The Heartland Children's Academy

for a Complete Education

• School Project Introduction and Educational Philosophy
• HCA Specifics
• Computer Lab and Online Learning Programs
• Learning Resource Room
• Nursery and Pre-Primary School Sector
  
• HCA Hostel: The complete welfare package
• Student Scholarship Scheme
• School Project Activities

School Project Introduction and Educational Philosophy

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 programs the school will look to provide an exceptional quality of education and a healthy child friendly learning environment. It will incorporate in-school programs 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 programs

• 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 Program: identifying, shaping and creating Nepal’s future leaders

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

Click on the link below to see these programs and more in action at HCA

HCA is a co-educational school that offers classes from Kindergarten through to higher secondary class ten. Because of 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 utilizes 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 organizations via our Student Scholarship Scheme. 

  

The school currently has 260 students and over 25 teaching and non-teaching staff members. It is situated in the heart of Kathmandu with hostel facilities and a good sized play ground 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.

 

HCA Learning Resource Room

This facility helps support CLCR's and HCAs educational philosophy and focus on developing Nepali teacher's capacity to provide quality educational experiences for the underprivileged children of Nepal. Heartland is now equipped with its own teaching and learning resources room - packed with literature based on teaching practice and pedagogy; resources collected, donated and purchased around the world and in Nepal for use within HCA’s teaching practices. 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.

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.
 

The HCA Hostel: The complete welfare 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 welfare, 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.