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Inception of Ullens School

The Principal for the School, Mr. Medin Lamichhane, went to Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York to study education leadership.

When he came back in 2004, he reviewed the Nepal Government National Curriculum and initiated a short term pilot project to train school teachers in the Bank Street approach to education. A not-for-profit company was registered with the name Ullens Education Foundation to honor the contribution of the Ullens’ family to impoverished families in Nepal. The first program of UEF, the Ullens School came to life in May 2006, with 64 students & 24 faculty members focused on “diversity” and the concept that every child is unique.

In just over a decade of establishment, the Ullens School has earned recognition as a leader in progressive education in Nepal and is one of the most desirable schools in the country for the parents to enroll their kids. Currently, it serves close to 1200 students across these three programs and provides employment to over 300 people including academic and non-academic staff.

The goal was for each classroom to reflect the ethnic and geographical diversity of Nepal:

  • Economic diversity: Fully paying, partial paying, fully subsidized
  • Occupational diversity: Parents from different walks of life, diverse professional backgrounds
  • Ethnic diversity: include all ethnicities of Nepal
  • Gender balance

Our Beliefs

  • Every child is unique. The Ullens approach to teaching respects the cognitive diversity of its children.
  • Education develops a child to a complete being, which includes the child’s social, emotional, physical and intellectual development.
  • Education leads to an understanding of important concepts and mastery of essential skills through instruction which is based on well-researched philosophies of teaching and learning strategies. The school believes that: Learning is ‘child-focused’. Learning is active: students are engaged with real experiences and ‘hands-on’ activities, which help them to construct and develop their own understandings. Learning is engaging students in critical and creative thinking: students deepen their understanding through questions that ask them to solve problems, make connections, draw conclusions and articulate their own ideas. Learning is students reflecting on what they have learned from their experiences. Education is enhanced through respectful, open and supportive relationships between students and teachers. Students are encouraged to be creative and to share their ideas and feelings. Education is interactive. Parents and teachers are engaged in a partnership through which they support each other to provide positive learning environments for children.
Ullens School strives to encourage and empower children to pursue their intellectual curiosity and creativity along a path of self-discovery that leads to responsible adulthood and, to provide a multi-faceted learning environment that includes parents, teachers, students and the community, where children from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds are treated with respect and dignity.
Baron Guy Ullens and Myrium Ullens
Medin Lamichhane

Dear prospective students and parents,

Ullens School has been leading by example in progressive education since its inception. We are currently running programs across 3 campuses, split between the Kindergarten, the Elementary School (Grades 1-8) & High School(Grade 9-12) in Campus One, and the IBDP in Campus Two.  We are the first and only IB Diploma Programme (IBDP) School in Nepal since 2009. Over 600 students have graduated from the program and are studying in top universities and colleges worldwide.

We offer a multi-faceted and balanced curriculum for Grade K-12, remaining within the framework of the Nepal Government’s National Curriculum. We enhance students’ experience through the Bank Street Approach to teaching and equipping students with the skills to become life-long learners. We place a high priority on child-centered learning, along with hands-on and experiential learning to enable students to clearly express themselves in writing and speaking. Our teachers are trained in the philosophy of the Bank Street College of Education, and we focus on weekly professional development engagement to continually enhance and refine their pedagogical knowledge and skills. 

Our IB Diploma Programme aims to develop students who have excellent breadth and depth of knowledge and help students flourish physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically. Students will be encouraged to think independently and take ownership of their own learning. Students will be engaged in a variety of activities that make them culturally aware and able to engage and interact with people in an increasingly globalized, rapidly changing world. Students of the IB Diploma Programme are likely to perform better compared to other high school program students. Highest ranking universities around the world give high priorities to the graduates of the IB Diploma Programme in admissions.

I encourage you to come and visit Ullens School personally. Please email me at medin@ullens.edu.np or call me at 977-01-5151151 for a school visit and more information.

Sincerely,
Medin Lamichhane
Principal

Welcome to Ullens School.

Since 2006, we have provided high quality international education to students in Nepal. Numerous generations of Ullens graduates have attended some of the world’s leading universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and elsewhere.

Baron Guy Ullens and Myriam Ullens, the founders of Happy House Foundation, agreed for initial investments for the project which later on would progress to become the Ullens Education Foundation that we know today. Guy Ullens wanted Nepal to be the “land of education.” The vision of Ullens School has always been to become an international center for academic excellence that fosters social responsibility and international mindedness among its students. Both Guy and Myriam Ullens wanted to deliver quality education to the students, and the hence established foundation slowly self-realized the importance of it as there were not many schools which offered such high-quality education back then in Nepal.

The past decade and a half have definitely been an exciting, challenging and rewarding journey for each and every member of the Ullens family. Our school as a whole has had many watershed moments and has accomplished various milestones along the way.

In the year 2006 Ullens School was established. 2009 was a big year for the school as it had its first batch of School Leaving Certificate (SLC) graduates and began the initiation of the prestigious IB Diploma Program. In the year 2012 Ullens Kindergarten was established with 65 students and simultaneously the Ten Plus Two higher secondary program, under the Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) of Nepal, had been initiated. Through such curricular programs our students have achieved commendable excellence in their chosen academic streams.

Baron Guy Ullens and Myrium Ullens
Chairperson

Progressive infrastructural expansion has also been a proud highlight in the school’s story. In 2010 the school began its building expansions by adding a two-story building with a capacity of 90 students specifically for the IB Diploma Program and a multipurpose hall with a capacity of 500, in Khumaltar. In 2014 Ullens built a modern building especially designed for elementary level students (grade 1 to 8), which was given the name of “Kadjou Building”. Another school building was purposefully built in the year 2016, for the IB Diploma Program to be moved into, with a capacity for 300 students with additional space for basement parking and sports facilities.

The school’s vision of expansion is a continuous process. We have various future plans of growth lined up as well, such as making new and dedicated infrastructure for the Liberal Arts College, so as to expand the school’s academic coverage and quality.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents for their continuous support throughout the years. Without their faith in us, we could not have gotten so far in this wonderful journey and we truly hope to continuously receive the same kind of encouragement in the future as well.

We have also been highly fortunate enough to maintain a good partnership with Bank Street, New York. We are truly inspired by their commendable approach to the education system, which they term as the developmental-interaction approach. They recognize that all individuals learn the best when they are actively engaged with materials, ideas, and people, and that authentic growth requires diverse and nurturing opportunities for ongoing social, emotional, and cognitive development. It’s role in the development of Ullens School’s leadership has indeed been very crucial.

We respect individual differences and interests, offering a safe and happy learning environment within the school. Our teachers combine gentleness with justice and maintain high standards of ethical behavior as well as intellectual achievement and constantly contribute to the betterment of our Ullens family.

I hope that the contents of this website help you to get an idea of how we like to do things at Ullens. However, words and pictures can only do so much, hence, I cordially invite you to visit our school personally and to have a direct firsthand experience to gain a better understanding of our progressive education system and of what makes Ullens school so special.

Sincerely,
Dr. Arzu Deuba,
Chairperson