Meet the Team: Parent and Professional Sharing

Young Explorers Club has a team of dedicated staff who support Ocean Park’s very youngest learners to begin their educational journey in nature and to support and foster a lifelong passion for learning. Our team includes our experienced and dedicated English educators who alongside our curriculum, training and support staff lead children through their journey with Young Explorers Club.

Young Explorers Club also has a team of dedicated teaching assistants who support children’s learning, provide language support and ensure smooth operation throughout the park. They are passionate and motivated early childhood assistants and hold various qualifications in child-related and environmental disciplines whilst receiving onsite training to ensure they are able to support Young Explorers Club children and parents.

The ‘Nature Exploration’ programme launched by Ocean Park and Oxford University Press combines game-based fun exploration activities, animal observation, nursery rhymes and high-quality English storybooks. Through multi-sensory stimulation, the playgroup can enlighten children to use language to express their feelings and thoughts about nature.

What is experiential learning?

If you tell a kid what a starfish is via an iPad or a book, studies show that they only remember it 20% in two weeks’ time. At Young Explorers Club, children get to touch a starfish and learn about marine ecology at the Grand Aquarium. Now, that’s experiential learning!

This programme has one distinctive advantage – the unique natural resources in Ocean Park!

It allowed my child to explore and interact with nature, rather than learn through a book or picture.

This is of course more beneficial and inspiring for my child.

With the educator’s help, students got to hear a story about sharks, and merge it with the knowledge about the ocean knowledge they just learnt.
 
The storytelling session is conducted in English, so children are encouraged to not just listen, but also express themselves in English. The interaction serves to enhance their competence in oral English.

Experiential learning is more effective than learning by the book. Each lesson featured a theme, allowing my girls to see different marine animals or plants. They liked the programme so much because they are animals and painting lover!

My daughter was very fascinated with the story telling session, where she learnt a lot about the ocean and marine creatures. In the playgroup session, she was able to develop her communication skills and independence, which was a good preparation for her kindergarten education.

Young Explorers Club places a high value on being open and actively listening and seeking our parents and guardians advice and feedback in our programmes. Parents are recognized as key educators and advocates of their children and are invited to attend our Parental Focus Groups twice a year to provide valuable feedback to the Young Explorers Club team and together continuously enhance and develop the programme.