Australian International School (AIS) has three Kindergartens in total:
Each campus is resourced to the same high standards. At our Xi Campus, the school is open for enrolment for children aged 18 months old and over. While at Thu Thiem and Thao Dien, classes are provided for children aged 30 months and over.
The guiding principle in AIS’s Kindergartens is learning through play. In this way, in a secure but challenging environment, children can:
Activities may be either teacher directed or student initiated.
Each class has an overseas trained teacher and a Vietnamese trained support teacher. There are also specialist teachers for swimming, physical education, music and Vietnamese Language and Culture.
When enrolling children in Kindergarten, parents have many options for enrolment, no matter which campus they chose. These options include half day, full day or extended day programmes as well as part week or full week programmes.
Each Kindergarten has three levels which are based on a student’s date of birth:
From the age of three years old (Junior Kindergarten), children follow the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP). Please download the Primary School curriculum booklet below here for more details.
Our international kindergartens (also known as pre-school children) based in HCMC have highly-trained teachers with a Bachelor of Education or Masters specialising in Early Childhood. These highly-qualified international staff understand the fundamental foundations and the importance of a quality Early Years education. Our teachers plan and implement a successful international kindergarten learning program designed to focus on the whole child.
Go and visit a variety of kindergartens in Saigon that you are interested in or have had recommended to you. You will know within a few minutes of your visit if the feel of the kindergarten for you and your child. Ask questions about things that are important to you and ask to visit your child's potential kindergarten classroom and, if possible, see this in action.
Our highly-qualified English speaking teachers from around the world bring a range of experiences and pedagogical knowledge that contributes to our robust Early Years program. At AIS we use the internationally-recognised PYP Early Years programme from the IB framework. Our teachers collaborate to design, deliver and create the best environment and program to help our early learners thrive. Discovery, play-based and inquiry learning are central elements in our international kindergarten classrooms. This allows for children to think, research, and have first-hand learning experiences. International Early Years education focuses on the whole child - the social and emotional, physical, early literacy and numeracy development. Speech and language development in our kindergartens is a high priority. As many of our early learners are bilingual learners, and some children are multilingual, our teachers create opportunities for our learners to become articulate and proficient in English and their home languages. We celebrate the whole child at AIS and give many opportunities for our kindergarten learners to develop interests and passions. Children get to experience a range of specialist classes with highly qualified specialist teachers. Specialist subjects include Music, PSPE, swimming, and Vietnamese Language and Culture. Our class sizes are small and each class is well staffed to give opportunity for facilitated personalised learning.
At AIS we believe that it is important to provide a quality education no matter the age or stage of the child. We provide programs from the age of 18 months. Our Infants' class is extremely popular with our international families as it provides a nurturing and caring environment where younger learners show exceptional growth throughout the year. Relationships and a sense of belonging is a human quality that we all desire and our infants, junior and senior kindergarten classes focus on this essential element of 'Belonging'. We highlight the importance of belonging by making daily connections with our friends and teachers and our environment. We provide opportunities for our youngest learners to create a sense of 'Being'. To celebrate themselves as a human being and develop their own identity, their passions, and interests, and what makes them unique. Lastly, but not least, a sense of ‘Becoming’ is prioritised. Our early learners embrace challenges, explore the world around them to become thinkers through being curious. Our learners become articulate and confident language learners through social interactions and the arts. They express themselves and become confident communicators. We provide rich learning environments and programs to develop our learners to become literate and numerate to build strong foundations for further learning.
A typical day in our international kindergarten consists of a morning of play-based, discovery and inquiry learning. Children are warmly welcomed by their teachers and encouraged to join their friends and an activity that they enjoy. Our international kindergarten classrooms are purposely set up with 'invitations to play' and are ready each morning so children can happily make connections and feel a sense of 'belonging'. Through this play-based inquiry approach the children spend the morning continuing to develop their relationships with their friends and teachers. They experience uninterrupted time to be creative and curious and our experienced teachers use these opportunities to develop children's thinking, oral language, literacy and numeracy. After a morning snack the children work with our specialist teachers for Music, PSPE, swimming or Vietnamese Language and Culture. Lunch is provided by the school at 11.30am. Most children have a nap in the afternoon and then spend the afternoon enjoying stories and learning games together. An afternoon snack is provided before children go home. Parents may opt into our after-hours child care program at an additional cost which is available to 4.30pm (this service is only available at our Thu Thiem and Xi International Kindergarten campuses, in Ho Chi Minh City).
A healthy lifestyle and wellbeing are important when growing and developing our children. We encourage outdoor learning and provide a variety of resources to help facilitate active play. Our bamboo runner bikes are a real hit with the children and our outdoor spaces provide plenty of space to get active! One of the main pillars at AIS is sports. Our teachers understand the importance of developing our young learners' physical attributes. Physical Literacy is highly important with brain development. Crawling, running, and using monkey bars helps to develop the brain. Each kindergarten class has two sessions of PSPE each week with one of our dedicated PE specialist teachers. They also receive a two-week intensive swim program each term (8 weeks a year in total) to develop water confidence and safety and early foundations for swimming strokes. Our Director of Sports also runs a fun sports day for the kindergarten students where families can join in. Throughout the year our kindergarten children participate in special celebrations such as the Moon Festival, TET, Christmas concerts and assemblies. Each week children visit one of our fantastic libraries and choose books to take home and share with their families. We often take 'field trips' to visit each other's kindergarten campus. This is a great way to meet more friends!
It's really easy. Contact our Admissions Team and they will organise for you to visit and take a tour of the campuses in Thu Duc City, HCMC. If you are interested in joining a particular campus our Admissions Team will organise a classroom visit for your child where they spend about 30 minutes joining in with the class and connecting with the teacher. You will then meet with either the Principal or Deputy Principal of the Primary and Kindergarten who will have a conversation to get to know you and your child. A place will be offered if we feel that as a school we can cater for your child. From here the Admissions Team will assist with connecting you with the classroom teacher so we can make the transition to AIS as smooth as possible.
