Curriculum

Ni Hao Children’s Community is using the Better Chinese curriculum from 2017 onwards. We have been designing our curriculum from scratch for the past few years, but it has been time consuming. This does not work well in the long run if we want to focus on what we want to be best at, and also trying to keep fees low for families. The Better Chinese curriculum also caters for many different age groups and fluency levels, which allows us to offer classes at different levels.

Ni Hao Children’s Community look forward to focusing our time on the delivery of our programme and this curriculum to the children and families:

• Planning the way it is taught, with an engaging, interactive approach for children and families, and creating/finding good classroom materials and resources for lessons.
• Customising lessons for children growing up in New Zealand and adding more relevance and “current interests” to the curriculum.
• Creating and/or translating more songs, rhymes and raps.
• Professionally developing our teaching staff to a high standard of teaching and delivery.

The video below introduces Better Chinese. However it shows a lot of online and device related activities, which we will not be using those as we want children to be interacting with each other in class, and not with a screen!

 

What is good about the Better Chinese curriculum?

The Better Chinese curriculum is well-thought out, with a focus on conversational and practical Mandarin Chinese. It caters for children at different ages and fluency stages, from preschool to college level. It also goes up to university / adult level.

Better Chinese is beneficial in these ways:

• Developed by experienced teachers and educators, designed for non-native Chinese environments.
• Student-centric approach.
• Inquiry-based and story-centered framework.
• Good language scaffolding and review, with smooth transitions between the age and fluency levels.
• Easy-to-use, fun and comprehensive material
• The materials build an understanding and awareness of Chinese culture.

What does it mean for enrolled children / families?

We will work with the children and families to progress through the curriculum as shown in the image below:

Families will be expected to purchase the relevant book at cost price (wholesale price + delivery and handling costs) from Ni Hao Children’s Community. We will be purchasing them from the exclusive Australasian distributor according to the numbers ordered by families enrolling. This means that enrolling in advance for the year will be vital. Each book covers a year’s worth of lessons.

Preschool up to Year 1 (children aged 3 to 5)

The programme will follow My First Chinese curriculum. There is no compulsory book. Note that we are not using any online or device related activities as we want children to focus on real human interaction during classes and not be looking at screens!

Year 1 to Year 8

The programme will follow My First Chinese Reader books.  All children are expected to purchase the relevant book for their class, with each book volume covering at least one year’s work. Note that we are not using any online or device related activities as we want children to focus on real human interaction during classes and not be looking at screens!

 

Intermediate / College

There are two categories of learners for this age grouping: 1) Beginners and 2) Intermediate to Advanced.

Beginner Learners will follow the Discovering Chinese Pro series. All children are expected to purchase the textbook for their class, with each textbook volume covering at least one year’s work. Note that we are not using any online or device related activities as we want children to focus on real human interaction during classes and not be looking at screens!

 

Intermediate to Advanced Learners will follow the Magical Tour of China series.  All children are expected to purchase the relevant textbooks for their class, with each textbook volume covering at least one year’s work. Note that we are not using any online or device related activities as we want children to focus on real human interaction during classes and not be looking at screens!

 

We appreciate your patience as we work through these significant changes for launching in the 2017 school year onwards. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the curriculum.