Book Week
At the end of October, the Primary School held its annual book week with the theme "Wild about Reading." This year, the students participated in activities focused on animal characters in books. In addition to Chinese and English book fairs during the book week, there were activities such as a bookmark-making competition and dress-up days. The library teachers also invited authors Jan Latta and Guo Jiangyan to visit the school and chat with students.
In her talk, Jan Latta introduced her non-fiction books about wildlife. She also discussed the connection between books and texts, and how to research and use the world around us to inspire writing.
Jan Latta
Guo Jiangyan is a novelist and storyteller. She is also a special language teacher and has won the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award. During her talk with the students she discussed the process of developing a story and how reading can make learning languages fun.
Guo Jiangyan
"My Motherland and I"
Pao School’s Primary School Young Pioneers participated in a Flash Mob to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. On the playground, the orchestra students performed beautifully, whilst the choir students led all the teachers and other students to sing a rendition of “My Motherland and I”.Crick Chen, Primary School Deputy Principal, says,
"We hoped to express the Pao community’s love towards the Motherland in this performance. In 2007, the school was established to allow children and teachers from different cultures and who spoke languages to learn and live on the same campus. It is the Motherland that provides a platform for the development of Pao School. In 2019, we also show our respect through education focusing on the love of our motherland!"
In a short video produced by the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, “The Ceremony for the 70th Anniversary of National Day”, Ms. Chen sincerely expresses her thoughts towards her post and her contributions to the preparations for National Day. She says，
“Congratulations on the Motherland's 70th anniversary. As an educator, I will continue to contribute to China through my position as a primary school principal and lead my team to contribute to the new model of bilingual education in Shanghai."
Library Month
October is international library month and so was the perfect time for us to invite a special guest author, Bryn Barnard, to visit our school. Bryn is an American author and illustrator, as well as an artist and educator. He is best known for his books such as; ‘Dangerous Planet’, ‘Outbreak’, and ‘The New Ocean’.
During his visit to YK Pao Middle School and High School, he guided students through the process of creating books and how books can evolve from manuscript to print. Bryn’s main goal was to give students a deeper understanding and appreciation of how writing and illustrations work together, and to help the students understand the importance of the editing process.
Bryn Barnard with students
The library invited Professor Zhu Yangyong from the School of Computer Science at Fudan University to talk to students on the Songjiang campus about big data. He and the students discussed how to use big data to better acquire knowledge and how it can be applied in our studies and work. They also briefly discussed blockchain and other cutting-edge data-powered technology.
Professor Zhu Yangyong
The library also encouraged students and staff to participate in the Book Review Competition, in which the participants wrote a review for their favourite book. In addition, the library hosted a scavenger hunt to test everyone's knowledge about the library.
Three Pillars Day
At the start of the school year, students from YK Pao Middle School had a wonderful experience visiting an organic farm as part of Three Pillars Day.
In the morning, the students observed the serious impact of pests on organic vegetables, the role of weeds in an organic farming ecosystem, soil before and after plowing, and learned about how plants grow. Afterwards, the students learned how to grow tomatoes and each class took home what they had planted. After lunch, the students discovered the role of twine making in agricultural production. This activity day enabled students to more deeply understand the school's core values and observe how these values can be applied to different challenges.
Trip to Zhuji
The new Head of Outdoor Education, Mr Betts, led a group of 15 students to Zhuji in Zhejiang Province for several days of hiking through bamboo forests, around temples and up a hilltop overlooking a reservoir. After a relaxing boat ride, students discussed and reflected on their challenging day. The next morning, students hiked the 'Five Waterfalls Trek' before making their way back to Shanghai.
Y11 Zaim says:
"Admittedly, we were exhausted by this trip, but the beautiful views and the new experiences were wonderful and worth the effort for everyone. In order to explore the road not taken, we took some detours, following the trails that local residents use, which were challenging for someone new to hiking like me. Because we took these trails, we got a chance to see how the local people live. I really found it interesting."
Y11 Peter says:
"The trip was quite challenging, especially when climbing up and down the mountains. Sometimes we had to walk through many wild paths accompanied by lots of wild plants and insects…Although the hiking was exhausting, I found it worthwhile to challenge myself since it could make me healthier and stronger. The landscape also looked beautiful from on top of the mountain. This trip was challenging as well as enjoyable."
Parents praised the trip and noted that, “At Pao School, students' learning tasks increase in the upper years. From Monday to Friday students spend a lot of time on their schoolwork and don't have too much time for outdoor activities. But at the same time, it's important to stay physically active. Weekend excursions are one way to do that. Hiking is a good way to relieve stress, get exercise, build willpower and let the children get in touch with nature!”
The Belt and Road Initiative
Pao School was honored to invite Professor Zhang Jiadong, an expert on the BRI, to C4C class time to give a lecture entitled “The Belt and Road Initiative and China’s Foreign Policy”.
In the lecture he introduced the BRI, including its historicalorigin, international background, national causes, its status quo and possible challenges. During his talk he discussed cases that would help students to understand more about China's national strategies.
Awards
We are very fortunate at the High School to have so many students who have a real talent at drawing, painting, calligraphy and other creative arts. It is excellent to see that this year, as in previous years, we have a number of students attempting to gain places at some of the top art schools around the globe. As part of the next phase of development at the High School, we will be further enhancing the facilities for IB Art and Design.
Olina (Y9) recently won the Gold Medal in the 25th World Peace Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition in Paris, France. Olivia’s winning painting is a superb piece of work that we will be proud to display in our school.
Anna (Y9) took part in the Hangzhou International Debate Challenge. She performed admirably, reaching the Grand Final and finished second overall.
Laurent (Y11) received the Golden Award for high school calligraphy in the fifth Shanghai “Wen Ming Bei” Painting and Calligraphy Competition.
Each year, our senior IB students compete for the very generously endowed ‘Egon Sohmen Economics Prize’. This year the winners are:
1st Prize David
2nd Prize Sandy
3rd Prize Leon
4th Prize Peter
5th Prize Charlie
On October 18th, the Plenary Session of the 2019 China Annual Conference for International Education & Expo (CACIE) was held in Beijing. This year, the theme was “Education 2035: A Dialogue with the Future of the World” and the conference served to promote a higher level of educational reform and opening-up.
Minister of Education Baosheng Chen attended the conference and delivered a speech. President Wu Zijian was invited to join the "Building Languages Skill for Youths around the Globe - Foreign Language Acquisition for Chinese Students & Chinese Language Learning for International Students" roundtable forum.
President Wu (second from left)
Pao School Student Richard, the 1st prize winner of the 2018 GoodTalk (Global Village) Children & Youth Bilingual Speech Conference, was invited to partner with a student from Australia to give a bilingual speech on the theme "China in My Eyes" and also sang Singing the Painted Mask of Peking Opera.
Richard
Sports
Girls Volleyball
Congratulations to our Girls Volleyball team! Last weekend, the team won the Shanghai Volleyball Cup, defeating school and club teams from all over Shanghai. The girls showed fantastic hard work, resilience, teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the tournament.
Boys Football
Last week, our U11 Boys Football team participated in their first SSSA tournament of the year at HD Shanghai School. The boys represented the school very well and showed excellent teamwork in all their games. Their hard work in training was clear to see as they won all their games during the group stages. In the finals they faced their old rivals SUIS Hongqiao and were unfortunately beaten in a very close game. The team came away with the 2nd place trophy and lots of great learning experiences.
Floorball
Last Sunday, our U8, U10 and U12 Floorball teams took part in a Shanghai-wide tournament involving both club and school floorball teams. All our teams represented the school extremely well, showing respect, compassion and fantastic resilience throughout the long day. Our teams achieved some superb results with the U8’s placing as runners up and both the U10 and U12 teams winning 3rd place. The U12 team was awarded the ‘Best Team’ award, Adam (Y2) received the ‘Best Captain’ award and Aengus, Tukar, Isaac and Adam all won ‘Best Shooter’ awards.
Pao School took part in the inaugral Youth Floorball Championship of the Shanghai Amateur Games hosted by the Shanghai Community Sports Administration Center. Our students played at the U14 level alongside several Year 8 students and won 2nd place! We are proud of our students continued commitment and success in floorball.
Fencing
The YK Pao School Fencing Team (including players from both the Hongqiao and Songjiang campuses) participated in the 2019 Shanghai Primary and Secondary School Fencing Championships sponsored by the Shanghai Education Committee. A total of 1,346 athletes from 337 primary and secondary schools in Shanghai participated in the event. Amidst strong competition from professional and amateur elite players, our Pao School fencers fought hard and achieved outstanding results! We are looking forward to more success in the future.
Y7 Victor won Gold Medal in Men’s Foil, Middle School Group B
Y8 Angel came 2nd in the Women’s Foil, Middle School Group B
Y8 Tiffany came 3rd in the Women’s Foil, Middle School Group B
Y9 Jimmy came 5th in the Men’s Saber, Middle School Group A
Victor
Golf
The Hongqiao golf team participated in the Shanghai Inter-School Golf Tournament. Our students braved the harsh weather and won the championship for our school in this highly competitive tournament! Keith Wan (Y7) placed 3rd in the individual competition, making a great contribution to our championship team. We are excited for the continued success of our young golfers!
The Songjiang CoE Boys Basketball team played in the Adriana tournament held at Pao School. The tournament was a mix of club and school teams and we finished in 3rd place. The CoE Boys Football team played WISS in an SSSA league game and, in a very one-sided game, won 14-1. In the swimming competition at the Shanghai Orientation Sports Centre, Pao School students Allen, Yoyo, Sean, Ken, Emily, Jacqueline, Neo and Chris all won gold or silver medals across various events. Congratulations to all the swimmers who participated in the competition!
