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

Evaluation of the school year in Wenzhou Dalton School

Evaluation of the school year with Wenzhou Dalton Team was all about summarizing our work within this year. The implementation of responsibility in the school was based on 20 agreements of responsibility. Children are able to demonstrate responsibility within the Dalton environment. Responsibility begins with choosing one’s own work during the day, working independently, and being a contributing member of the collective classroom community. Contributing members of any community help nurture and maintain the classroom. Within the Dalton environment, children become responsible for the environment by learning to care for the classroom as well as for themselves and their friends. For the last year, together with the team of teachers we were working on shaping the attitude of openness and freedom, self-organization and self-directed learning. We have worked out authorial projects, contracts and visualization adjusting the vision of responsibility to a Chinese community and culture. We are looking forward to see the effect live when we are there.

The new edition of Dalton Visie

In the newest edition of Dalton Visie, the magazine of Dutch Dalton Association the article about history and genesis as well as current development of Dalton International. The article was written by René Berends and Roel Röhner.

The 5th anniversary of Shenzhen Xinhua International Dalton School

Message of Dalton International to Shenzhen Dalton Xinhua School on the occasion of their 5th Anniversary: Our warmest greetings to the Shenzhen Dalton Xinhua School as you celebrate your 5th Anniversary as an International Dalton School. The development of education is vital to Dalton education mission and vision. As an educational institution, it is your responsibility to ensure that your children become self-reliant, cooperative and reflective human beings. May this event reaffirm your commitment to implement in our children a thirst for knowledge and a culture of innovation that will drive their ambitions and set their path to success and fulfillment, as well as empower them to become more dynamic, responsible citizens of 21st century. We in Dalton International are proud to create the community of innovative, progressive Dalton education for all. May you instill the values of hard work, excellence, responsibility and cooperativeness of the school in your children and allow them to express themselves in the way they would like to be. We wish you a happy and meaningful celebration. Dalton International

Teacher Training in Shenzhen Dalton Xinhua School

International Dalton Consultants and all educators of all Dalton International Foundation believe that developing ownership is one of the most important issues in the Dalton model of education. The Dalton philosophy is all about developing holistic approach to every child. We strongly believe that much of the children´s question can be answered by children themselves. Dalton children should be filled with a love for learning, should be thoughtful, with a creative and inquisitive mind. Following this, engaging children in a real life discovery raises the interests, intrinsic motivation by self-discovering for the answers and sharing their work with others. That type of learning is also making the learning process more effective. Children are encouraged to take up their own initiatives and investigate the topic. Consequently, children become owners of their own learning process, they move from being receivers of information to becoming active participants in their own learning. However, we should remember as teachers, how important it is to differentiate the levels of support and providing guidance adjusted to the needs of every child. Dalton teacher is so much more than only a gardener, they are inspirators and artists of education. Dalton education is based on a strong belief that whenever children are given responsibility for their learning they instinctively search for the best way to achieve it. In the photo, teachers in Shenzhen are creating their own vision on independent learning on the basis of twenty agreements developed by Dalton International. The school is guided regularly by Dalton International.

International Dalton Conference

Upcoming Event: 2021 International Dalton Conference. DI's 2021 Conference will be held online on 13-14th of May. In the program among others presentations of the International Dalton Schools from Czech Republic as well as International Dalton Consultants.

The 12th Wenzhou Primary School Spot Meeting on Curriculum Reform was held in Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School on Tuesday the 20th April, 2021. Curriculum reform is always a challenge and research project to all Wenzhou educators. In the meeting, Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School demonstrated the localized implementation of Dalton Plan. The study labs, assignments, contracts and independent learning enlightened all participants so that they obtained and developed more thoughts on teaching and Dalton Education. Mr.Roel Rohner, the president of Dalton International took part in the meeting online and gave an inspiring speech in the opening ceremony.

Celebrating 20 years of Dalton International

Today Dalton International is twenty years old. We would like to thank all the people who supported us for so many years. Here is the speech of the President: “Respect the child, respect him to the end, but also respect yourself. Be the companion of his thought, the friend of his friendship, the lover of his virtue…” Helen Parkhurst, Education on the Dalton Plan It has been already twenty years ago, on 30. March 2001, when the official notary act of Dalton International was signed. It was the concrete result of an intensive cooperation between my Dalton school in the center of Utrecht/NL with four innovative primary schools in Brno/CZ. Together we started to search for more international Dalton contacts, and organized visits to the Dalton schools in New York and Sydney. We have built our Dalton International community from trust and respect. It is from this perspective I would like to share with all Dalton community a vision and mission of Dalton International. From where we stand, we can firmly state that the Dalton International community worldwide, after twenty years, is stronger than ever. Owing to trust and respect, but also hard work we achieved a success. The core of Dalton International’s mission is to preserve the legacy of Helen Parkhurst. We have been doing our best to protect that legacy consequently. We are proud today of the high quality of our implementation processes and high standards in certification of schools and teachers. In taking care of the high standards, we became protective. Our protection came from love, respect, devotion and trust. During our work we have also became critical and judgmental for those who benefit from our organization for own profit, or who add the name ‘Dalton International’ illegally to their school name. Over time, more than forty schools worldwide are `Member of Dalton International` and we supported and trained even more ‘International Dalton Schools’ worldwide in: Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, China, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Turkey and The Netherlands. During the twenty years of our activities we have managed to: Initiate and guide the development of ‘International Dalton Schools’ Initiate and support the Austrian, Czech and Polish Dalton Association Initiate and support yearly Dalton conferences in several countries Contribute actively to local Dalton magazines Initiate the research in connection with ‘NENU University’ in China and ‘Adam Mickiewicz University’ in Poland on quality and effectiveness of Dalton education in International Dalton Schools Cooperate with universities providing students the option to receive the certificate of ‘International Dalton teacher’ Cooperate with the Chinese embassy in The Netherlands Cooperate with the Ministry of Education and local Educational Bureaus in China Initiate the Chinese and Turkish Departments of Dalton International in cooperation with academic environment and ministry of education in China and Turkey. Currently, we are constantly open to the new initiatives and we look forward to work hard on the future of Dalton education worldwide. We continue to open our hearts and our minds to the future united in the service of the children. We must speak on behalf of them. That is our legacy and our mission. We are focused on building bridges between the countries, we want all to speak one voice and look in one direction. That is the way to honor our legacy and ensuring our future. Today we thank all of our friends and educators with great vision and creative minds to support our activities and effort in building a world where the voice of the children can be heard. Roel Röhner, President Dalton International

Teacher Training Series in Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School

During an online seminar we spoke about practice and the organization process in Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School. During the second part of the session we have presented practical, authorial materials from the teacher´s Dalton handbook. The content of this session concerned the ways of providing an environment that serves the particular needs of each child´s stage development. Through the implementation of holistic approach of Helen Parkhurst , we help teachers in practical implementation of Dalton education at each stage of child´s development in order to shape their moral, emotional, behavioral and intellectual growth.