House of Knowledge Victoria Gardens Campus was recently honored to have invited the school founders, Mr. Farshad Danicek and Mrs. Xia Qing, to hold the on-campus Open Day as main speakers.
As one of the best Reggio Emilia schools in China and as the first kindergarten that introduced the Reggio Emilia philosophy to Beijing in the year 2007, the founders have shared their many experiences relating to how the school establishes and manages the school system under a most child-centered way in the decades.
Now let’s take a look and get to know some essential key facts of House of Knowledge and the Reggio Emilia learning approach that the school spares no efforts to create the most creative and inspiring environment for the students!
1、A Child Has Three Teachers
■ The Reggio Emilia approach sees parents as 1st, teachers as 2nd, and the classroom as the 3rd teacher of every child. For this reason, the environment plays a large role in our children’s learning path. At House of Knowledge, our teachers demonstrate to our children, that their work is important, unique, and valuable. Our children have the chance to actively design their learning environment and make changes by placing their ideas and artwork in the Piazza (the place to meet in any Reggio Emilia Kindergarten), classrooms, floors, and playground.
◎Pictures- children decorating the campus after school-opening
■ Imagine how proud a child feels by entering HoK and sees their own work greeting them every morning. Rather than walking into a simple lobby, the students walk in and are immediately reminded this is ours. As a result, in a Reggio Emilia environment, the children are always the owners of their learning and are the witnesses of their history at HoK. 
◎Pictures- Children decorating their classrooms
2、Building positive relationships
■ Learning together and from each other is one of the core elements of the Reggio Emilia approach. At the beginning of the school year, our parents, children, and our teachers are working together to form a class bond and group identity. It can be as simple as giving our children the opportunity to place pictures of their parents and other loved ones in their classroom or deciding together how to name the new classroom. Whatever it takes, the message is the same: We are a group. We are together. We will help each other.
3、Building Long-Term Community Engagements
■ In Reggio Emilia’s philosophy, we believe parents are the first teachers of their children- the parents always set an unpredictable influence on the children’s Early Years childhood. Communication between parents and schools has always been an important part of education and is something that we value with our HoK community members. Once children are enrolled, parents are encouraged to communicate and cooperate throughout the year to best support the student’s development.
■ After the opening of the school, House of Knowledge has held its PVA (Parent Volunteer Association) meetings already to discuss the important topics that parents value. We establish the PVA every year to come together and discuss all key issues related to better support the children to grow up and enjoy their campus life. Many activities and events are celebrated among the House of Knowledge community members so we ensure we are connected and bonded closely through the entire year.
The latest PVA meeting was about children’s food testing as House of Knowledge is devoted to providing high quality and healthy food for our children. We ensure each step meets the highest possible level of food safety standards and having children take in well nutrition-balanced food.
4、Get To Know More About Us
■ With the new chapter of the new academic school year has started, we welcome all parents who are interested to know more about the authentic “child-centered” Reggio Emilia philosophy to take a campus tour with us and get to know more about us. More activities and seminars will follow this month which would enrich and benefit parents’ knowledge of the Early Years development.
Watch our latest school official video to learn more about our programs, scan our QR code to reserve a campus tour, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
◎Click to watch our latest school official video 