Poetry Reading at the Primary
In March, the Primary School English department held a poetry reading for Year 3 students. Recently, the students took part in a House poetry writing competition, which allowed the students to embrace the beauty of poetry. The poetry reading allowed students to transition from poetry writers to poetry appreciators. As part of the activity, parents visited the school to share poetry in different languages – including Chinese, English, and Italian. The styles of these poems were very different, with some of them being written by the parents themselves and others being famous pieces written by poets the parents admire.
Middle School Career Day
The Middle School saw the third annual Career Day take place. For the day, the school coordinates with the PTA to invite parents to the school to speak on their careers for the students. The activity gives students the chance to learn more about different career paths, explore and discover different options, and to start thinking about their own future.
This year, a total of 15 parents signed up to take part, representing a wide range of fields. Y9 Diane’s mother, returned to share her talk for a second time as it was received extremely well last year – with her session covering topics related to brand marketing and communication.
Head of Year 8, Lily Chen, wrote a thank you letter to parents, saying: "Rather than just career choices, I feel that the most important thing you can convey is your professionalism, creativity, adventurousness, responsibility, perseverance, flexibility and passion. These attitudes are the secret of your success and are what we most need to pass on to the next generation. With your nurturing and care, I believe that our children are ready to begin their journey in exploring the future!”
Journey of Arts
In late February, the art department at the Middle School organised a variety of arts events called “Journey of Arts” over the course of a week. The events were in two parts: a series of student concerts and a visual arts exhibition. The students’ concerts were divided into three special performances: Band Concert, Choir Concert and Orchestra Concert. After the concert, parents were able to visit the art gallery to view the exhibition composed of excellent student works.
The artwork 'US' comes from Sabrina (Y7)
The artwork 'Landscape' comes from Sally (Y7)
Welcoming the Chinese New Year
Every year, the High School ushers in the new year with an event held by the Student Government. This year's Spring Festival event saw a variety of activities on campus, including a funfair, during which students enjoyed traditional New Year activities such as paper cutting and writing couplets. In addition, the students held a talent show and were served traditional treats in the cafeteria.
Student government, described the wonderful celebrations, saying: The Pao School community demonstrated immense creativity, professionality, and flair in the Chinese New Year talent show. For example, some students sang Peking Opera with full-coloured make-up and gorgeous headwear, showing off thousands of years of Chinese heritage; some students sang Jay Chou’s flagship lyrics, presenting the beauty of the misty rain of Jiangnan; some students directed their own stand-up, brightly incorporating their own stories of school life – to which the audience couldn’t hold in their laughter.
Achievements
Congratulations to the following students, who have achieved awards and recognition for their accomplishments across several fields:
Sports Awards
The Pao School Girls Basketball Vasity Team won the Shanghai Sports League Championship.
Chenfei (Y9) achieved 6th place in the National Youth Equestrian Show-Jumping Team competition.
Victor (Y10) has been selected by Shanghai’s professional fencing team to attend the 2022 Chinese National Senior and Junior Fencing Championship. Though only 15 years old, Victor’s current national Junior (U18) ranking is among the top 4 in Shanghai.
Sophia (Y8) won 1st place in the qualification competition for 2023 Asian Junior Fencing Championships in Wuxi, China, and has now qualified to take part in the Asian Junior Fencing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, later in the year.
In the 2023 Asian (U17) Fencing Championships, Daniel (Y9) ranked #12 in the Men’s Foil. In addition, Victor (Y10) was ranked #5 – only one place away from gaining a spot on the China National Youth Foil Team.
This year saw the arrival of the 17th Shanghai Games, which will continue into the new year. The event is held once every four years and is the largest sports meeting and youth sports event in the city. So far, a number of Pao School students have taken part in various competitions and shown off their hard-won skills:
● Dora (Y7E) – Fencing – Gold
● Cindy (Y10) – Women’s 55kg Taekwondo – Runner-up
● Elith (Y9) – Sailing – 3rd
● Frank (Y10) – Golf – 3rd (individual tournament) and 1st (team competition)
● Victor (Y10) – Men's Foil Group A – Gold
● Daniel (Y9) – Men's Foil Group B – Team Silver
● Barry (Y10) – Men's Epee Group A – Team Bronze
In addition, further congratulations to Cindy, Frank, and Victor, who have all been named National First-class athletes due to their results in the games.
Subject Competition Awards
Tico (Y10), won the third prize in the prestigious Chinese High School Mathematics League. This competition is open to all Chinese high schools and is extremely challenging, with Tico impressively coming out on top when competing alongside Year 11 and 12 students from other schools.
Robert (Y10) was awarded a Gold Medal in the UK Senior Mathematical challenge.
Ethan (Y11) was awarded a Gold certificate in the 2022 UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge.
This year, 23 Pao School students received awards in the AMC Mathematics competitions. Impressively, Joseph (Y10), Alex (Y10), and Charlie (Y9) were placed on the honour roll of distinction in the AMC 10 Competition and Bernie, Tina, and Cindy (all Y11) were placed on the honour roll of distinction in the AMC 12 competition.
Katniss (Y10) was awarded the Gold Medal in the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest.
The Pao School team received the Third Group Award in the fourth Changning District Science English Reading Competition. In addition:
● Julia, Yuki, and Yvonnie (all Y9) won the First Prize
● Leo (Y7) won the Second Prize
● Cedric (Y9), Bobby (Y8), Ariel (Y8), Bella (Y6) and Dora (Y7) won the Third Prize
Science and Technology Activities Awards
Yitian (Y7) won the First Prize in 2022 Shanghai Youth Science Ideas & Practice Challenge Competition.
Cassius (Y7) won the Second Prize in the 19th Shanghai Future Engineer Competition.
Peter (Y12) recently competed in the 15th Asia-Pacific Robotics Championship China Division in Beijing. Remarkably, Peter won that prestigious event and has been named the High School National Champion.
The FTC robotics team (21959) has won 1st place in Motivate Award and 3rd place in the Design Award, and will compete in the 2023 National Final to represent the Shanghai region. Additionally, the YKPS FTC Team (19600) has won the Inspire Award, and will also enter the 2023 National Final on behalf of the Shanghai region.
Business Economics Awards
In this year’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Business China Final, the team achieved over 50 different awards across a wide variety of tasks. Many congratulations to Lynn Xiang (Y11), Kelly Zhao (Y11), Mike Chen (Y11), Evan Su (Y10), Alpha Huan (Y10), Chloe Ip (Y9), Daniel Wang (Y11), Alyssa Li (Y11), Teresa Zheng (Y11), Tim Yang (Y11) and Candice Jiao (Y11).
Sophia, Vicky and Yoyo (all Y11) were awarded first place in China in the Diamond Challenge, an entrepreneurship competition. Their project aimed at slowing down neurodegeneration in elderly people using virtual and augmented reality. They have now qualified for the global final where around 30 teams go to the University of Delaware in the US to pitch their idea to a panel of business experts.
The National Economics Challenge (NEC) is a prestigious global high school economics competition. In the China regional round participants were tested for their knowledge in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and International events. Congratulations to the following Pao School students for their awards in this year’s NEC:
● National Top Scoring Individual Gold Award: Jack (Y11), Noah (Y11), Cindy (Y10), Tom (Y10) and Susan (Y11)
● Regional Overall Team Gold Award: Michael (Y11), Jack (Y11), Daniel (Y11), Noah (Y11), Bernie (Y11), Cindy (Y10), Tom (Y10), Candy (Y10) and Tyler (Y10)
● Regional Overall Team Silver Award: Poem (Y11), Candice (Y11), Susan (Y11), Momo (Y11), Yvanne (Y11) and Sissi (Y11)
● Macroeconomics Hall of Fame Award: Sally (Y10)
Debating Awards
Ruoan (Y10) was an Octofinalist in both the 37th Annual Stanford Invitational JV Division and in the 49th Annual Harvard National Forensics Tournament Open Division.
Hazel (Y9) reached the quarterfinals of the WSDA Public Forum Debate High School Division.
Anna Chen (Y12) recently attended the international debate tournament Tournament of Champions Asia Winter Invitational. Anna was part of the national team of China and was recognized as one of the top 5 best speakers. In addition, the weekend before, she was invited by the national team coach to adjudicate in another international tournament, IDW, alongside top debaters from around the world.
