Written by: Roseline Yang, Parent Relations Officer
In this extraordinary situation, this is the time for each of us to bond and to be united, to support each other, to understand, to connect and to reconnect regardless of our views, perception and understanding of the current situation because it impacts on all of us.
Who would have suspected that…after the exciting evening we spent together to celebrate Chinese New Year Family Celebration on Friday, January 17, we would not be able to see each other again for so long?
I can still remember how right after Christmas Holidays, all our school teachers, students and parents were busy with decorating and getting involved in the ECE & Primary Week of Chinese Culture and Chinese New Year Celebration. Some parents came to tell stories in the ECE, others came to share their Chinese Calligraphy or Chinese Painting skills with the students, not to forget the great artist and his team who came to surprise all of us with their outstanding painting techniques making each of the participant feel like an extraordinary artist.
And yes! There were also all the beautiful costumes and delicious food prepared by parents for their child’s class! There was even one group of parents and children who made time to rehearse after school toget ready for the performance on that celebration night!
I can still remember how busy it was also for parents who attended the Transition Meetings of Year 6 to Lower Secondary and K4 to Year 1, not to mention the parents who, called on a short notice, still made the time to help us give their insights and ideas regarding school report systems and Parent Ambassador programme. The core members of the Parent Organization of Pudong (POP), whose focus is to support and enhance the community spirit of the school, were also starting to plan the activities for after Chinese New Year Holidays, such as the Second-hand book sorting and sale during Parent Teacher Interviews or the Annual Staff Appreciation planned during the week of the International Day of Happiness!
Even after that busy period, I still dared to ask on the last 2 days before the holidays for the help of some parent volunteers to work on a Board Game sorting project because it was something that had been promised to a colleague back in August. I was so grateful and touched that there were still parent volunteers coming together with their children to join and support me going through two big boxes of Mathematica & Science and Literacy games!
Who could have predicted that our plans and intentions would have to be reviewed?
Everyone needed another holiday break to restart fresh from our hard work…but who honestly would have predicted that this newly discovered virus would not only prevent families and friends to get together to celebrate the most important and joyful festival of China?
In this unfortunate and unprecedent situation impacting the whole country’s people, systems functioning and economy, I was truly impressed by how our school leaders set-up a whole new system from scratch to be able to support and offer an online programme for students. This has been a learning curve since the beginning (and it will continue to be so) for every member of the school community, because no one had ever been prepared for this situation.
However, this has definitely highlighted the heart of our organization, which is focused on the close partnership of the teachers and the parents working for the benefits of the children’s learning and wellbeing.
Everyone is surely wishing to be done with this period and to go back to our “normal lives and routine”. But what if we were just to embrace the “Now”? What if we were to use this situation to teach our children to practice resilience, flexibility, identify our own strengths, develop our communication channels by sharing what works and what can be improved to? What if we just came together as united and therefore stronger?
Having personally worked closely in partnership with every member of our school community, from leaders, to support staff, academic, non-academic, even external partners, not to mention the key players of our organization (teachers and parents), I can tell you that YCIS is made up of extraordinary individuals that are clear about the purpose of what they do, which is to work for this unique and same goal to support the learning and growth of our students.
In this extraordinary time, let’s make the best of this situation we are “trapped-in” and let’s take our best weapons to fight together: our YCIS Team Spirit made ofLove & Caring that made our students win so many gold medals in any competitions (football, robotics, performing arts). Together Everyone Achieves More, much more. Let’s come together as this is just the perfect time to be united and to shine.
To read more about our school’s mission, principles and practices, please click here.To support our school’s mission and share your unique talent knowledge, skills and expertise during this extra-ordinary time, feel free to contact me: roseline.yang@sh.ycef.com