The proverbial, Today’s learners are tomorrow’s movers and shakers explain the potential of a rightfully educated individual. Education is the premise of progress, of an individual, a society, and a nation itself. It empowers an individual’s life and employability and brings down the resentment in society. Nevertheless, between individual growth, change in society, and its realization stands the need for education. However, the question here is, what sort of education? Be it an educational institution, the greatest concern of everyone should be to help students learn better and more. It has to be ensured that what students learn in the classroom, or more importantly how students learn, develop all the skills they need to thrive in their life. Ensuring the inclusive growth of a child should begin right from enrolling them in preschools. Building students’ capacity to think and enabling them to be self-learners from an early age will create conditions for their sustained growth. As a result, students learn to cope and adapt to the changing world.

The Knowledge Review was intrigued to know that few preschools have managed to fulfill the duty of nurturing its students into superior beings both academically and intellectually. One such preschool that has achieved this goal in a prolific manner is the Panda Learning Center. Along with offering a value-based education, this preschool also establishes a strong foundation to unlock the true potential of its students.

What is Panda Learning Center’s aim?

• Discovering and acknowledging the student’s individual potential
• Discovering, valuing and appreciating their learning process
• Enabling students to a belief in oneself
• Teaching students to face adversity with confidence and own solutions
• Enabling them to recognize own qualities

Panda Learning Centre achieves the above-mentioned goal by adhering to its mission of preparing its students to be confident, life-long learners, problem solvers, and creative thinkers. This preschool takes its role as educators seriously and recognizes education as a collaborative effort among educators, parents, and students. It believes that when children actively participate in their own learning they develop skills of a lifelong learner.

Unleashing Opportunities for Holistic Development

At Panda Learning Centre, students are not viewed as empty vessels where information has to be fed instead they are viewed as self-learners. The faculties of this preschool realize that every student is different from one another and hence, everyone posses a different learning ability. Tiny tots have a unique way of seeing the world around them, everything is a question to them, and it ignites curiosity. Here, students create a theory of their world and test the hypothesis with real-life and hands-on experiences all of which are aligned with their educational lessons.

However, the advantage of this strategy is that students take control of their own studying and hence, play and fun is an integral part of the learning process. Its this unique combination of inquiry-based learning and fun-based learning pedagogy enables students to grow and learn at their own pace.  Completing the academic structure of this preschool is its seasoned teachers. At Panda Learning Center, teachers inspire children to achieve. They encourage effective learning by motivating and challenging students to look beyond the information. Hence, the students along with building confidence and academic skills are also prepared for both their life and the next educational stage.

Education Going Beyond Classrooms

At the heart of the Panda Learning Center lies its need for giving holistic education to its students. While focusing on educational growth, this preschool equally puts emphasis on the emotional development of all its students. It believes the emotional development of a young child is equally, if not more important, than academic development. Therefore, it helps children develop emotionally by offering a safe environment to share, explore, and discuss their feelings. It also encourages positive relationships with peers and staff and offers positive alternatives to negative behavior. At Panda Learning Center, children learn to express and manage actions and feelings in a positive and thoughtful manner.

Similarly, this preschool also gives importance to developing reading habits in students. The faculties of this preschool help children appreciate, respect, and develop a love for books by reading to children daily and encouraging them to read daily too.

Infrastructures Enhancing Growth

Complementing its strategy of developing self-learners is the environment the students are nurtured in. Panda Learning Center has created warm, bright, and inviting classrooms for all its students. It is quality teachers and learning materials challenge, stimulate and encourage learning, which also equally meets developmental needs.

The preschool alternates classroom materials throughout the school year to ensure stimulation and interest. The water table, sand table and well-stocked art area of the preschool ensures that the students get additional opportunities to learn using creativity, imagination, and all five senses. This preschool has taken extra care in making sure that the students get adequate hands-on experiences which will ignite their learning. Hence, though

Although the preschool recognizes technology as an important tool, it does not rely on technology to enhance learning. It believes that young children benefit from hands-on learning materials. Therefore, the natural, wooden educational materials and books dominate the classrooms of the Panda Learning Center.

A Day at Panda Learning Center

Panda Learning Center believes in quality learning every day. A day at the preschool starts at 8:30 am with the possibility to arrive as early as 8:20 am. It offers three dismissal times (12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, and 3:30 pm) to accommodate parents. However, the 3:30 pm dismissal only applies to potty-trained children, 3 years of age or older. The list below indicates activities children enjoy throughout the school day.

• Morning circle time and movement
• Daily theme-based creative activities with a focus on language, math, fine and gross motor skills
• Child-centered educational play
• Outdoor recess
• Storytime and silent reading
• Snacks and lunch
• Weekly music lessons
• Weekly off-campus gym or swim lessons (ages 4.5 and up)

Panda Learning Center limits the school day to eight hours. Children benefit from unstructured play, and time to relax at home or outside the structure of the school.

To further hone the skills and talents of the students, the preschool also organizes clubs and other extracurricular activities.  It offers after school clubs from 3:35 pm-4:20 pm for children 4 years and up and 1:45 pm-2:30 pm for children 3-4 years old. These clubs are selected according to the interest of the children. Current clubs include ballet, modern dance, ceramics, art, drama, yoga, music, woodshop, and science club. Flexible to any new idea, the preschool is always on a hunt to create new clubs for its students.