Busy Bees Kindergarten

Busy Bees was founded by HKUST parents who desired a high-quality, bilingual pre-school for their children in campus. Efforts toward establishment of a Kindergarten began shortly after this campus opened. Busy Bees Kindergarten (then Childcare Centre) was officially opened in November 1998 and has since been licensed under the Department of Education, which enables the school to have morning and afternoon sessions. Busy Bees Kindergarten has the following three beliefs:

• Learning occurs through social interaction and play. The role of the teachers is to create a nurturing, co-operative classroom environment where individuals can explore, discover and learn. Materials and activities are designed to foster active learning and creativity. Teachers and parents interact with and guide children where appropriate, as well as organize group activities in which children may participate.

• A school should reflect the environment and serve the community in which it operates. As part of a diverse University community, Busy Bees will strive to create a multicultural learning environment where children of different ethnicities and nationalities can interact and learn in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Given Hong Kong's unique intersection of Chinese and Western cultures, it serves as the foundation for Busy Bees. Consistent with this foundation, Busy Bees will strive to create a bilingual environment in which both English and Putonghua are used.

• Family is an integral part of a child's total development. Parents and teachers should work jointly for the good of each child. Parents whose children are enrolled at Busy Bees are invited to participate as Parent Helpers in the classroom on a regular basis. This will reduce the child/adult ratio and make a greater range of learning experiences available to the children. All parents are encouraged to share responsibility for these classroom duty days.

Busy Bees implements a child centred approach to learning through play. The Busy Bees curriculum uses guidance from the UK Foundation stage curriculum six areas of learning, personal, social and emotional; communication, language and literacy; mathematical development; knowledge and understanding of the world; physical development and creative development. The curriculum is introduced to the children through a variety of projects, and children are encouraged to develop these projects by working in partnership with their teachers. The children are also made aware of the diversity of cultures around them through the toys and equipment available. Various festivals are also highlighted throughout the year.

Busy Bees is a Bilingual Kindergarten English/Putonghua. In order to achieve this, the teachers alternate language for certain areas such as register, story time and crafts each day. The early years are a crucial time for children to develop their language skills, and this can be said for both first and second language learning. Busy Bees pays particular attention to children's language skills and emphasis is placed on developing them. This is achieved by careful planning for future learning based on continual observation, assessments of individual children's language skills and teachers and parents working together. We also have a variety of toys and equipment which are also chosen specifically for language development.

At Busy Bees we understand that learning does not just happen in the classroom. With this in mind we organise outings to places of interest around Hong Kong approximately once per month. These outings may tie into the project of that month or be chosen because of their suitability to the ages of the children. Places we have visited are:

• Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens
• Sai Kung Country Park, Pak Tam Cheung.
• Science Museum.
• Police Dog Unit.
• Brighter Smiles Playland.

We also understand the importance of individuals cultures and celebrate a variety of festivals with the children such as Eid, Divali, Chinese New Year, Christmas as well as recognising children's own birthdays.