The philosophy behind EtonHouse's organic growth

Nearly three decades ago, EtonHouse set up its first school on Broadrick Road. Today, they have over 20,000 students across 120 schools in 11 countries. The organisation has constantly been exploring new ways to inspire its students through innovations in pedagogical practice in response to the evolving expectations around developing knowledge, skills, and dispositions in students globally. What is their secret to success?

The Group’s transformation stems from its innovative mindset to provide its students with a cutting-edge learning environment that inspires them to be the best version of themselves. The Group evolved from a pre-school operator to an international education group providing an educational pathway from pre-school to high school in Singapore and China.

A pioneer in bilingual education, it was one of the first pre-schools to offer the 100% ZhongHua Mandarin Immersion Programme, which is well-trusted and highly subscribed by parents today. It was also the first to offer a bilingual programme in the primary years in an international school setting. Its foray into affordable education in the early years and international schools’ space as E-Bridge Pre-School and Middleton International School expanded its reach and scale to become one of the most established and respected groups in the education space.

“Nothing [else] reminds us more of the future than our children”

To Yi-Xian, the Group CEO and Executive Director of EtonHouse, this growth journey has been the most meaningful to represent the school’s vision ‘Shaping the future through education’. Bilingual immersion is one of the key prospects drawing in parents to their international schools. Yi-Xian’s passion in EtonHouse’s values can been identified in his heartfelt feelings about the school’s vision in Chinese: ‘点亮教育的未来’ (The Future of Education).

With a philosophy that centres every action around the children and the students at their schools, EtonHouse believes in an inquiry-based learning approach. This approach nurtures curiosity in children as they engage with explorations that are grounded in their context and triggered by their interests, thus making learning enjoyable and meaningful. What this means is that teachers create provocations that are developed from children’s interests and explorations to plan for their learning across different domains of development. Such an approach develops in children a sense of ownership of their learning, encouraging open-mindedness and critical thinking skills.

Growing from one school to 120 schools and more was never an easy feat. The reality for businesses is that there are bound to be challenges along the way. For example, while they had success in their Suzhou school using an international pedagogy taught by international teachers, it did not spell the same for another city in China: Chengdu, as the parents there wanted a local preschool with an international pedagogy taught by local teachers. The key takeaway from this experience can be summarised in two words: to adapt. Listen to people on the ground, listen to the feedback given, and adapt.

Fast forward to the present day, not only have they expanded successfully in China with more than 40 schools, but their additions of affordable preschools locally were also recognised by the government, while working closely with EDB to offer affordable yet quality education for expatriates in Singapore. EtonHouse Group’s success was largely due to its ardour commitment to upholding its unique pedagogy and approach, in the upkeeping of every school in the group; their rigour in hiring passionate people and ensuring that the school leaders are good representations of the organisation; and their zealousness in staying connected with the ground and the end-users.

To take it up a notch, EtonHouse has also established The Eton Academy, an enrichment provider that teaches the Singapore’s MOE syllabus through an inquiry-based approach that makes it more fun and meaningful, and the digitalisation of the EtonHouse curriculum to share its pedagogy with the world on a B2B EdTech platform.

Evidently, this EtonHouse ecosystem is witness to the scale of the Group’s zeal in accomplishing this incredible growth. Responding to a comment that organic growth is difficult and rare these days, Yi-Xian refutes:

“I do organic growth for a living. Every school is painfully birthed, every single icon, [and] logo. I took a lot of time, blood, sweat, and tears to accomplish [this]. It can be done.”

“It is not just about scale, but what happens in the classroom for every single child.”

However, it is not just about growing the number of schools but serving the larger community. As the organisation continues to grow, it is important that it always focuses on the quality of education and helping children become the best version of themselves so they can contribute and build a brighter future for the world.?