Written by: Melissa Shaw – Primary Coordinator
Firstly, congratulations on your recent appointment as the Secondary Coordinator! Can you tell us a bit more about the new role and what you are looking forward to contributing to the school?
Thanks. On a very simple level, the role will be about helping the YCIS Pudong academic team to be as strong as it can be. I’ve worked with many of the YCIS Pudong teachers for years and I know that they are extraordinarily passionate about their teaching, caring about our learners and creative in the classrooms, so the easiest way to explain what excites me about the new role is that I will be working with these colleagues to support and develop their ideas for extending and enriching teaching and learning experiences for students.
Driving this is the belief that success is built upon relationships between people, and the understanding that education is never static; It reflects life, continually evolving and responding as new technologies appear that change both the present and the future. A goal for me, then, is to help teachers, students and parents to foster an exciting and supportive learning culture at the school that is future-oriented and built on a healthy respect for both other people and technology. If I can contribute anything, I would hope it would be that.
You are also our IGCSE Coordinator. Have you always been interested in leadership?
I’m interested in leadership in so much as it facilitates others partaking in tasks that are individually or collectively positive and enriching. In this sense, schools are wonderful places for learning about leadership. A good example are the House Leaders and Captains at the school – they can’t join in all of the house activities themselves, but they are of key importance in setting the tone for how others participate. Similarly, you have a leader in a sports team, in a rock band, or in a class activity. In each example leaders often have to navigate some sort of challenge or difficulty, so I think the key to understanding a school’s relationship with leadership is that it is about the empowerment of the individual to support others (a team) to achieve the best outcome. I hope most would agree that this is an essential point of learning, and that all students should be given as many opportunities as possible throughout school to better understand it.
You have been at YCIS for 9 years now. What has kept you working with our Foundation for so long?
There are two elements that come to mind. First of all, great students and great colleagues. A school is a beautiful collaboration of people and ideas and from day one I liked the balance of these that I found at YCIS Pudong. I have genuinely loved going to school/work every day since I arrived. Secondly, the school’s attention to Chinese language and culture is genuinely important for me for my children. When we think of ‘future’ skills I can’t imagine a future where the ability to use and switch between Chinese and English would not be a useful asset in life. In brief, I work in a great place with great people and my children get an essentially valuable education.
Have you always been a secondary school teacher?
No. I’ve done a number of different things. Since university I have worked in a comic shop (loved it!), worked in the UK music industry with EMI and Polygram, taught language programmes at a number of universities, worked in corporate training, managed academic teams and teacher training programmes, and been a Deputy Headmaster at a different school.
What is one thing you want your students to take away from the time they spend in your class?
This is a hard question. I want them to take away so many things, but if I had to pick one it would be enjoyment in ideas. I love it when I see my colleagues do this in their different subjects. I think the best lessons stimulate students to engage with and respond to knowledge and concepts, and when this happens (and it happens a lot) learning is tremendously powerful. It also leads to fun in learning and because of this there is a lot more laughter in teaching and classrooms than people might imagine.
What have been your most memorable moments during your time at YCIS?
Winning my first ACAMIS football tournament with the 2014-2015 team was something very special, as was proudly observing Alex represent the heart of our school so well with her keynote student speech at the 2019 Cambridge Learner Awards. However, I think my favourite moments are the graduation evenings when the students who I have seen grow up through primary and secondary reach the natural end of their schooling. These moments are so beautiful and powerful (as student, teacher, family and school come together to celebrate both an individual and collective journey) that you want to bottle the feeling so you can keep it forever.
People may not know that you are pretty good on the football pitch, and while I thought you were a guitarist you are infact a keen bass player in our staff band. Do you have any other secret skills or hidden talents that we don’t know about?
Yes, with respect to the true guitarists in the school, I should point out that actually I’m a bass player more than a guitar player. I also enjoy playing the piano, although I’m terrible so it may not be classed as a skill or talent (quite possibly the opposite). I can also make a packet of sweets or biscuits disappear very quickly, but again this is ambiguous as a talent and may be construed as either a skill of some sort or a burgeoning health issue.
If I were to ask someone to share three words that would describe you, what would you hope they would say?
Makes things better.