Halio School Hua Hin like many education institutions has had to face the challenge of figuring out how to balance the dual concerns of a continuing education for their student population as well as keep their students safe in terms of COVID issues. Parents have been understandably also concerned about these outcomes which has made it a delicate balancing act for any educators and administrators attempting to achieve
Located near the hills of Hua Hin, Halio School is a small, non-profit organization designed by parents and teachers to directly meet the specific needs of the children. They stated that, “Rather than trying to accomplish some external curriculum designed by strangers, we work with our immediate situation and support the development of 21st Century Skills in our children. Among those skills are the abilities to problem solve and adapt to a rapidly changing future.” Obviously showing themselves to be a school that is looking to the the future, they further said “Halio School prides itself on including children in decision-making processes, being a child-centered organization, and doing a lot of project-based learning.” We found in our own time at Halio School, that the children were both intellectually curious and also participated in decision making, learning that they could too being responsible for their own, future destiny.
In terms of how Halio themselves have responded to the ongoing challenges, “The global pandemic has given us a great opportunity to demonstrate our creative problem solving skills and our ability to adapt to a rapidly changing future. When the government ordered schools to close and teach online, it worked for our older students but the younger ones weren’t served. Many of our parents didn’t want their children to be in front of a screen all day.” This did leave the school with a conundrum of how to stimulate the educational needs of their students, that did over reach their limited resources.
They met that challenge in a similar way they have met many previous challenges, “We celebrate that we are a community school, and so we met with parents and worked out solutions together. Some of our parents hosted small groups of children in their homes to allow the children to socialize and keep the learning alive. Some of our teachers worked with students online. Some of our parents requested teaching materials from the school and worked independently with their children. We also subscribe to several digital platforms, and those proved to be excellent resources for our families and their children.” Evidently Halio School is deploying technological resources and community outreach as a way to provide ongoing education solutions.
Padma, the founder of Halio School further said, “As a small school with small classes, big classrooms, and a lot of outdoor space, we are lucky that it is easy for us to follow covid protocols well.” The school has, whenever possible, been able to get permission to open from the Center for Disease Control, and have been able to keep the children safely together for onsite learning through most of the last 16 months. Looking to the future the school had this to say, “Although we’re currently in our 4th shutdown, we hope and expect to be able to open again soon.”
For further announcements and information, please check their website : https://www.halio.org/
