans to address specific needs. Alternatively, when parents drop off and pick up students, they not only get to see the artwork, projects, and games that fill their children’s days but can speak more with the teachers, casually getting to know one another better. Nina notes that recently these pick-ups involve Amari announcing she isn’t ready to go home yet; she wants to stay and continue playing.
A special component of ISSP’s approach to building community amongst families and the school are the regular Celebrations of Learning. Taking numerous forms including the annual Bazaar and monthly assemblies, they provide further opportunities for parents to come to ISSP and see firsthand how the school fosters holistic development while providing students further opportunities to put their skills into action. Similarly, community events such as Teachers’ Appreciation Day and Families Film Night focus on having fun and building the warm, comfortable environment that allows students to feel safe to take action, make mistakes, be themselves and learn.
If Amari is happy, Nina is happy.
After espousing the virtues of ISSP including the dedicated teachers and carefully designed classroom activities, Nina is asked to reflect on the type of person she hopes that Amari grows up to be. “Happy,” she answers simply. “I want her to be a happy child because that lays the foundation for her overall, well-being, and success in life. if she's happy, I know for sure that she will succeed in life.”
International School Saigon Pearl's website
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92 Đ. Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, Phường 22, Bình Thạnh, TPHCMC
