This past week, two of our staff members attended a workshop on Emotional Development in early childhood. The experience reaffirmed our established practices and strengthened our confidence in the care and education we provide at Ohana International School.
We believe in grounding our approach in research and science. We are incredibly grateful for our skilled team of teachers, who continually enhance their expertise through university courses and professional development. Their dedication ensures we strive to offer the very best learning opportunities for every child.
Our curriculum is intentionally designed by drawing on a variety of educational philosophies and the work of foundational theorists, blended with what we, as experienced educators from across the globe, know works in practice. For instance, while we incorporate aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach, we thoughtfully adapt them to our local context and our multinational school community. Reggio Emilia does not “teach” emotional development as a separate subject. Instead, it cultivates a culture where emotional experience is valued as a fundamental form of intelligence—a necessary driver of all learning. In this view, a child’s emotional life is rich, complex, and worthy of the same serious attention as their intellectual life.
This philosophy directly supports our commitment to values learning, which holds us all accountable for “embracing difference” and “respecting difference.” To us, difference is beautiful and something to be celebrated; it is a profound source of learning for teachers, children, and families alike.
Naturally, our differences are tied to our emotional responses. We feel differently, and therefore we will react differently. There is no single blueprint for emotional expression, other than to be respectful and strive to understand the perspectives of others. Our goal is to provide the beautiful, meaningful tools and supportive community in which each child’s social-emotional intelligence can unfold.
