Interview with Mark Bishop, the New Executive Headmaster

This school year Pao School welcomes Mark Bishop to the role of Executive Headmaster, to which he brings over 35 years of educational experience. Mark joined Pao School as the Principal of the High School in August 2018 following a distinguished career as Headmaster of London's Trinity School. Mark will also continue as High School Principal to ensure the work he has begun in the High School is carried through.

I want the school to be a high-performing school but I don't want it to be a high-stressed school. I want it to be a school where everyone, from the founders, from the board, from the senior leaders, from the teachers, from students and parents, where the whole school community wants to see a good school become even better. And a lot of that is about the concept of marginal gains. That is, each year, if every student, every teacher and every leader can improve their performance a bit, the school then by the end of the year is better than where it started. And that's what I want from the school: to be constantly improving and enhancing the quality of what we offer.

There are two key priorities across all three campuses this year. The first priority, and this will always be the top priority while I'm the Executive Headmaster, is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Nothing is more important in a school than having outstanding teachers who inspire and enthuse our students. Then second priority is to ensure that our pastoral care is really outstanding. The emotional and mental well-being of our students is an absolute priority for the school. Some high-performing schools can become, I think, self-satisfied and complacent. The great thing about YK Pao School is that everyone from the board downwards knows that the school is on a journey. We haven't yet arrived, but there is a real desire to take the school forward and to improve even further.

I want the school to be highly successful when it comes to academic outcomes, but one of the lovely things about YK Pao School, which I hope will never ever change, is that we are deeply committed to holistic education. And that starts from the moment our students begin at the Primary School and continues to the moment they leave from the High School.

Our goal is to educate young people to become not just students who do well academically but who are well balanced, who have a breadth of vision and who have a love for China and an international outlook. This is what we think of as a holistic view of education.

I want teachers who are absolutely passionate about their subjects. I want science teachers who keep up to date with what is happening in the world of science and who can make that teaching a relevant and exciting to students. But I also want those teachers not to just to teach, not just to impart knowledge, but to actually enthuse and inspire students. There is a world of difference between a good teacher and an inspiring teacher. And if you look at students in the rest of their lives, if you go back and think who the person is who had a real influence on their lives, it will be a few inspiring teachers.

The key with leadership in any school or any organization is that it is not about a single person. The reason why YK Pao School is so successful is that it has great leadership at every level. We have founders who are passionately committed to the school. We have a board who are incredibly supportive. We have a President who works night and day for the school. At the other two campuses we have very talented, outstanding principals. So my job is simply to support them, to guide them and to provide an overall consistency and coherency to the school. That does mean I have to be effective and efficient. But it's also about building and empowering other people, so that it's a team that takes the school forward.

The students, without questions, are extraordinary. They're intelligent, they're ambitious, they care deeply about their studies. But that's true of many Chinese students. But there are some different things I think about YK Pao School students. For example, many of our students will choose to take, what I think is widely regarded as the most challenging English language course across the globe, the IB language A high level. Most bilingual schools in China don't even offer it, but here at YK Pao School many students choose to do that and achieve the highest possible mark.

But it's not just their intelligence, not just their ambition. Many of them are incredibly creative. They are entertaining. They have a great sense of humor. I've also been really struck by their compassion, such as the number of students who are serving other people, looking to get involved in fundraising and charity activities. I think that really does set our students apart.

I want them to aim high. I don't want them to settle for being OK, because they can do better than that. I want them to have a real believe in themselves. I want them to have an inner confidence. But I want that to be allied with an outward humility, because I think that is a very compelling combination for young people to have.

We are very fortunate at YK Pao School to have parents who care deeply about education and who believe and trust in the school. I suppose they are the key things that I want. I want parents who see education as a partnership between home and school where parents and school both working together to do the very best they can for their children. And I also want parents who trust the school, who recognize the school is there simply and only to deliver the best quality of education that it possibly can.

One of the great strengths of the school is that the campuses do have their own unique identity. And that's something I very much want to retain. But at the same time, I want to ensure that there is a consistency, particularly in the values of the school, but also in the aims of the school. That is, what young people are we trying to produce when they leave here at 18. I want to give parents a sense of that this is a school from Year 1-12, and there is a seamless transition from those who start with us right at Year 1 and then they leave and graduate from the High School.