The TREE ART Story

At TREE ART, we do more than just impart knowledge; we teach how to learn. Our unique Approaches to Learning (ATL) prepare our students for autonomous learning. In contrast to traditional ‘knowledge education’, likened to ‘giving a fish’, ATL equips our students with the ability to ‘fish’ – imparting the knowledge of how to learn.

In our TREE ART-ATL system, students develop a balanced set of five critical skills: Thinking, Social, Communication, Research, and Self-Management. This approach facilitates a well-rounded learning experience, nurturing them to become adept learners and creative thinkers.

In a TREE ART class, teachers listen as much as they teach. Every child’s artwork carries a story, so our teachers invite children to talk about what they have made — and listen carefully to the answer. Each piece is a corner of a child’s inner world, and when children explain their work, parents get closer to that world too.

We do not teach children to copy. Copying and imitating underestimates a child’s potential, so we protect the space and freedom to create — the child’s own ideas make the decisions, and the finished work truly belongs to them.

“What does this building remind you of? Does the light have a colour?”

Questions our teachers ask beside an outdoor easel — instead of picking up the pencil themselves

That restraint is planned, not improvised. Before an outdoor sketching morning at CHIJMES, the full teaching team walked the grounds a week ahead and prepared one theme at a different depth for each age group. The session itself opened with the history of the building and its Gothic architecture.

Lessons are taught in English as a two-way interaction, with one teacher to at most six students, so every child is heard.