The Week Ahead
Senior School Matters
Welcome back to you and your children in this, the Year of the Tiger. I hope that you all managed to have a peaceful and relaxing holiday and that you are feeling energised and are looking forward to the rest of the academic year.
The next few months promise to be exciting and full of growth for our community. Before the end of the month, I expect to hear that our FOBISIA membership has been ratified. We will then begin our journey towards COBIS accreditation, another important step in securing our position as the world-class international school of first choice in Hangzhou.
Before the holiday, we submitted our school self-evaluation paperwork in preparation for the Annual Review. Colleagues carry out this process from The Wellington College UK and our peers within Wellington College China. It will be a supportive inspection designed to evaluate our performance and provide us with feedback on improving. I am looking forward to the process and expect a pleasing outcome.
Of course, our core business of excellent teaching and learning continues. Our superb teachers deliver exceptional lessons that help your children grow both in knowledge and skills and confidence and maturity. Coming up soon, we have more of our highly regarded parent workshops in the Arts and Humanities, plus a drama performance of Macbeth and the much-anticipated Science Week, so lots to look forward to.
Our next Open Day is coming up on 5 March. This will be an opportunity for families who are not yet part of our community to come and meet us and tour the school. If you have friends or relatives with school-age children who might be interested in becoming part of the International School of first choice in Hangzhou, please do let them know.
Stewart Brown
Head of Senior School
Primary School Matters
This week we have begun the full programme of our revised and improved wellbeing curriculum.
PEEC is a research-based explicit Positive Education curriculum that has been developmentally sequenced from Early Learning (age four) through to Year 12. The curriculum is built on eleven years of experience with Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School (GGS). It is designed in consultation with world-renowned researchers in positive psychology.
PEEC is an acronym for Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum. It is a curriculum designed to support teachers and add value to their practice and experience in delivering Positive Education. PEEC is not a replacement for the implicit Positive Education that takes place daily through pastoral care, coaching, teaching and every interaction a teacher has with a student. Instead, it is an explicit curriculum designed for schools to lead dedicated Positive Education classes, where pupils can be taught the key concepts of wellbeing so they can live healthy and fulfilling lives.
We recognise that every classroom is different. However, teachers' relationship and rapport with their pupils is the best Positive Education tool available. That is why it is important to customise these lessons to best suit the needs of our pupils.
For this reason, lessons are not scripted, nor do they include suggested times. However, these lessons are well-researched and provide an opportunity for teachers to create a safe environment for our pupils to flourish.
Topics covered include positive relationships, positive health, positive emotions, positive engagement, positive accomplishment and positive purpose.
Feedback from teachers so far is that the format allows educators the freedom to differentiate learning and are grounded in research enabling teachers to use the lessons with confidence, knowing that what they are teaching is relevant and up-to-date. While we have been teaching many of the concepts implicitly throughout our curriculum, we are excited to see what the pupils learn from these lessons and how it positively helps in their daily lives.
Matthew Coleman
Head of Primary School
Performing Art Matters
The performing arts department is excited for the new term ahead. Through our drama and music lessons, we empower our pupils to be creative and risk-takers regarding devising, composing, and performing skills.
Our Music and Drama Parents' Workshop will be on Thursday, 3 March. We are looking forward to welcoming our parents to primary and secondary to experience the learning journey professionally delivered by our excellent music and drama teachers.
Finally, we would like to remind you of our 1:1 instrumental teaching programme. At present, we have places for violin and piano. If you would like more information, do not hesitate to contact me directly (alejandro.montoya@huilieducation.cn).
Alejandro Montoya
Director of Performing Arts
Sport Matters
This week we welcomed back our pupils after the Chinese New Year celebrations. During this semester, Senior pupils will be focusing on football, racket sports, cricket and basketball while Primary pupils are swimming, collaborating in team games, gymnastics racket sports and outdoor adventure.
Timothy Schulze
Head of PE
Upcoming Events
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