While many look for greener pastures overseas, Remediana Dias has returned to Goa and hopes to make a difference in the field of education and she wants to work with the youngest of the lot–pre school students.
This has always been her dream and having kids of her own motivated her to make this dream come true.
Remediana has been involved in the field of education for over 16 years in Goa, UK and Dubai and works as a vice-principal in a British school in Dubai.
She is the Founder-Director of The Children’s Garden Kindergarten (TCGK) and believes that children should be in an environment designed for young children.
“A happy child is a happy learner. The more intimate environment supports children’s growth in several ways. It allows them to build friendships with other kids, it helps them establish trust with the teachers and it prepares them properly for grade one in any school system,” said Remediana.
“Childhood should be a voyage of discovery—exciting, absorbing and inspiring. And these early years are critical in that they lay the foundations on which an entire life will be built. At the TCGK we understand the remarkable potential of 3-6 year olds and know that a precious window of opportunity opens for children this age,” added Remediana.
Speaking about Goa and what she hopes to achieve, Remy as her friends know her said that she feels Goa needs to become more aware of the needs of the child today as these needs have changed in the last decade.
“Today’s children face different challenges. We must not focus on what they cannot do. Every child has talents and strengths. We need to adopt a different approach, where you allow the child the freedom to develop his or her own individual needs,” says Remy.
Remy started her teaching career in 1995 as a teacher and has taken breaks in between for further studies including CACHE level 4 in order to develop a better understanding of managing an early years setting that meets the needs of each learner.
Remy hopes to bring in her own education and work experience into the new school where she also plans to open a children’s library and dyslexia centre.
She has worked as a special educator and special needs coordinator for pupils with dyslexia. “These pupils are basically offered the multi sensory teaching approach to help them learn differently based on their learning preferences or learning styles. The children are assessed by the school counselor and referred to the educational psychologist for assessment, based on which the individual learning program is devised. The education system in Goa is undergoing positive transformation and is more responsive to need of pupils with learning difficulties now,” said Remy speaking of her experience.
At the school, she will be adopting Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum for the first time in Goa that’s based on the EFYS framework (September 2015) of the British Curriculum and
“The curriculum will be available for free at the school for any upcoming school or any existing KG school that wishes to adopt it. All training programmes at TCGK will be free and available for interested teachers from any school. We aim to make a difference to the lives of young pupils from other schools and look forward to have collaborative programmes in the future,” said Remy.
She added that the EYFS curriculum is very popular in UK and the Middle East and I hope schools in Goa too will adopt it. It will be available for free at the school and interested teachers from any school can attend all training at the school for free.
“This creative approach, along with a focus on the important seven areas of learning for early years (communication and language; physical development; personal, social and emotional development; knowledge and understanding of the world; Numeracy, reasoning and problem solving; Expressive arts and design; and Literacy), combines to offer an integrated holistic learning programme, where independent learning, curiosity and enthusiasm are developed,” said Remy
“We will teach each child focusing on all domains of development-cognitive, physical, social and emotional. Our main objective is to create a community of learners through exploration, academics and technology,” added Remy.
She stressed upon the role that she will want to share with parents and for which there will be many events to have their greater involvement.
“To begin with there will be regular open days, school tours for parents and parent information evenings. These will help parents to know EYFS curriculum better and also work together with the school and the community in the interest of the child,” she said.
Remy said her main aim is that her pupils are happy, independent learners who love life, develop a feeling for nice things and go around with open eyes and are respectful towards everyone else. Happy children are happy learners. She added that they will put a lot of attention on manners with the way ‘we talk to each other’.
“The most special thing about TCGK is the age-appropriate concept of allowing the children to make a connection with what they are learning is unique. Children need to be able to connect with their surrounding world in order to understand it. A lot of thought will be given to how we display things in order to give value to the children’s art. We want to awaken pride in their work. We plan to do a lot of field trips to expose the children to real things outside the classroom as much as possible,” said Remy.
“We believe in using the full potential of this age group from three to six, making the best out of it and inspiring the children in every direction we can. We also believe that school should be fun before anything else. We want the kids to love coming here. We want our creative approach to open up even the most introverted kids like flowers as they learn to express themselves in amazing ways. The philosophy of TCGK is that childhood should be a journey, not a race. You have to allow children to develop at their own speed and learn things for the rest of their lives, not just memorizing tests and so on. They remember the skills that they learn between the age of three and seven for the rest of their lives. We believe in using this potential,” she concluded.
