Parent present 2019 Y5 Graudation
YK Pao School’s logo is a large green tree with three fruits, symbolizing that education is the joint responsibility of parents, teachers and students. The Pao School community is a diverse group of people both from the standpoint of their backgrounds and ways of thinking. At the same time, as a fairly young school, Pao School is constantly establishing and improving campus facilities, courses and campus culture. One organization integral to these endeavours is the Pao School Parent Teacher Association (PTA). The PTA’s purpose is to promote close cooperation between parents, teachers and the school administration, with an eye on strengthening the foundations of Pao School.
The first day of YK Pao primary school, 2007
In 2007, on the first day of school at the Primary School, founder and chairman Anna Sohmen urged the first cohort of 100 parents to organize and truly learn how it is to be a parent. And so, the Primary School PTA was established in 2008. Chairman Anna Sohmen Pao personally selected the Chinese name of the PTA to be Parent-School Cooperation Association, hoping that parents could become strong supporters of the growth of their children and advocates for the school. Since then, PTA has facilitated cooperation and communication between parents and the school and supported the school to complete various tasks.
All Pao School parents, teachers and professional staff are members of the PTA. The organization includes: parent representatives (class representatives), year representatives, and parent representatives of the core committee, who assist in the daily work of PTA. Every year, the PTA chooses its chairman through democratic elections. Parent representatives hold meetings with school leaders every month. Under the school system and framework, staff members identify and propose solutions to problems. Representatives collect information on common problems families face, come up with suggestions for the school’s reference, and help the school and families to reach consensus on different proposals.
Pao School’s whole-person education philosophy enables children to fully explore themselves, maximize their strengths, avoid weaknesses and build self-confidence. In tandem, the school provides guidance and encouragement for parents. For that reason, Pao School parents are willing to spend time and energy as school volunteers. The PTA of Pao School also includes the Rainbow Volunteer Team, YKPS RUN A WAY Outdoor Sports Club, Story Mommies Team and more. Parents are well aware that actions speak louder than words when it comes to parenting.
The PTA Campus Culture Committee was established to promote the core values of Pao School in the community, and the school’s academic and social activities incorporate compassion, integrity and balance into all that they do. As a result, students develop independent thinking skills, a sense of social responsibility and an international vision, all qualities that will serve them well in the future. The Campus Culture Committee implements this culture comprehensively on campus, allowing it to become a guiding light for every Pao School family.
Developing campus culture through activities
At Pao School, gifts are not used as a way to express friendship between teachers and students. Pao School has a different way of allowing students and parents to share their thanks. One of the most important examples is the Hundred Families Banquet, established in Pao School’s early days as a tradition to celebrate Teacher’s Day. Every year, the Hundred Families Banquet has a different theme and decoration. For parents, the event is an opportunity to showcase their cooking skills and creativity. Over the years, many different types of food have been included in the banquet, with mainstays including Wenzhou food stalls, handmade dumplings stalls, homemade pastry stalls, and China tea art stalls. Teachers, especially those from overseas, are deeply moved by this unique form of gratitude. They say if there is one thing that is unmissable at Pao School it is the Hundred Families Banquet.
As campus culture has formed, not only have the parents organised the Hundred Family Banquet, but also instigated different activities to promote cooperation between the school and parents.
The Parent Volunteer Association of Wuding Campus regularly a diverse array of activities. During the 2020-2021 academic year, parent volunteers launched a new project, “Diversity is Cool,” which has thus far included four events: one with a Spanish cultural theme, one with a Thai cultural theme, one focused on the Vietnam Dragon Boat Festival and a chess activity. In total, nearly 200 people participated in the four events. Each event had a family in charge who carefully planned the activity, so that students and parents affected by the pandemic who cannot travel freely were still able to experience different cultures, including their food, music, arts and crafts.
With the high satisfaction of participating families, the families hosting the events have also expressed their willingness to participate in future activities. These events are a source of pride for the students who are involved, while also facilitating more interaction between students and parents of different years.
The Hongqiao campus’s parent volunteers enthusiastically support a wide variety of school activities. For instance, during International Vision Week, parent volunteers registered for numerous activities and played an important auxiliary role. Parent volunteers helped students and teachers to decorate classrooms in the style of different countries, supporting with tasks such as helping children purchase materials, and helping with logistics and transportation. The parents also helped students with their costumes. Finally, on the day of the event, parent volunteers were on campus to support catering, from plating to food delivery to food sales. These parents played a truly integral role in International Vision Week.
Established in 2017, the Pao School Community Choir has grown to 70-80 people, including parents from the three campuses. Under the guidance of Dominic Murtagh, Head of the Primary School’s Music Department, choir members spend time on the weekend learning classic Chinese and English songs. They rehearse carefully, setting an excellent example for the children and helping to ensure concert performances are well received. This also demonstrates the fruits of Pao School’s whole-personal approach to education. In 2020, the students performed energetically at the Winter Concert on the Hongqiao campus side-by-side with the parents.
The Songjiang campus’s Rainbow Volunteers have organized volunteers to pack books for the school library every Friday for many years. At the November 2019 PTA meeting, the type and frequency of services that the volunteer team can provide to the school was also discussed in order to meet the needs of volunteers.
Family and school education, focusing on character education
As the oldest of the three campuses, Wuding has a long history of character education. From Story Mommies to Character Parents, there are more than 100 parent volunteers who join the parent character education team every year. Through storytelling in class and sketches, to keynote speeches at the morning assembly, and the annual Year 2 Story Mother large-scale character story performance, volunteer parents play an important role in implementing character education based on the school’s monthly themes.
The 11th Eco Fair held in April 2021 is also a spin-off of the character education activities at Wuding. Classrooms are arranged as booths under the principle of environmental protection. The fair is both an opportunity for students to sell their used books, toys and school uniforms and a chance to better learn about environmental protection, marine pollution and artisanal crafts. More than 300 families participated in the Eco Fair; 66 students showed off their eco-friendly fashion designs and products; and 87 students practiced environmental protection activities a total of 345 times. Most importantly, the PTA donated most of the proceeds from the sale of second-hand goods to charity. After the event, the organizing committee also donated more than 200 kilograms of second-hand books to the public welfare library on behalf of Pao School parents.
The parents of the Hongqiao campus also spend time familiarizing students with potential career paths, which is beneficial for the children’s future development. In 2020, the Hongqiao campus held a Career Development Day in which parents played an active role; with parents’ hosting 20 presentations. These presentations covered a wide variety of professional fields and subjects, including legal consulting, criminal law, sports training, banking, software engineering and the latest business models and organizational culture in the technology industry, medical sector and other industries.
The students were very enthusiastic throughout the presentations and displayed a keen curiosity about the various career paths introduced. Although parents were limited to 40 minutes for each presentation and had to speak about two subjects in a row, they spoke energetically and many presentations inevitably surpassed the allotted time.
The Campus Culture Committee is also responsible for parent career sharing lectures on the Songjiang campus, charity sales of second-hand goods, charity projects, and more. Since the creation of the Career Sharing Lecture Hall in the fall of 2019, about ten sharing sessions have been held. During these sessions, Pao School parents have discussed banking, financial insurance, the legal field, psychology, veterinary medicine, semiconductor manufacturing and more. These sharing sessions are beneficial for helping students think about their future studies and professional lives.
Meanwhile, charity sales are another important type of activity held by the Campus Culture Committee. The charity sales often have a public welfare theme and involve athletic competitions for sports such as such as swimming, cycling, or running. They also may feature a talent performance and offer specific merchandise for sale. Donations gathered from the charity sales are sent to libraries, organizations for children with autism, impoverished families with children suffering from leukemia who are hospitalized, and they are also used for long-term support for the education of children in underdeveloped parts of China.
After his daughter graduated in 2021, Ni celebrated ten years of volunteer work with the PTA. Looking back on these years, Ni said: the rich culture of Pao School and whole-person education has made parents vital members of the Pao School community. The school is an ideal place for children to learn and also for parents to grow, in particular allowing parents to reduce their anxiety about their children’s education. In this manner, the parents can grow alongside their children and have wonderful memories of this learning journey together as their children grow up.
* Many thanks the Wuding Campus PTA, Hongqiao Campus PTA and former Chairman of Songjiang Campus Mr. Ni for their contributions to this article.
