2013SummerPaoPress

YK Pao School Primary Division 20, lane 1251 West Wuding Road Shanghai, Changning District 200042

YK Pao School Secondary Division 1800, lane 900, North Sanxin Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201620 Tel: (+86) 21 6167 1999

www.ykpaoschool.cn

SUMMER 2013

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Founder’s message Dear Parents and Friends, We look back on another exciting and successful year at YK Pao School as the school grows and matures. Significant milestones were our successful 5th Anniversary celebrations and the recognition of YK Pao School as an “Outstanding Private School” by the Shanghai Education Commission.

It is wonderful to see our students also growing in different ways. Academically, students continue to achieve well in core subjects as reflected in scores in the International School Assessments and other assessments. Their learning is not just textbook learning, however, our students were able to converse confidently in English with senior visitors such as attendees from the International Monetary Conference last month.

Many parents have also commented that what sets Pao students apart is the broad range of knowledge they are able to demonstrate beyond the scope of the curriculum.

Outside the classroom, this year our students displayed their expressive talents in a number of concerts, adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cyrano de Bergerac at Secondary as well as the grand musical performance of Alice in Wonderland with over 125 Primary students involved.

In sports, the Shanghai School Sports Association, which was founded under the initiative of YK Pao School Sports teachers to provide competition opportunities for our students, has matured and there is now a full schedule of events in different sports. Sporting achievements across the school are too many to list, but highlights for me personally included hosting our first major swimming competition in the Pao Pei Wai Pool in Songjiang, and launching tennis, rowing and Ultimate Frisbee programmes in Secondary Division - these were all sports in which I used to compete. YK Pao students may not always win in sports, but the attitudes of team-

work and commitment they learn will stay with them for life.

Over the year we have been honoured with visits from the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Mr Leung Chun-ying and the Dean of Chicago University, John Boyer, as well as visiting student groups from our partner schools including St Georges and Eaglebrook School in the US and Singapore American School, building our School’s profile on the international stage.

This month the YK Pao School Foundation successfully closed the Founding Members programme with 45 Founding Members joining, jointly raising over RMB15 million which will help fund both near term initiatives including scholarships and programmes, as well as building the School’s endowment for the long term.

We wish you a restful summer and look forward to even higher achievements next year!

Philip Sohmen Founder and Deputy Chairman

SPECIALREPORT

Creating Our House System The House System has a long tradition in UK and US boarding schools, and it is one of the important aspects that help defines our school. Our Primary School is divided into four Houses, and each student is allocated to a House. The Houses are named after the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, each House being identified by its own symbol and colour. It is a way of building team spirit and group loyalty through collaboration and competition in sports and other media among the different Houses. It also makes students’ school life and competitions more exciting.

When students first enter Secondary School, they will be assigned to one of eight Houses. Each House is named based on eight trees from around the world. We purposely chose Redwood from North America and Europe, Baobab from Africa, Spruce from North America, Oak from Europe, Asia, and North America, Jacaranda from South America, Cedar of the western Himalayas and Mediterranean region, Kauri from New Zealand, and Maple from Asia and North America as our House symbols, so students can develop global perspective by conducting research about its origin and folklore. “We hope students will take the future initiative to create nicknames, house cheers, posters, and songs for their respective houses. As the school grows and expands to its ideal capacity of up to 650 students, there will be approximately 80 students per House. We expect to build a unique and exclusive House System to YK Pao School tradition”, shares Joe Elias, Director of Student Life at Secondary School.

According to Joe Elias, it is important to keep each House to a moderate size, so all the Houses are balanced with leadership, citizenship, and a variety of skills. The House System also crosses gender and age group, so that each group is big enough to have a variety of personalities and talents, but not big

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to the point where they will create their own cliques within the Houses.

The most exciting part about the House System is the athletic competitions. This year we have organised several competitions between the Houses, and no team has dominated thus far since games have varied from swimming to football, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, and so on. The School will organise debates, drama, and other performances in the future as well. These competitions and team work create pride and loyalty among members of the house.

Just as character development is a long process, it will also take time for the concept of Houses to be instilled into the students’ minds. Under the House System, students’ characters will develop though the challenges of sporting competition, theatrical performance, collaboration to achieve a common goal or service project, and working with a variety of dorm parents on different projects.

“These events will help to create traditions in the school community, so let’s be patient and let it grow and eventually blossom,” says Elias.

SPECIALREPORT

Student Clubs at Secondary School Student club activities are a special characteristic of our Secondary School’s boarding education. These club activities are mostly founded and organised by the students according to their interests and hobbies. Students can join clubs with classmates who have similar interests to develop, explore, and grow together. Through club activities, students learn to develop their interests and build leadership qualities and teamwork, making their school life more vibrant and colourful.

According to Michael Song, Coordinator of Student Activities, students are motivated to start new clubs to cater to their different interests. It is the School’s responsibility to provide an environment which enables them to nurture their interest and express their creativity. This will also inspire other students to take the initiative and start their own clubs based on their interest. Club activities are student-led and give students the experience in managing and coordinating different projects. They may encounter initial difficulties, but character is built though overcoming adversity and challenging oneself. A teacher is usually assigned to each club, and he or she will be responsible for coordinating the students. However, it is not the teacher’s responsibility to tell students what to do but simply to call the roll and maintain order. Students are encouraged to take the lead and create their own programmes during club activities.

Currently there are nine student-founded clubs including a Comic Club, Drama Club, Film review, Scrabble, Global Citizen Club (combined from Happy Tomorrow and Green Student Council), Video News Club, Literature Club and Reading Club.

My Club Story Steven Jiang, Y7 student “Happy Tomorrow” is a student charity club that was first founded when I was in Year 6. I presented the concept to classmates in three different classes, and learned that many people were interested but later only four people attended the first club meetings. Nonetheless, I maintained my enthusiasm. Our first official project was to provide charity donations to a school in Sichuan Province, but soon we ran into some unexpected challenges and obstacles. It was extremely difficult to reach that school by phone, and once we got through, there was a language barrier that made communications even more challenging. From this experience, we learned that it is difficult to make a donation to an unfamiliar place, so the club was stuck in a state of dilemma at the time.

As we progressed into the second semester, we continued to promote the club to the entire school and increase awareness among faculty members and students. However, we were a little embarrassed at the same time, because we had yet to achieve or organise a successful charity project. Later, Miss Fern told us about the “Lupin Foster Home”, and asked if we would be interested in visiting the foster home. We immediately jumped at the opportunity and figured it would be a great chance for Year 6 students to start a charity project. We felt that a local charity project would be much more suitable to organise since we are currently studying in Shanghai. Miss Fern agreed with our ideas, so all eight of us from the club made a PPT presentation together and organised a charity fundraiser for the year levels.

The event was a success, and on top of donating 1,700RMB, we also bought diapers, fruits and yogurt for the children when we visited Lupin Foster Home a week later. The foster home cares for abandoned babies with certain congenital ailments. We had a very enjoyable learning experience there interacting with the children. The girls found the babies cute and adorable, and two boys from our group had a funny incident while they were feeding the babies, when the babies spat out a bunch of food on them by accident. It was a hilarious sight. We had an amazing experience visiting the foster home, and we created a short film by assembling the photos we took to share with all the year levels.

From this experience, we also learned more ways to improve our future club projects. Initially, we didn’t know what these children truly needed.

They didn’t need diapers or fruit because many volunteers and good Samaritans will provide that for them. What they really needed was the money for their surgeries.

Therefore, Jason Chen, one of our club members, and I organised another presentation for the entire school, and this time we successfully raised more than 4,000 RMB. It was much more than we had anticipated, so we were deeply moved by everyone’s support of the project. When we returned to Lupin Foster Home, an unexpected but positive surprise awaited us. We discovered that people from the community had already made donations to help many of these infants to acquire surgery. We found out that many babies that we had previously visited had already had surgery and recovered. Even one of the kids we were fundraising for had already had surgery and recovered. We spoke with the management staff to discuss which child we should help.

All five of us stayed there for over two hours this time, and we all felt less alienated. We had lots of fun interacting with the kids, and took many photos together.

The child we sponsored later recovered successfully after surgery. Originally he was diagnosed with a club foot, a congenital deformity from which his knees couldn’t bend properly.

Recently, one of our Chinese teachers told us about a little girl from Fujian which inspired us with a direction. She was diagnosed with a serious illness, so she had to stay in bed and needed surgery. We discovered that she loves Chinese classical culture, so our teacher suggested that we organise a drama performance for her. I felt motivated again because I had got used to visiting Lupin Foster Home, and thought that it was the only charity project we could organise. Her story inspired me to think of new ways to help people.

We have been rehearsing the show lately, but we don’t want to use it as a fundraiser because her surgery requires over 100,000 RMB, and there’s simply no way we can raise that much within the School. In addition, we learned that a generous person had taken her to Nanjing for her surgery. In the end, we decided that our performance would not serve as a fundraiser, but as a way to increase people’s awareness for charity and inspire them to help others.

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NEWSFLASH

Creative Cardboard Competition

Interschool Track and Field Competition

2013 Shanghai Student Film Festival Our Years 3 to 5 students submitted their short films to the Shanghai Student Film Festival 2013. Our Year 3 group won 1st Place in the Best Animation category in the Elementary Division. The Year 5 group won 2nd place in the Best Documentary category.

On April 6th, our Pao Primary School Year 3 students participated in the Cardboard City Project held at the Shanghai Centre Family Fun Fair. They built a version of the famous Shanghai Tower, and won two awards: Winner of Shanghai Building, and Winner of the Most Interesting Cardboard Structure.

Mantas Swimming Meet in Hong Kong Our YK Pao Secondary School students went to Hong Kong to participate in the Mantas Swimming Meet, their first swim meet outside of Mainland China, and won top prizes in the competition. Swimmers came from 6 countries and 14 regions to take part in the Mantas Swimming Meet,making it a miniOlympic Games for students.

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YK Pao School contributed greatly to the founding of the Shanghai Schools Sports Association (SSSA), and jointly organised a variety of sports competitions with Western International School of Shanghai and other schools in Shanghai. On May 25th, Pao School hosted several other schools from the SSSA for a fun day of competitions in track and field, jumping, and throwing at our Secondary School campus in Songjiang. Students showed an awesome display of determination and teamwork.

International Chess Competition

On January 14th, Pao School, Concordia, and several other international schools jointly organised an international chess competition. Currently, our After-school Enrichment Programme offers three Chess classes and all students were eager to apply the skills they had acquired by participating in a chess competition at the end of the semester. Students from more than 20 different classes provided by our Enrichment Programme participated in the Enrichment Programme Performance on January 18th, proudly showcasing what they had learned to parents, teachers and fellow schoolmates.

Read to Feed Pao School’s annual participation in the Read to Feed charity programme has started to receive more and more support from the school community. During the annual Book Week Celebration ceremony, representatives from Read to Feed and Heifer China accepted the funds raised by Pao students. The students raised 100,000 RMB by reading and collecting money from their sponsors for each book read. The funds will be donated to the Yarkant County Holistic Development Project in Xinjiang Province to supply poor families with livestock and technology. Ying Ying He, our School Librarian attended the Heifer China Forum and Dinner in Beijing, and was presented with a special certificate by Heifer in recognition of YK Pao School’s long-standing support of Read to Feed.

NEWSFLASH

Spring Concert

English Speech Festival

Pao Primary School held the 2013 Spring Concert in the Auditorium at the Primary School campus on May 17th. It was the debut performance for Pao School’s Chinese Orchestra, and they delivered a strong performance earning the audience’s applause.

Pao School’s Annual English Speech Festival adopted a different form of speech presentation that featured poetry recitals, drama performances, etc. Through participating in poetry recitals, limerick competitions, and drama and singing performances throughout the day, students were inspired and motivated to learn English in a creative learning atmosphere.

Jan Latta talks at Book Week

Pao Students visit Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House

To open Book Week this year, Pao School invited Jan Latta, wildlife photographer and author, to speak to our students on March 25th. Jan used to work as a designer, but turned to wildlife photography ten years ago after learning about the mountain gorillas, an endangered species. Through her photographs, she spoke to students about the stories of these endangered species, and raised their awareness on animal protection. She has published 13 books, and has traveled to different schools around the world talking to students about endangered species.

alice in wonderland musical

On January 23rd, Chinese teachers Tammy Zhang and Vinci Shi and Madame Ni Guyin and Li Aizhen, members of the Mentor Team, took 60 students from the School’s Student Literary Club to visit the Shanghai Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House to learn about the history of the written language, and to observe the work flow of professional book publication. Students were able to interact with editors from popular children’s publications including “Compositing World”, “Literature for Juveniles”, and “Story King”.

Students also participated in a Q&A session with the Editor-in-Chief. Pao students were excited during the entire visit, and expressed their interest and love for reading.

YK Pao School Primary students performed Disney’s Alice in Wonderland JR., an English musical on April 24th and 25th, 2013, at the Little Friends Theatre in Shanghai. It was a large-scale performance featuring nearly 130 students with more than 70 teachers and parents volunteering to help with the production. ion.

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YK Pao School Foundation For all your gifts, whatever their size, we are grateful for all the time and energy that you share with us in building a school for tomorrow’s China.

Great schools need outstanding resources.

Faculty must be leaders in teaching, facilities need to be outstanding, and talented students should be given opportunities regardless of financial background.

As a not-for-profit school, all of the School’s income is used to fund the School’s operations and development. Currently, 95% of the income from tuition fees is earmarked for the annual operation of the School, with limited resources available to fund new programmes and development of the School.

YK Pao School Foundation was founded in 2010 to provide sustainable funding to support the School’s long term development in the following ways: • To raise funds and resources for the development and expansion of YK Pao School.

• To supervise received investment and fund management.

• To allocate funds for long-term development of the School.

“Your contribution to the YKPS Foundation today will blossom into generations of future leaders who will collaborate in the global arena to make Chinese society and the world a better place!”

Wayne Zhang, Development Committee Chair YK Pao School Foundation

YK Pao School Foundation Contact: Jennie Gong (+86) 21 6167-1999-1-8879 foundation@ykpaoschool.cn

www.ykpaoschool.cn 6

Honorary Chairman

Chairman

Wu Qidi

Anna Pao Sohmen

Member of National People’s Congress Former Deputy Minister of Education

Founder, Chairman of YK Pao School Member of the National Committee of the CPPCC Standing Committee Member

YK Pao School Foundation has been supporting these six major areas: • Campus construction: Songjiang campus construction and various renovations at the Primary School campus.

• Scholarship and financial aid: We aim to increase scholarships and financial aid to 20% within the next five years.

• Faculty: recruit top teachers from various fields and backgrounds.

• Bilingual Education: Develop curriculum and provide support for bilingual education.

• Whole-person Education: Supporting Sports, Music and the Arts projects to help with students’ whole-person development.

• Information Technology: Integrating information technology into curriculum and teaching.

of Zhejiang CPPCC

Development Committee

During the book donation activities organised by the YK Pao School Foundation for our Secondary School library, we received over 6,000 books, and raised nearly 350,000 RMB for book purchase. Every book will serve as an important inspiration for our students as they continue to learn and pursue knowledge and wisdom. Thank you all for your kindness and support.

A productive summer for your teen As the school year winds down, parents invariably start wondering what to do with their teenagers over the summer months. We all want our teens to use their time productively and positively, yet also have some down time to recharge their batteries over their summer vacation. So who is the best person to seek advice from about this dilemma? The answer is staring you right in the face – ask your child how he or she would best like to use this time. If you are worried that your teen may answer: “to play Minecraft 50 hours a week,” then perhaps guide them into making a variety of their own goals for the summer: an academic one (amount of books read, a number of new vocabulary words, write a short story), a physical one (try a new sport, learn to swim, go to dance camp), an artistic one (learn a new piece of music, taking a painting class) and a community one (donating time to a local charity, helping an older neighbour).

Especially as children begin to enter adolescence, the importance of self-identity and figuring out “who I am” is

Lucia M. Jaccaci, International Office Supervisor

of crucial importance. Developing their own interests and passions is a key part of this development, and parents can use the summer months as time to help their teenager discover new interests or develop further the passions they already have. Not only will developing a wider range of interests help keep your child or teen busy over the summer months, but they may develop into a large part of their extra-curricular life during the school year. Why is that so important? Especially as children develop in their teenage years, active participation in extra-curricular activities can build a teenagers’ self esteem and confidence, help give them a sense of identity and belonging, develop skills and learn time-management, keep them engaged in positive activities, and give parents a reason to support and praise their teens.

Empower your teen to set a variety of goals this summer – the options are endless and they just might end up surprising you!

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INTERNATIONAL VISITS AND EXCHANGES

Mr Leung Chun-ying, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, visits Pao School Mr Leung Chun-ying, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, and several Chinese Government officials visited YK Pao School Primary School. Founder Mrs Anna Pao Sohmen made an introduction regarding the vision and the founding of the school. Two Year 7 student ambassadors conducted Mr Leung on a tour of the school campus, observing in a classroom and interacting with the Year 1 students. Prior to his departure, he met with Pao School faculty members and students from Hong Kong. Mr Leung encouraged the Hong Kong students to study hard and be appreciative of their Shanghai experience, so they can give back to their country in the future.

St. George’s School Faculty and Students visit Pao School

IMC Visitors tour Secondary School

In mid March, nineteen students and five faculty members from St. George’s School, our sister school in Rhode Island, USA, visited our Secondary School campus in Songjiang.

During their visit, Ms Kelly Richards, College Counselor from St. George’s School, delivered an insightful speech to our secondary school parents about the college application process in the United States. Her speech was entitled “Finding A Match, Not Winning a Prize”, where she shared the importance of finding the “right” school as students plan their higher education options abroad.

On June 4th, 2013, a group of special guests visited our Secondary School campus in Songjiang and interacted with our Years 7 and 8 students. The visiting guests were the spouses of delegates to the International Monetary Conference (IMC), which consists of Chairmen and Presidents of major financial institutes such as HSBC, Citibank, JP Morgan, Lloyds Bank. Most of the visitors have a background and/or interest in international education, and one of the visitors teaches Political Science at Georgetown University in Washington DC. School Founders Anna Pao Sohmen and Philip Sohmen greeted the visitors.

One of the highlights of the tour was a musical performance given by our students, and a lunch with a selected group of students. The guests were impressed with our facilities, and very much enjoyed meeting and interacting with our students. One of the visiting guests, a doctor from Australia, said that visiting Pao School was the highlight of his trip to China. Later, one of the educators said that the quality of Pao School’s boarding facilities already exceeded that of many boarding schools in the UK. Another guest mentioned that, after her visit, she believes YK Pao School is already a world-class school!

University of Chicago Deans visit Pao School Dean of the College at the University of Chicago John Boyer, Associate Dean Michael Stitisworth, and Alumnus of the University of Chicago and donor of the Pottery Room to YK Pao School Francis Yuen, visited our Secondary Division in Songjiang on March 20th.

Eaglebrook Students visit Pao School Teachers and students from Eaglebrook, a top American boarding school, visited Pao Secondary School campus.

The visiting students participated in a variety of activities, classes, and sports activities, and took part in some fun language exchanges with our students.

John Hopkins University In March, senior representatives from the prestigious John Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth Program visited our Secondary School in Songjiang to learn more about our programme and see our school facilities.

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Pennfield School Faculty Members and Students visit Pao School On March 25th, YKPS welcomed five students and two faculty members from Pennfield School in Rhode Island, who participated in our classes and activities, and stayed in the school dormitories. The Pennfield students also participated in home stay for a few nights over the weekend with our YKPS students.