Childbase opens nursery in China
Thursday, August 8, 2019
UK nursery group Childbase Partnership is expanding to China with a new partnership deal, including an early years setting in Shanghai.
The 43-setting group has opened the new, purpose-built Zhixu Kindergarten School for children aged between six weeks and six years, located 18km from the centre of Shanghai.
Childbase Partnership has signed a partnership deal with Henen Xin Yangguang Holdings to provide training programmes and send early years degree level practitioners on secondment to China for up to six months to help establish settings it says will be 'comparable in quality and methdology' to its UK day nurseries.
The group has also joined forces with Shanghai Teacher Training College for a programme of joint research projects and exchange trips, which the group hopes will enhance early years provision in China.
Mike Thompson, founder and chairman of Childbase Partnership, said, ‘With this partnership we have the opportunity to enhance current childcare arrangements in China and deliver the same outcomes as our UK settings while giving colleagues the opportunity to share their excellent practice and work in an exciting new market.’
The offer of a secondment to China represents an extension of Childbase’s ‘Once in a Lifetime Opportunities’, which offers its 2,000 employees the opportunity to visit early years centres in Europe and Australia.
More than 25 of the company’s graduates have registered their interest in working in China since the deal.
‘The response from graduate colleagues has been overwhelming support for the new partnership and excitement about being able to help with the delivery of the best childcare and education outcomes in China,’ Mr Thompson added.
Childbase was listed as the UK's fourth largest nursery group in Nursery Chains, Autumn 2018.
