Written by: Roseline Yang, Parent Relations Officer
In the last Newsletter we talked about first sprouts. Three months have passed since we set our wish for the 2019-2020 school year …To engage everyone and to build a community where everyone finds their place of comfort, regardless of our origins, gender, age, experience, life-style and language.
Looking back now, it seems that our seeds of hope have taken shape and actually some of our million dreams have already taken place, without even noticing. This could be due to the fact that I was just a simple participant/liaison or because it wasn’t a first-time experience; but, I truly feel that this is because there was a shared vision towards which we have been driven:
- The Wellbeing Theme of ECE & Primary Book Week felt like a real success where even students and parents of Secondary were included and joined the sessions with author Julia Cook. There was even a rap composer and book author that came that week just for our Secondary students.
- The two very engaging Parent Coffee Morning at CP and RP. One was about the Life Skills Programme in Secondary School where parents got to practice self-defense skills, and the other one involved testimonials of two parents for the topic of Celebrating the Differences in our Children during Autism Awareness Week.
- The Parent/Child Seeds of Hope Trip to the Bo Ai school in a rural area of Shanxi Province was unforgettable and breathtaking – it has definitely left each of the participants with a profound and inexplicable bond with one another and that place.
- The three Parent Talks in Chinese (where I had to consider translation in English) were very well attended because the guest speakers were introduced by our YCIS parents themselves: One was a one-day training about Relationship Education, another was a morning about Chinese Learning and Reading Strategies and the most recent one was the sharing of an awarded Chinese Tea teacher.
- The Parent Art Workshops Series on Wednesday for Parent Helpers this semester
- Two Parent Potlucks, one for parents to connect and socialize and another for farewells
- A meeting for Parents of Class Representatives took place with our ECE & Primary Vice Principal to further develop the partnership between school and parents in term of communication.
- Three internal trainings for Parents Volunteers also took place to build technological, interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills that are essential for leading or working in teams in our multicultural environment setting.
- School committee meetings involving Parent Experts & Volunteers e.g. food service, service learning and CIS accreditation (upcoming)
What was noticeable for me was the execution of The Christmas Tree Lighting and Giving Tree that recently took place, because they were bigger scale projects, which involved a wider range of people: Community Partners, POP (Parent Organization Pudong) and Parent Volunteers, YCIS Girl Scouts as well as the Academic Teams such as the Performing Arts Department, Class Teachers, Student Council and CAS Coordinators .
Every individual who has joined a group is starting to get a better understanding of the group they are part of and get a sense of its contribution to the bigger picture.
When each cell is marked with a common intention, each member moves towards a common direction, as a result the whole body flows in a more harmonious way and it moves faster in the water. This is a representation of how our Parent Organization Pudong has been evolving thanks to each of its members. No matter what you do or think of, this has an impact on the whole organization and each member of our school community.
We are now in the busy period of Christmas celebrations and the multitude of elves that are YCIS parents and staff from the school’s Support Division have industriously helped behind the scene with the set-up of Christmas trees and Christmas decorations for the classrooms, as well as, for the outside alleys at Century Park campus for the Christmas Tree Lighting! Not to mention the parent elves that helped with the backdrop of the theatre and the costumes for the Primary Christmas Concert performances. These elves are now busy working to support the class teachers to organize the Christmas parties for the ECE & Primary classes. And all of these associated efforts are aiming at one common goal: The happy learning environment of our children, for them to be inspired and flourish.
The seeds and the sprouts have become plants and I cannot wait to see how the garden looks at the end of this school year in June.
If you read Daniel Coyle’s Culture Code about the Secrets of highly successful groups, you can quickly identify that by being committed and engaged, we as parents partnering with the school are creating this environment where innovation flourishes, problems got solved and expectations are exceeded.
Remember that you are always welcome to join and dive in (contact: poppd@sh.ycef.com). The upcoming events where parent involvement, support and participation is needed are:
- Friday, January 17 – Parent Performance during Chinese New Year Celebration
- Wednesday, March 18 – Staff Appreciation Day
- Saturday, April 25 – Spring Charity Event
- Saturday, May 23 – Global Child Day including International Food Days provided by Eurest (Greece in January, Arabic in March, and Thai in May)