Written by Andrea Griego (Student Support Coordinator)
“I love ice hockey!” were the words that came from Y4 student Lucas Lian, not once but four times, during our interview. This is Lucas’s second school year at YCIS and aside from enjoying his classes and friends here, he also enjoys playing ice hockey.
Lucas said he started playing when he was seven years old. He became interested in ice hockey when he saw other children playing and wanted to give it a try. He says that most of his summer was filled with practice and games which he thoroughly enjoyed. He had practice on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with games on either Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes on the weekend he could even have two games.
Lucas says, “I play defender but I get to shoot.” He said that he has scored many goals and the feeling after scoring a goal is beyond happy. Aside from the physical challenges of ice hockey, Lucas must be a team player and learn how to work with others to be successful. He also states that one of his favourite parts of playing hockey is making new friends. “I’ve made a lot of friends!” exclaimed Lucas. He says that his team is a Chinese team and although there are no students from YCIS Pudong that play on his team or league, he has met students from YCIS Puxi.
Lucas has traveled to small cities in countries like the Czech Republic and Russia to play games against other ice hockey teams within his age range. Lucas wants to continue improving in ice hockey and hopes to play in the future, possibly even travel to more countries to play. And again he states, “I love ice hockey!”
What is your exact position? What is your role?
Haha! No secret. Treat them like they’re my own children. I use a great deal of humour too! I’m always looking to design activities that are accessible and use reward a lot! Relationship building is incredibly important. I try to build mutual trust and respect and promote a safe environment where they are free to ask questions and make mistakes. A language rich environment also helps whilst ensuring the students have access to a range of tools to help them. Even an app such as iTranslate goes a long way!
Originally, I was a Primary Teacher in the UK where I taught across the curriculum. I taught for 2 years in the UK and then 2 years in Abu Dhabi working with Emirati children for the Education Council. Over there, English is taught as a second language, so there is a great deal of expertise within that field. The programme is extremely well-developed and this is how I was able to further develop my skill set of teaching non-native speakers. I had the opportunity to take a 2 year on-going professional development programme alongside my teaching. My training was focused around teaching English to second language learners in a way that also developed their communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills. I was able to implement my learning within my role and therefore began to develop professionally in this area.
I have always been interested in helping others and working within the community. So, when I was working my day job, I did some volunteering within the community, and I also got to do some volunteering in a school – at my daughter Lila’s school actually. That is when I realised that I really enjoyed it. I decided then to start my Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and trained in East London in a real multicultural environment and that is how I became a certified teacher! Since then, my passion for helping others hasn’t changed. Before, I used to help people to make money, now I help people to grow!
It was always a dream for me to take my family abroad. After spending two years in Abu Dhabi, we felt that it was the path for our family. My wife and children loved the experience of living abroad. They were the ones asking for it again when we went back to the UK last year. We enjoyed being in a new country, a new environment, living in an international setting, and the cultural diversity is a priceless experience.
The settling in Shanghai was great – We felt no pressure because of the processes in place. Moreover, YCIS colleagues are amazing people. No matter if it is YCIS staff or YCIS teachers, everyone is very supportive and responsive to your requests. There is definitely an ethos of collaboration and communication. The professional development opportunities are evident and there is certainly a strong support network.
Parent Relations at YCIS plays a key role in our school, because we believe that a strong and close partnership between parents and the school will benefit the children. Our aim therefore, is to facilitate as many opportunities for positive and meaningful interactions between the school and the parents during the course of the school year. With parents and the school working closely in partnership. We are able to together, build a unique school community that cares about the environment in which our students will learn and grow.
Once your child joins our school, you as parents and caregivers automatically become members of POP (Parents Organisation Pudong). Due to all the reasons explained above, YCIS has dedicated two staff members to work with Parents. They are Roseline Yang, Community Relations Officer and Nadine Runkel, POP Liaison Officer. Both of these hard working and commited ladies, ensure that parents are well informed, involved and valued. If you have not had a chat with Roseline and Nadine, drop in and say ‘Hi’.
You can usually find us in one of the Parent Rooms (ECE Basement, near the RP Courtyard or at Century Park Campus in the school office (Rm B116) or in the Scoop Office (adjacent to the RP Parent Room). We are here to help you, work with you and most importantly, to build a strong school community WITH you, our parents.
YCIS is committed to providing a holistic programme for all students, and the Co-Curricular Programme is one of the key ways in which this goal is realised. We are very excited to introduce to you our new Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) programme for YCIS Shanghai – Pudong Campus for 2017-18.
Our CCAs have been a major focus for our school over the past few years. We have listened to suggestions and feedback from parents and students, and the school has continued to add to what we offer. The buses provided at Regency Park Campus during the CCA season, and the CCA buses at Century Park Campus which run all year have allowed more students to participate.
We have been back to school for 4 weeks now! For this first edition of the newsletter, the editing team suggested we use video as a media to share our students’ thoughts. Last year, we had Year 5 and Year 6 students writing about their thoughts on a specific topic. For this first edition of the newsletter, we will use video to give the opportunity to the lower primary students to express their feelings and thoughts. Let’s watch what they have to say about being back to school and their goals for this new school year!
Whilst teachers are responsible for curriculum planning and implementation, children are considered to play an active role in this process. This role is realised by the teachers’ continuous attention to the children’s interest, their wonders and curiosities. Every room is set up to encourage choice with open-ended activities, that encourage thought and choice in many things that children do. The teachers lead and support all individual learning and build upon simple activities that lead to more complex work.
Yearly Overviews provide you with a sequence of the topics that will be covered across all subjects for each year level. This is a great way to see how teachers provide authentic opportunities to integrate core subjects with specialist subjects as well as Chinese Studies.
Our YCIS Curriculum has been developed to provide explicit teaching of skills and concepts that will allow students to transfer and apply their knowledge in various contexts, as well as be transferable when they move on to other locations in the future . We want our students to be able to think critically, understand different perspectives and be active participates and contributors amongst their peers and in the community. Our students achieve highly, due to our unique curriculum delivered by enthusiastic, highly trained teachers.