Photo taken in Anting New Town in April 2022
Abstract
ECNUAS began to consider its DP programme development planning immediately after the school was authorized in 2017. Among a range of important areas in the plan, supporting all learners’ well-being has emerged as one shared priority of the staff since 2019. After the breakout of COVID 19, learners’ well-being even become the first priority of the school. Informed by relevant Practices (Student Support, 0202-03) in the IB Programme Standards and Practices (PSP), the school reviewed and hence gradually developed systems, processes, and policies that aim to support social, emotional, and physical well-being of all learners. The leadership team of the school created twelve new learner attributes, which include the IB Learner Profile attributes, in order to highlight qualities that are desired under adversities and uncertainties. The team also upgraded the school curriculum model so that it can better support all learners to develop ways of being, learning, and doing. Monthly educational themes are created and communicated to the community so meaningful connections can be made in teaching and learning activities. A series of strategies and policies are created, including House System, Homeroom system, an inclusive and rich CAS program, The Duke of Edinburgh International Award program, Student Lounge, Performance Enhancement Program, a Blue List for students with mental health concerns, Student Gym, Student Complaints Procedure, on-campus psychologist, World Mental Health Week, Student Career Planning Program, to support social, emotional, and physical well-being of all learners. In order to gauge the effectiveness of these strategies and policies, the leadership team gather data through a number of sources including Student School Attitude Survey, Homework survey, stories collected from the Homeroom Teachers, learning stories written by students, as well as student surveys on online learning experiences during the school lockdown under the COVID. The IBDP programme in the school and the curriculum are still evolving as the school is growing and the demographics of students and teachers are changing. Yet, the pursuit of a holistic international education will remain at the top of developmental goals of the school, hence, the leadership team and staff will continue improving its systems, procedures, and policies that support well-being of all learners.
Defining student wellbeing in the ECNUAS context
East China Normal University Affiliated Bilingual School (ECNUAS) is a K-12 private school near the south west boarder of Shanghai. The exact location of the school is in the Shanghai International Automobile City (SIAC) where many Chinese and international automobile companies and manufactures such as SAIC Motor and Volkswagen. The City attracts managers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to work and live here. ECNUAS was established to serve the growing demand of internationalized, bilingual education in this area. The kindergarten of ECNUAS offers IBPYP while the high school division offers IBDP, IGCSE, and a later A-Level program. In the primary and middle school, although the Shanghai curriculum still takes the main proportion of the school curriculum, bilingual teaching and diverse academic and extra-curricular courses make the education of the school unique as opposed to what offered by public schools in this area.
The ECNUAS high school was founded in 2015 and was authorized by the IB as an IBDP school in 2017. The high school has the liberty to use international curricula and hire a relatively large proportion of international teachers. All students in the high school are Chinese, their first language is Mandarin. All students will go abroad to study after they complete their either IBDP or A-Level program. Majority of the students choose the IBDP. The high school receives students from all over Shanghai and a few other provinces that are close to the city. Some students arrived at the school directly from overseas schools where they had finished part of their earlier education. The demand of the two international curricula, the diversity of students, the anxiety that the students and parents experience before the students have to leave for other countries are all factors that make the consideration of student wellbeing an imperative task of the leadership team and all teachers in the high school.
The ECNUAS high school leadership team understands that student well-being is a complex concept that relates to many aspects of work in and outside the school (IB, 2021). The leadership team also agrees that an IBDP programme that targets well-being of learners in the school must be situated in the unique context of the school. Based on a comprehensive survey on the characteristics of the community, the curriculum, the staff, and the students of the school, we defined the concept of student well-being in line with the educational philosophy of ECNUAS. In ECNUAS, we promote a culture that is characterized by quality, diversity, integration, and caring. We cultivate young talents who will be developing evenly in ways of being, ways of learning, and ways of doing things. Eventually, we “create a Chinese-English bilingual education that meets the developmental needs of every child, that lays a solid foundation for their life-long learning, and that builds a competitive edge and collaborative abilities for their future lives”. That is to say, our concept of student wellbeing not only focuses on balanced development but also student success.
Student wellbeing is wired in the educational design of ECNUAS, and the design is aligned with the new IB Programme Standards and Practices that requires IB schools to “foster the social, emotional, and physical well-being of its students” (0202-03). Working with all stakeholders of the high school, the leadership team led the continuous IBDP programme development over the past a few years, which include programs and practices related to student wellbeing. For instance, the high school continues identifying and allocating spaces and resources to support student well-being. It also continues refining and creating strategies and policies that attend this area of student development. Using various platforms including emails promotions, staff meetings, and school-wide event organization, the HS leadership team engage all staff members in the project of building the student wellbeing program continuously. Teachers also make contributions to a range of smaller programs under the concept of student wellbeing.
The IBDP programme in the ECNUAS high school will conduct the first 5-year self-study in 2022. When the leadership team and the teachers considered choosing a focus for reporting the programme development, Student Wellbeing emerged as an obvious choice. Provided with all the things we have been doing in the past 5 years or so, we want to take this opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved, what will continue to be planned, and what we should improve in line with the IB’s expectations and our new learning about theories and practices of student wellbeing.
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