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Our Staff
Nina Farokhfal
Founder/Managing Director
Nina is an innovative and results-driven business leader focused on achieving exceptional results in highly competitive environments. She has a strong understanding in the early years education and is passionate about creating an environment for children that is inspiring and creative.
Nina has a Bachelor’s of Art’s degree in Child & Adolescent Development from California State University, Northridge (USA). She has CACHE Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for health, Social Care, Children and Young People’s Services from England. She has been trained by the Reggio Emilia Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and has also visited the city of Reggio Emilia in Italy to gain more profound knowledge of the philosophy.
“Opening the first nursery in the UAE with a Swedish curriculum was a challenge, but the biggest accomplishment has been to create a nursery that is true to my beliefs of a good educational system. Considering all the must-dos and must-haves in today’s society, we tend to put a lot of pressure on our children, with different lists of things they need to learn at a very young age. Nursery schools therefore promote their organizations to teach children how to read and write by the age of two, and promise parents to make their children to become little geniuses. Almost like we want children to become professors and engineers before they even start school. Teachers are therefore forced to teach children how to memorize and store lots of information rather than teaching them to become independent and develop strong imagination, and how to build their self-esteem and confidence. Things that are by far more important than learning numbers and letters.”
Susanne Linder
Principal
Susanne has spent most of her 25 year long career in Sweden as a principal for preschool, primary and secondary schools. She has a degree from the Swedish national principal training programme from University of Gothenburg , a degree in Bachelor of Education, two Degrees of Master of Social Science with each major in Educational work from Karlstads University and a degree of Master of Science with a major in Decision, Risk and Policy Analysis from Gävle University in Sweden.
In the early years of Susanne´s career, she took part in an educational exchange programme and visited a province in northern Italy. The teaching in the preschools and schools of Emilia Romagna in Italy had an impact on her values and changed her way to understand young learners. The child centred approach in the Reggio Emilia philosophy has ever since been an inspiration in her work and leadership.
In the manager role, Susanne would like to combine her passion for child centered curriculum that uses experimental learning in relationship driven environments and where the child always plays the lead role.
“On my first visit to Art Village Nursery, I noticed the art of not seeing play as only a pleasurable activity, but a process through which children learn. I also saw teachers and teacher assistants supporting play without dominating or disrupting it. That is one of the reasons why I love being part of this amazing learning community. For me, early childhood education should be a combination of play as a ground for learning, care and fostering fundamental values.”
Hina Abid
Curriculum Coordinator
Our curriculum coordinator, Hina has been in the field of early years education in Dubai for the past twelve years. She is passionate about constantly learning new things and being an out of the box educationist. Her educational career started by completing a masters degree in computer science and earning a status of Microsoft Certified Trainer. However, her passion lied in the field of teaching early years. She took a turn in her career and completed her CACHE Level 2 and 3 to gain a vast array of vital knowledge necessary when working with children. She worked as an Enabling Environment mentor to handle three different branches of a workplace (don’t understand this sentence) and got more than fifteen professional development certificates in various fields of early years education. She conducted workshops in collaboration with QUEST Dubai and also completed a CACHE Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health, Social Care, Children and Young People’s Services from England. In 2016, she got chosen from an outstanding field to be awarded as the CACHE International Learner of the Year.
”I joined Art Village Nursery in 2017 because of my passion for the Scandinavian style of education that fulfilled my urge to offer children opportunities that involve thrilling, exciting, physically challenging activities. Activities that provide a sense of fun, enjoyment and exhilaration support the natural progression in children’s learning, as they challenge themselves and extend their skills by moving out of their comfort zone. I believe in valuing children as central to their own learning and not simply an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge”.