The Heartland Children's Academy

for a Complete Education

• • Introduction and Educational Philosophy
• • HCA Specifics
• • Computer Lab and Online Learning Programs
• • Teachers' Learning Resource Room
• • Nursery and Pre-Primary School Sector
• • Lower and Upper Kindergarten Expansion
• • New Indoor Sports and Recreation Hall
• • HCA Hostel: The Complete Welfare Package
• • Student Scholarship Scheme
• • HCA Project Activities

School Project Introduction and Educational Philosophy

In 2008 the CLCR team travelled to Nepal and commenced work with the Heartland Children's Academy (HCA), which is our latest educational project offering schooling opportunities to the underprivileged children of Kathmandu and broader Nepal. The school is administered by Global Development Group (GDG) and CLCR in Australia via its co-team in Kathmandu, CLCR Nepal.

CLCR is proud to be a partner with GDG, an AusAID approved NGO carrying out quality humanitarian projects with approved partners to relieve poverty and provide long term solutions. GDG take responsibility for the project according to AusAID rules, providing a governance role and assisting in the areas of planning, monitoring, reviewing, and evaluation to ensure that project J537~The Heartland Children's Academy (HCA) is carried out to Australian requirements. Below is a snap shot of the HCA project, the children we are targeting and the reasons we at CLCR feel that this project is necessary for today's Nepali society.


Our aim is to create HCA as a model school within Kathmandu city through the provision of a school environment and a curriculum that is based both on academics and student learning needs as well as the development of relevant Nepali life skills. Through the implementation of in-school programmes the school will look to provide an exceptional quality of education and a healthy child friendly learning environment. It will incorporate programmes which aim to holistically develop the student and greater prepare them for life's challenges. Here are a few examples of the life skills programs we are offering the students alongside the compulsory Nepali curriculum:

• Kitchen garden and agricultural development program

• School and environment sustainability

• Work and careers experience

• Conflict Resolution and communication development programmes

• Nepali specific vocational skills training. Students will have the opportunity to develop relevant skills in areas such as cooking, carpentry, sewing and candle making

• Leadership Development Programme: identifying, shaping and creating Nepal's future leaders

• Resilience and Adolescent Development Programme run with Ms Chetana Lokshum, Adolescent Psychologist

Please follow the The HCA School Project Activities link for more details about these programmes or visit the Heartland School's website.

Above is a picture of Pema, she is currently a HCA House Captain and one student we have targeted within our Leadership Development Programme as a future leader of Nepal.

The HCA Specifics

HCA is a co-educational school that offers classes from kindergarten through to higher secondary class ten. As of January 2012, we are in the process of developing a Plus 2 Programme (years 11 and 12 equivalent in Australia) to commence 2013. Due to CLCR's involvement, the school operates on a different level to other schools within Nepal. For example, it is service-orientated, the teaching methods are child-centered, and classroom numbers are limited in an effort to build greater student-teacher learning relationships. It utilises student management methods free from the violence currently used to discipline students in Nepal. It targets specifically the underprivileged population sectors such as the untouchable castes, the indigenous, disabled youth, orphaned children and the women of the country through educational scholarship opportunities. In fact many of the children featured within these photos attending HCA are sponsored by generous individuals and organisations via our Student Scholarship Scheme.

The school currently has over 350 students (up by 90 students in 2011!) and over 30 teaching and non-teaching staff members. It is situated in the heart of Kathmandu with hostel facilities and a good sized playground approximately one acre in size. With your support it is looking to grow, bring a whole new approach to teaching in Nepal, and increase its benefit to the communities it is serving through resource and infrastructural development.

To achieve this we really need your help.

We use donations to renovate and better equip the school with things like new library facilities and books, teaching and learning resources, arts and sports equipment, and new exciting projects and programmes to inspire and broaden the minds of all our students. We need your help to make our plans a reality!

Here are a few pictures of the current school facilities, the students and the HCA teaching team. For us this is a reminder of the many things we are trying to achieve and the positive difference our efforts and a good education can make to a child's life. Please enjoy these pictures with the knowledge that many of these kids are attending HCA through our Scholarship Education Scheme.

HCA Computer Lab and Online learning Programs

HCA is now equipped with a fully functional online computer lab - featuring over 15 lap top computers connected to high speed internet and equipped with a range of online learning programs to support the Literacy, Numeracy and IT life skill development of our students and teachers. We have also installed generators to supply electricity during the many hours of daytime blackouts - which can last many hours - to ensure uninterrupted learning.

We have paired with two Australian online education providers (organisations) as part of our expanding Community Partnership (CP) programme to provide our students with a facility and learning opportunities not currently existing in Nepal.

Mathletics - a mathematics based programme bringing online Maths activities and games designed to support Numeracy development of children around the world - now in HCA and being used by our students at every opportunity.

Reading Eggs; a literacy based online learning programme which we have adopted for supporting the English language development of our HCA Primary students.

Both these programs we have adopted help support CLCR's overall vision of providing holistic education opportunities that are not just based on academics but skills of relevance to Nepal's lives now, and in the future.

HCA Learning Resource Room

This facility helps support CLCR's and HCA's educational philosophy and focus on developing Nepali teachers' capacity to provide quality educational experiences for the underprivileged children of Nepal. Heartland is now equipped with its own combined staff and learning resources room - packed with literature based on teaching practice and pedagogy, as well as resources collected, donated and purchased from around the world and in Nepal - including text books, worksheets, flash cards, posters, arts and crafts materials. There is also a variety of sized laminating machines, guillotines and a computer with internet access for research and educational planning. HCA's teachers, as part of this development, have begun to create their own resources - such as flash cards and literacy and numeracy posters - which are already greatly benefitting the educational experiences of HCA's students.


These activities are part of a large scale, long-term programme to support the creation of better teaching and learning facilities in Nepal. Unfortunately, these types of facilities and resources are not common in other Nepali schools, and developments like these are only possible because of your support. Our aim is to be a model school that encourages the development of students and teachers alike.

HCA Nursery and Pre-Primary School Sector

A change in program has seen a huge change in child development. We feel that this is a crucial part of a child's education, being the commencement of their schooling life it is important to start off on the right foot. At HCA that's what we aim to do.

At HCA we have recently gone through some radical changes in our Nursery and Pre-Primary sector to totally revolutionise the way we operate these classes: more resources; a change in teaching methods; and a better activity structure has brought huge positive changes in the development rate of our kids.

We believe that children at this age should not sit at desks for the entire day and be made to complete endless rote learning activities, rather they should benefit from the experiences of free play and exploration - so that learning can come naturally. We still have a major focus on students developing their knowledge, understanding and ability to apply the English and Nepali alphabet/ language, number application and counting, but we look to engage our pre-primary students with activities of a greater variety such as singing, dancing, being read to, playing outside, drawing and interacting with others.

We aim to develop our kids in as many facets as possible - socially, physically, emotionally, creatively, and general motor skills.

These changes have also brought about a modification in our assessment techniques we use for these HCA classes, we don't believe in homework or written seated testing for this age group. So we look to asses our students via a range of different questioning and self performance methods to truly evaluate each child's strengths and areas of needed further development. With this system we feel we can more accurately target the learning and developmental needs of each child in an effort to help them start school on the right foot.

Our pre-primary teachers have undertaken rigorous professional development and training sessions with the help of CLCR Australia and volunteers from Future Sense, UK. With these changes we have seen the positive proof of better child development in terms of learning across all areas of activities, behaviour and interactions with class peers and increased interaction in a greater variety of activities.

Lower and Upper Kindergarten Expansion and Improvements

In 2011, expansion plans for our Lower Kindergarten (LKG) and Upper Kindergarten (UKG) classes were realised. These plans were both physical, with newly built and brightly painted rooms, and educational, with 2 full-time teaching staff in both LKG and UKG. The team-teaching method has proven to boost creativity in educational methods as well as provide flexibility with indoor/outdoor activities.

Here are few photos of the LKG room and classes in action.

This is the new UKG classroom, with lots of busy kids!

New Indoor Sports and Recreation Hall

As of mid-2011, HCA now has a new, undercover sports hall. This is extremely useful, particularly during the monsoon season! This space also enables us to expand our teacher training programme, sports and cultural (such as dance and theatre) programmes, and our family assistance programme (teaching English and literacy skills to parents of students).

The HCA Hostel: The complete development support package

HCA offers our hostel services to any child attending HCA, but we specifically make it available to scholarship students from both Kathmandu and from outside the valley. The essence of providing these children with hostel facilities is to cater for their every need; educationally, emotionally and personally. Many of the children within our hostel have lived an underprivileged life and often lack an appropriate level of care and education. Thus, we focus on the whole package in an effort to provide them with the support, resources, learning environment and opportunities that would otherwise see them most probably living on the streets. Below is a picture of our current hostel facility, which we plan to expand and renovate in an effort to take on more kids and provide an even greater level of care for the HCA scholarship students.

HCA Student Scholarship Scheme

One of our major focuses is providing the underprivileged and marginalised groups of Nepal with the opportunity of a free education at HCA. We are able to offer this through our Student Scholarship Scheme and Family Assistance Program (FAP). Within this scheme we target Nepal's orphans, street kids, the disabled, untouchable castes and the women of Nepal. All these groups are vastly underrepresented and often either cannot afford to attend or lack the opportunity to attend the schools in their area. We have created this scheme to give you the opportunity to sponsor a child in need with an education at HCA. Sponsoring a child is not just giving them the opportunity at receiving a quality education but radically changing their life and future opportunities for the better. You can do for this just AUD$1.15 per day - AUD$35 per month.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child and want to find out more, click on our Student Scholarships link or our contacts page to speak to us directly about your involvement in this exciting life changing program.

Donating, CLCR Membership and Student Scholarships: School Sustainability, now and for the future of Nepal!

We Need Your Support

To keep this fantastic Heartland Children's Academy (HCA) project going we need your financial support. Donations, big or small give us the opportunity and flexibility to provide the resources, teachers, infrastructure and the right learning environment to positively support these children through education and welfare.

Contributions can be in the form of CLCR membership, through student scholarships/sponsorhips or via our Adopt-a-Project scheme. Every dollar can make a difference, we know this first hand.

If you are interested in contributing to CLCR, you can donate now using the Westpac secure Our Community website site or follow the red buttons on the lefthand side of the page under the links. If you would like to become a member, please take a look at our fully tax deductible memberships categories.


Alternatively, you can deposit directly into our Australian account:

Account Name: The Centre for Learning and Childrens Rights Inc
Commonwealth Bank, Lane Cove

BSB: 062192 Account details: 10233220

All donations over $2 made in Australia and the USA to our approved aid and development project (J537) CLCR's HCA Nepali School Project are tax deductible. Receipts will be issued by Global Development Group and forwarded onto donors via CLCR.

Pat Price

CLCR Founder, President and HCA School Director

Creating Opportunity through Education in Nepal