Barbara Faria Head of Early Years

After much hard work and anticipation, the purpose-built Wellington Shanghai Early Years Centre has opened its doors to the first of many groups of young learners. Leading the College into this new chapter is Barbara Faria, who joins us as the Head of Early Years. New to China yet highly experienced in a wide range of educational setups, Barbara is eager to give the Early Years Centre the best possible start.

These first few weeks at the Early Years Centre have gone by in a blur as our first intake of pupils has brought the centre to life and turned it from a building into a place of purpose and discovery. I am thrilled to be here in Shanghai in what I’m sure will be a truly exciting and fulfilling stage of my life. After achieving my degree in education in Portugal I immediately headed to London, where I completed a Master’s degree and began a teaching career that would see me working in the UK in various children’s centres for 17 years. I have worked with every age of young learner from six-month-old babies to pupils in reception and year 1. Each age has its own unique educational challenges and delights, and I feel very privileged to have witnessed them all.  

Taking the plunge

What attracted me to leave the UK after such a long time was the prospect of taking on the leadership of a brand new early years centre with such a reputable school in an enticingly different city. Wellington College carries a robust tradition of excellence, and I was attracted to its philosophy of holistic education from the outset. I could see very quickly that Wellington’s ideas of how best to educate young children fit with my own educational beliefs and experiences, so I knew what I was getting into and felt confident that it would be a good fit, personally and professional.  

Early impressions

I was lucky enough to see the centre come to life as I visited in January when it was still in the early stages of development. Even then, the space already looked fantastic and I could clearly see its inherent potential to be a great place to teach and learn. Thankfully, the reality of the finished article matches the vision – the early years centre has been built to exacting specifications, and everything has been designed with educational purpose in mind. From the lobby to the classrooms, terraces, outdoor and indoor play areas – everything is entirely child appropriate, child friendly and designed to support learning in a safe and enjoyable way. I think I speak for all of the teachers here when I say that we were just itching to get in and start teaching! I’m thrilled to have such a great space to work with. While the best teachers can make learning fun and effective anywhere, having the appropriate resources opens up a new world of possibilities and ultimately, children end up becoming more engaged with their daily learning. Thanks to the design and equipping of the centre, our pupils can experience an excellent balance of child-led and teacher-led learning environments. This allows them to have better and more varied learning experiences, and there is greater flexibility to make each activity more tailored to the individual child’s needs and preferences. Impressed as I am by the facility, I’m perhaps even more impressed by the teaching team I have the pleasure of working with. Without exception, they are talented, friendly, diligent and they love what they do. It’s a very cohesive team, one which has clearly bonded well from previous years yet they are entirely accepting of new blood and new ideas. To me, their conduct even these opening weeks shows that the Wellington approach to education is as effective in practice as it is in theory.  

A partnership between parents, pupils and teachers

Of course, starting a brand new early years school is a big undertaking. As we are getting started, there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of small yet vital practical tasks that need to be done to mould the centre into the welcoming, fun, effective and inspiring place we all want it to be. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t look ahead to the future and plan accordingly. One of my main priorities for the Early Years Centre is to quickly establish and maintain very strong lines of communication with our parents, who are our essential partners in their children’s educational journey. I want them to feel entirely comfortable coming to us with their ideas, queries and concerns, so we can always have an open dialogue about the best plan for their child. In practical terms, this will mean a continuation of many of the policies and arrangements that made Wellington’s earlier nursery and early years setups so successful in making parents feel informed and reassured. We will maintain an open door policy and I am really looking forward to the first of our planned coffee mornings and parent workshops to make sure that we are working together and in harmony, reinforcing at home what our pupils learn at school. Fortunately, lots of our parents and pupils are already familiar with the Wellington way; those who have been with Wellington for the past two years have settled into the new centre’s routines and expectations quickly and comfortably. This in turn has helped settle our newcomers too, who have plenty of helpful peers to make the unfamiliar quickly feel familiar. Naturally, there have been some tears in the morning, that’s only to be expected at this age, but already the combination of having fun, getting settled and enjoying the warm, welcoming environment of the centre has meant that those tears have slowed to less than a trickle! Given that we are only a short way into our opening term, I take this to be a very encouraging sign indeed. For our pupils, coming here will be their first discovery of education, their first enjoyment of formal learning outside of the family home. I hope they have an amazing time and I want each of them to feel like this journey will be an exciting one as they take new steps each school day. I’d like to thank my amazing team of teachers, our eager pupils and their wonderfully supportive parents for extending me such a warm welcome here at Wellington Shanghai Early Years Centre. I am very much looking forward to getting to know everybody better as we take this educational journey together.

To find out more about Early Years at Wellington College International Shanghai, please book one of our regular tours by registering via the following QR code.

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