10 years of Dalton International in China.

The school brochure of Shenzhen Dalton Xinhua School has been published this month. The school has made a reportage from a history of Dalton International in China celebrating a decade of existence. Apart from the brochure, the school has made a special room in the school building with an exhibition of the development of Dalton International in mainland China. It all started with one philosophy in mind “Combining Dalton education with Chinese Characters”. Two senior Dalton consultants: Roel Röhner and Hans Wenke reintroduced Dalton education after few decades of absence. The Dalton education is flourishing now in mainland China enormously. This includes early childhood education, which has experienced frequent change since the first International Dalton School- Xinhua Dalton School was opened. As a developing philosophy, Dalton education is growing in China not only in the primary education, but also in secondary schools. The Dalton education was first introduced in China over 100 years ago yet remain underdeveloped until 2000’s. Dalton education gained in popularity in mainland China at the beginning of the XIst century. Due to the internal changes and challenges that took place, the idea of Helen Parkhurst is continuously growing and spread by the consultants of Dalton International: Roel Röhner, Paul Bruijn and Agata Röhner. We are proud to spread the Dalton educational philosophy for more than a decade in mainland China. We are continuously exploring and integrating worldwide resources to set a standard for school education internationalization. Today, we would like to wish all International Dalton Schools and International Dalton Schools in progress a meaningful celebration and a good start of the New Dalton School Year. The future starts already now.

Happy New Dalton School Year to International Dalton School in Thuringen, Germany

Dalton International is wishing a brilliant team from International Dalton School in Thüringen, Germany a healthy and delightful New Dalton Year. It is wonderful to see smiling staff and children coming back to school. The energy among the team and children is always amazing. The children seem very happy to be back at school, playing with friends, organizing their own time in Dalton agendas. Seeing new children coming for the first time to school hungry for learning has been inspiring for us. We are confident that a Dalton education is perfectly implemented in your school. Self-motivation, confidence, responsibility and reflection are a base for lifelong love of learning. We are looking forward to seeing you all again soon….

Ways of engaging parents in the Dalton process at school: working session

Yesterday, we have restarted the trainings for Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School. The subject of the session concerned the ways of engaging parents in the Dalton process at school. We have discussed together with the group of mentors and Dalton coordinators the ways of making parents familiar with the Dalton philosophy. With a strong idea of what children ought to obtain from their school experience parents in Wenzhou Dalton School are expected to become active participants in the Dalton process. By building connections between home and school, Dalton education is aimed mainly at reinforcing the learning experience and make transition from preschool to home. In order to achieve this, we have worked out the schedule for parent’s Dalton academy for the upcoming year, including following activities: school community meetings, Dalton “open hours” for parents, Dalton brochures, engaging parents in projects, etc. We firmly believe that by combining our efforts we help children and parents grow into their own Dalton development and look in the same direction. Below some photos

o from our yesterday’s session:

Project-Based Learning based on Piaget's theory of cognitive development

On 8th of September we started a New Dalton Year in Shenzhen Xinhua Dalton School. After summing up the work with 20 agreements of independency, we set the goals for the upcoming semester- both theoretical (we start again with Why?) and practical. Our session with school mentors and Dalton coordinators concerned implementation in practice project based learning based on the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. We are currently developing with the team of teachers authorial projects, together with parents and children based on the children’s personal interests and experience. Since we are working with children from 6- 11 years old, we divided our project into two stages: pre- operational stage (children 2-7 years old- children learn the world with their own senses); concrete operational stage (7-11 year olds- starts logical thinking). In the project we are engaging all children’s senses (hear, smell, touch, movement) to awaken their intrinsic, natural motivation and to avoid awards and punishments. For older children (7-11) we implement different sorts of projects, in which their curiosity is stimulated by solving together a real-life authentic problem. The project weeks are done twice a year in both Shenzhen and Wenzhou Dalton schools. All the authorial projects will be soon published in our book “The Dalton Plan- a child’s lifetime experience””. The book will be published in China in North East Normal University.

The message of President of Dalton International to all International Dalton Schools

What an incredible year is in front of us. The year of new opportunities, new initiatives. In front of us the year of sharing our work, our passion, our vision and our achievements. Thanks to the Dalton Plan we still find ways to connect across the world, we are grateful to all International Dalton Schools for their commitment, engagement, sharing their Dalton experience and expertise. Thanks to you, we can continue Parkhurst legacy. Undoubtedly, we have recently met some challenges because of a global pandemic, which has forced us to adapt the online way we train and teach. Although the pandemic period, we are providing continuous support for the schools and parents. Our focus is to ensure the Dalton education accessible for every child in every corner of the world. Dalton education remains the inclusive, accepting education for children and adults of all abilities, and all cultures. To achieve this, we remain open to learning, listening and understanding the needs of all communities that are struggling to implement Dalton education. We are honoured to spread the legacy of Helen Parkhurst across the world. At the same time, we bear in mind that thanks to her strong character and will she was able to achieve a huge success as just one individual, spreading her ideas and ground breaking work in universal education on a global scale. We are pleased to continue to support her work and demonstrate the amazing impact of Dalton education. Every human being has the power to make a difference and if we can do it together – cooperating, sharing, supporting, learning from each other, listening to each other, the difference and impact may be enormous. As a Dalton International community, it is our solemn duty to cooperate, share and spread the legacy of Helen Parkhurst. Today, we are pleased to wish all the International Dalton Schools across the world a meaningful school year, full of hope and good initiatives. May this year be for you special and full of success. We wish you all, a healthy and successful school year with the same motto as always: Go forth unafraid! Roel Rohner, President Dalton International