BISS offering parents the best choice in education
Print Edition
“WHERE should I send my kid to school?” For mothers and fathers everywhere, this is one of parenthood’s most vexing questions. Every parent wants the best possible education for their child, but distinguishing between the best schools and the cost is a dilemma most can do without.
There are numerous options for international schools in Shanghai and the offer available to parents can be daunting when ensuring you are making the right decision for your child’s future. But for those who can foot the bill, you’re probably wondering which of Shanghai’s international schools will be the best to send your little child to. We talked to the Principal of The British International School Shanghai, Puxi, Dr Neil Hopkin, who describes what makes BISS Puxi stand apart from other international schools in Shanghai and why parents should choose their school.
Q:Could you give a brief introduction to your school?
A: We are a truly international school comprising of some 40 plus nationalities of students from around the world, following the English National Curriculum from Pre-Nursery 2 year olds to the highly regarded IGCSE at 16 and the IB at 18 years. We offer the highest academic standards of progression and achievement to all our students in an environment bursting with inspiration and engaging learning experiences.
Q:What makes BISS different from other international schools in this competitive market?
A: Every prospective parent wants to know what is unique about the school they choose for their child, and there are many features that make our school truly unique. Firstly we are part of the world’s leading premium schools organization, Nord Anglia Education. With a network of 45 schools across the world, we are able to unite some 40,000 students in collaborative projects and shared learning experiences through our Global Campus, supporting their growth as genuinely global citizens.
Secondly, Nord Anglia Education has a unique collaboration with the world’s leading performing arts conservatoire, The Juilliard School, in New York. Not only does this give students the opportunity to visit and study at Juilliard, developing their musical and dramatic talents in the world’s leading academic environment. It also means that every student can access a world class program to support a key life skill: confident performance. Every person will find themselves performing at some point in their lives. Whether presenting to a prospective university or employer, or pitching an idea to a customer, or selling a vision to a team, all of our students will need to have the confidence to perform at numerous points in their lives. Our program of performing arts, based on our collaboration with Juilliard gives the children an unprecedented opportunity to develop just such a confidence.
Thirdly, Nord Anglia Education has another collaboration with a leading global institution: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This collaboration enables us to provide our students with experiences that require them to apply their learning in science, technology, engineering, arts and math, to realize the creative synergy that comes from allowing the subjects to react and respond to one another, so that art influences science and technology informs math, and so on. In this manner of applied learning, students’ learning becomes creative, entrepreneurial, and greater than the sum of the parts of each subject.
Through these two leading collaborations, which are unique to our schools in Shanghai, we can ensure that our students are at the forefront of academic achievement, inspired learners and creative thought leaders on a global stage.
Q:How do you interact with the local community?
A: Throughout the year our students and parents raise funds and volunteer at the Xiulong Migrant School in Qingpu District. Not only does this provide a valuable insight to our students into the challenges facing the children of some Chinese workers, that have traveled far from home for employment, but it also provides an opportunity to reflect on the similarities that they share, despite quite different life experiences. As one student remarked to me recently, the partnership represents an opportunity for all students to learn from one another and to benefit from the different perspectives on life that their journeys have prompted.
In a very different context, we also have a very stimulating partnership with Shanghai Minhang Jiwang School around our Art and Design departments. Here students from both schools can collaborate and share their love of art through artistic collaborations in ceramics. The design thinking and exploration of ideas through art is a perfect vehicle for greater understanding and cooperation for both schools’ students as they work collaboratively towards shared goals.
Q:We understand you have some exciting developments at school, can you tell us about these?
A: In just a few weeks we will be opening two world-class centers for creative thinking, inspired by our collaboration with MIT. Both our primary and secondary schools will feature the most amazing STEAM centers, that have stunning facilities. They will be the finest places to support students’ creativity in Shanghai. With cutting-edge technology, robotics, art and graphic design, TV studios, a cinema, fabrication labs and microelectronic workshops, these two centers will offer students the opportunity to develop their thinking, problem solving and collaborative design in unprecedented ways. The spaces have been designed to not only support academic inspiration, but also to provide a 21st century environment that will elevate student ambition and engagement. We have called them our Da Vinci centers, as they will be the academic launch pad for some of the most creative and multi-talented young minds of Shanghai.
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