education
A bilingual education Nicole Slater steps through the doors of Mulberry House’s new campus in Aberdeen
Jessica Ye Trainor, Founder
24 | EXPAT PARENT
Starting from a mother’s failed search for a bilingual playgroup to send her children to, Mulberry House founder Jessica Ye Trainor decided to take matters into her own hands. After completing a Montessori degree she began home-schooling kids and her classes soon gained popularity amongst parents across Hong Kong. She decided to open her first bilingual playgroup in Central in late 2015, focusing on teaching children a bilingual education with a modern approach. The Mandarin immersion programme was particularly popular when it started, catering to the needs of many children and parents on Hong Kong Island. As the children grew, the organization began creating more programmes for preschools and primary
schools to support them. “I am a huge fan of the Independent Schools Foundation, so when they opened the kindergarten, we were the first ones to enrol. Over the years, the majority of our playgroup children also got into ISF, CIS and Victoria, which was very encouraging for us,” says Trainor. Now with two kindergartens, two playgroups across Hong Kong and two nurseries in Shenzhen, Mulberry House is paving the way for bilingual education.
Curriculum Following the well-researched United Kingdom early year teaching framework (EYFS), Mulberry House’s curriculum is highly interactive with three primary areas of learning:
