At St. Nicholas’, we place great value in parent education as we believe parental guidance is key to a child’s success. Throughout the school year, we organize a number of parent workshops on a broad variety of topics and interests. To help parents align with our school’s philosophy and pedagogy, we invite experienced Montessori trainers to educate our parents about all areas in the Montessori curriculum. In the workshops, parents also have the opportunity to practice demonstrating different Montessori teaching aids to ensure that they acquire key presentation skills. Parents benefit significantly from these seminars and are able to bring home what they have learned and apply it on their own children.

Positive education is also another key area of focus at St. Nicholas’. Positive education is an approach to education that draws on positive psychology’s emphasis of individual strengths and personal motivation to promote learning. We have partnered with Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Parents Academy, in which their social workers come to deliver talks on various topics such as developing children’s learning abilities and parent-child games. Parents Academy also supports parents in developing a positive parent-child relationship and healthy family environment for children’s growth.

Primary school selection advisory is one of the most significant services we provide to our students and parents. We start early on by holding a number of parent meetings on the primary one admission process and system, introduction to different primary schools and types, how to prepare for interviews and create a portfolio. Primary one admission experts and strategists have also come to deliver presentations to our parents, offering key tips and tactics for primary one application. Given our long-term partnerships with numerous primary schools, we are able to arrange exclusive Primary One Information Sessions for our parents, in which they can gain valuable insights about the schools, their selection criteria and interview process. Our students and parents also have the opportunity to enjoy private tours at various primary schools.

Parent-child reading instills a love of reading in children and enriches their life experiences. Nevertheless, we acknowledge reading to children is a skill that needs to be acquired. We have therefore asked a number of English and Chinese reading specialists and experts to speak to our parents about reading aloud strategies, challenges, routine and book selection. Following the seminars, parents have learned to make reading aloud engaging and meaningful and also encourage children to love books.

Students with diverse needs are fully supported at St. Nicholas’. Heep Hong Society is our partner who sends a regular team of play, speech and occupational therapists and educational psychologists to our school to assist children with specific needs. Our goal is to foster independence through strategy-based teaching and to support and facilitate accommodations for students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Students are supported by assistive technology, language support and skills-based workshops. On the other hand, parents have the opportunity to attend seminars delivered by Heep Hong about different developmental areas and stages of early childhood and learn about their free On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services (OPRS) supporting children with diverse needs. Through the talks, they come to understand their children’s behavior, foster a positive attitude towards early intervention and develop effective skills in raising their children. Educational psychologists from Heep Hong Society also train our teachers on classroom management strategies for students with special needs. Our teachers can thus enrich their knowledge on this subject and improve their support towards these children.