Pao Highlights

On May 20th, the Primary School hosted the school’s first STEAM fair, organised by ICT teacher Wilson Scott. After several months of hard work, the students presented their projects to parents, teachers and fellow students at the Fair to compete for a series of prizes. From robots, to recycled material carousels, to video games, to a smart pencil sharpener, the students’ inventive spirits were on display.

Congratulations to the winners!

Recently the Year 3s have been learning about famous western and eastern explorers in their EU classes. As part of the unit, they studied famous explorers, learned about physical landforms and water formations, learned to read simple maps, and investigating how magnetism and compasses work.

A showcase video of the Adventure and Explorer Unit

On Saturday 24th April, the Primary School PTA hosted its biggest event of the year – The 11th Eco Fair. The theme for this year, ‘Go Green, Respect Nature’, aimed to encourage eco-friendly practices in student’s daily life.

From 19th- 23rd April, students at the Primary School celebrated Book Week with a number of special reading-themed activities. During the week, students were able to visit the school’s book fair in the library to buy English and Chinese language books. Excitingly, all students were also expected to carry a book with them throughout the week. Each day, they were surprised with a ‘drop and read’ announcement and were expected to read for ten minutes – no matter what they were doing!

The Y1-Y2s had a special virtual workshop with author David Shannon – who is well known for books that promote themes such as respect and responsibility – gave a book talk and drawing tutorial to the students. The Y3-Y5s attended a workshop by Chinese literature writer Zhang Yu, whose work has been adapted into a musical staged at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

The students ended the special week with a costume day. All across the campus, the students wore special costumes of their favourite book characters – characters who they feel represent one of Pao School’s characteristics, such as Compassion or Integrity.

This week, the middle school performed Roald Dahl’s Matilda over three performances. In total, 67 students were involved in the production, including actors, directors, designers, stage managers and music directors. The students all came together to tell the story of Matilda, an extraordinary girl with extraordinary powers. Matilda, when faced with cruel parents, a tyrannical headmistress, and unfair circumstances, uses the power of stories and imagination to set things right.

On 11th June, Hongqiao Campus celebrated Earth Day – an annual event that focuses on promoting environmental protection. Throughout the day, the students completed a series of activities that drew attention to green issues and taught them more about the greatest challenges facing the environment. The Year 6s and 7s spent their time doing an experiment on air pollution, an escape room with puzzles related to the environment and watched a science documentary.

In Year 8, the students completed a longer project on hydroponics – a type of horticulture that involves growing plants without using soil. The students researched and made a hydroponics system, which introduced them to sustainable food production and built on their previous biological knowledge. Next year, the students’ hydroponics systems will be used by younger students to grow fruit and vegetables at the school.

In May, on the 31st Annual National Day for Helping the Disabled, Laurent (Y11) led the YK Pao School volunteer team to plan and organise a public welfare activity for the disabled. The event was held in Gucun Park, Shanghai, with the theme "Caring for Children with Special Needs and Their Families".

Across April and May, the IB drama students at Songjiang took part in a series of workshops held by a visiting Peking Opera expert from the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA). STA is one of China’s most prestigious performing arts institutions and has given birth to many of the country’s stars.

In the sessions, the students learned about Peking Opera’s distinct styles of movement and vocalizations – practising skills that would support their IB assessment in world theatre. The opportunity allowed the students to step into traditional Chinese theatre arts, to give them both a deeper understanding of their own culture and an appreciation of the dramatic techniques that make Chinese theatre unique.

On March 16th, Songjiang’s budding botanists hit the soil to plant a variety of sunflowers for the High School’s second annual Sunflower Growing Competition. As the weeks have passed and the weather has begun to warm the flowers are now beginning to bloom, and competition is starting to heat up. The winners of the competition will be announced shortly for categories such as the tallest flower, most beautiful flower and for the student who keeps the best growing diary. 

Below is a selection of photos of the sunflowers:

Recently, the ESS (Environmental Systems and Societies) IB students attended a field trip designed to improve their data collection skills. During the trip, the students visited different farms in Houwu to test the soil by using Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus (NPK). In addition, the rivers and the bamboo forest around town became important data collection sites for dissolved oxygen, pH, and species diversity. Once the data collection was complete, the students presented their work along with analysis of the data and proper use of the scientific equipment.

*Many thanks to Hansani Holmes, Environment Science and Biology Teacher at High School, for her contribution

For the past five years, YK Pao School has held an annual Swim for Love charity event. As public swimming pools in Shanghai do not allow autistic children to swim, the Swim for Love team hopes to provide additional swimming opportunities for autistic children and the opportunity to create special memories. Every June, the student’s hold swimming activities for autistic children at Songjiang Campus.

Swim for Love uses the event to raise money for XingTa Swimming School to purchase swimming equipment and lessons for autistic children. At the same time, the Swim for Love team hopes to show that autistic children are not different from normal children - they also love sports, love life, and are full of curiosity and yearning for the world.

This year, Swim for Love took a broader approach, as well as swimming activities, the team added a charity sale, food court, a fencing competition, and other activities on the school football field. 

This week, the Fan Xing Actors Ensemble performed a production of ‘That's Not True’ by Korean playwright Ms. Lee Mi-Kyung. The performance included 15 students who played dual roles as cast and crew. The play is a story based on the real-life incident of elephants escaping from a zoo in South Korea in 2005. The playwright uses surreal dark humor to illustrate how different parties in this incident stand on their own positions to look at the same event from different perspectives.