This is the speech at SABS HS opening ceremony for the 2nd semester of 2022 academic year
Welcome back to the school! I hope you had a happy and refreshing winter vacation and I am sure you did.
Surprisingly, we seemed to enjoy an almost pandemic-free spring festival and the days following it. Our lives seem to return to the normal overnight. Family parities were organized again, streets bore more and more traffic, restaurant became crowded, and line-ups appeared in travel attractions across the country. Statistics show that the overall consumption in China during the spring festival increased 66% compared to the year of 2019, one story tells that in some popular restaurants people had to wait more than 1000 tables before them. Some students of our school continued developing skills during the holidays, for example, Cynthia Fan from G11 and Ethan Jiang from G10 won 3rd place awards at the 12th “Bochuang Cup” International Business Leaders Summit.
The world is still having a lot of uncertainties such as the war in Ukraine, the massive earth quake in Turkey, but we luckily do enjoy peace and safety in the school in our home country at this moment. At least we have some temporary ease until the almighty ChatGPT creates a revolution or maybe more problems in education.
Let us put aside what happened in the past three years and take the liberty to plan and expect a back-to-normal life as well as the new school semester that begins today. Let us take the opportunity to enjoy the school as it is supposed to be again. I said one quote at the closing ceremony of last semester, now I want to say it again, “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.”
Looking ahead into this semester, to better plan our work and study, please allow me to share two survey results on the first day. I hope our community can learn from the data and make some reflections and necessary changes.
For four years in a row, we have administrated the PASS survey (Pupil Attitudes Towards Self and School) in the high school. Each year the school leaders and teachers learned from the results and make modifications at to their practices.
The PASS measured nine factors, including students’ general feeling about the school, attitudes towards teachers, attitudes towards attendance, students’ perceived learning capabilities, students’ confidence in learning, students’ motivation to do learning tasks, etc.
According to the 2022 results, our students rated high at factors of ‘confidence in learning’, ‘attitudes to teachers’, ‘attitudes to attendance’, and ‘feeling about the school’. These factors show that, overall, our students like to attend the school and participate in learning and they like to work with their teachers. Especially, on average our students seem to be confident in dealing with challenges in learning.
The two weakest factors are ‘students’ self-regard as learner’ and ‘students’ response to curriculum demands”. Actually, these two factors appeared to be the weakest repeatedly over the past four years.
For the factor of ‘self-regard as learner’, basically it reveals that our students on average feel uneasy about their current learning capabilities, although they may still believe they can be successful in the long term. I think it is quite clear to us that our students need to further learn how to learn. Using the terminology we use often, our students must proactively develop and practice learning skills necessary for study, including thinking skills, social skills, communication skills, self-management skills, and research skills. I have been elaborating these skills often and I am sure teachers are helping you exercise these skills in classrooms too.
For the factor of ‘response to curriculum demands’, basically it reveals our students’ weak motivation to undertake, challenge, and complete learning tasks in the curriculum, such as assignments, projects, and homework. I think this finding triangulates what our teachers observed. Often, I heard teachers told me that the submission and quality of students’ assignments were not satisfactory. This situation greatly harmed our students’ learning outcomes.
Comparing the results of the two factors ‘confidence in learning’ and ‘response to curriculum demands’, we found that on the one hand our students feel confident in their ability of learning well, yet on the other hand they do not want to make sufficient effort. Therefore, a simple advice out of this finding is to convert the confidence in your mind to real actions of learning. Our students must take curriculum-based tasks more seriously. You should spend more time on reviewing knowledge and write your assignments. You should make better preparations for the projects the teachers assigned and be more engaged in the collaborations and presentations in and outside classrooms.
The school also conducted surveys during online teaching at the end of last semester. The survey asked students to rate teachers’ online teaching strategies and methods including such as differentiation, assessments, and use of media. In general students in most grades were satisfied with our teachers’ online teaching, yet there seemed to be some concerns about online teaching strategies in all grades and concerns about differentiation strategies in Grade 11 and Grade 12. Especially, Grade 12s’ rating of the teachers’ online teaching appeared to be the lowest. Although this survey examined the effectiveness of online teaching, the factors measured can be applied to in-person teaching. Therefore, the school administration and the teachers will take the findings seriously and take necessary actions to make improvements. For instance, we will arrange interviews with Grade 12 students and ask them for details about their experiences in online and in-person classrooms.
This semester will be the last half year for Grade 12 students in the school. They have made great progresses and achievements over the past a few years. As of today, 91 university offers have been received by the 55 students. The highest QS world ranking of these universities is 15. The student leaders in this grade have been also positively influencing the Houses, student clubs, as well as the overarching learning culture of the school. Names such as Ocean Zhang and Christine Ge, who earned the highest VP awards last term, and others, will be remembered by the community.
In this last semester, the Grade 12s will have to complete a lot of IB or A-Level examines and assignments. The teachers of this grade will wholeheartedly guide them and help them. The high school leaders and counsellors will continue paying great attention to this grade. Other students in the school will respect and admire these senior students. I believe the Grade 12s will appreciate and benefit from all these efforts. Reciprocally, they will set good models for junior students and make good influence in all aspects of the school life, including following school rules, participating school events, mentoring junior students, etc.
Students and teachers, in this semester, the high school will continue to work on supporting student learning, teacher development, and overall school improvement. We gained insights from the IB 5-year self-study, we also gathered ideas from the academic and attitudinal data of students. The high school principal’s office has made plans to improve the student pastoral care system, teacher professional learning and capacities, the management of curriculum processes, and the strategies of sharing our practices with people outside the school.
In the past week, the school leaders and teachers have been working on plans in relation to the areas under their supervision. Knowing these exciting plans and possible changes, I would encourage students to follow teachers’ instructions and better collaborate with them for better experience and results. I would ask students to be more involved and better engaged in learning activities and school events so that you won’t miss the excitement of the first post-pandemic back-to-normal semester.
For February 2023, you can focus on the qualities of thinkers and develop communications skills so that you can better express your thoughts and collaborate with others.
Thinkers.
They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.
Communication Skills.
They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.
Wish you all a happy and productive semester!
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