Photo taken in Anting New Town in April 2022
What the school has done
In this section, we will summarize what the ECNUAS high school has done in terms of student well-being. We will firstly talk about the whole school approach in our school; secondly, we will discuss how we improve the physical and virtual learning environment; lastly, we will describe specific policies and programs that we have created for student wellbeing.
Firstly, we take a whole school approach to promote all students’ wellbeing.
The high school leadership team understands that a successful programme develop must involve and engage all stakeholders especially teachers, the leadership team, students themselves, and parents.
While the high school leadership team leads the promotion and development of student wellbeing programs and policies, the team also encourages teachers to contribute using their knowledge and skills. All teachers were involved in the initial discussion about the need of and approaches to reviewing and upgrading the school curriculum. During staff meetings following these curriculum review sessions, the leadership team talked about the importance of pastoral care component as to the school curriculum and began to invite teachers to contribute ideas and solutions to identified issues in relation to students’ wellbeing. As a result, noticing that many new students in the high school felt anxious about learning in an environment with English being the working language, one English teacher initiated an English language support lab to support students with knowledge and skills of English learning and particularly English writing. One Psychology teacher started a performance enhancement program targeting the students who wanted to challenge themselves personally and academically. Besides these individual teachers’ efforts, many teachers in the high school have been already working in the two existing pastoral care systems, namely House System and Homeroom System, as House supervisors or Homeroom teachers.
Perhaps the most important student wellbeing strategy in the ECNUAS high school constitutes two complementary student management and support systems, namely the House System and the Homeroom System. The high school students and staff are divided into four Houses, the names of the Houses are Ren Bonian, O’Neal, Shakespeare, and Einstein. In 2019, each House chose its own color and designed its own logo and flag. One teacher supervisor is appointed by the Principal as the Head of each House and two students are elected by the students in each House as the Captains. The Heads of Houses are foreign teachers who speak English with students. The House Captains assist the Head of each House to organize House Assemblies, plan House activities, and prepare House presentations in front of the whole high school community. A House Points system was created in 2019 as well to promote positive attitudes toward learning and living in the school and positive behaviors in line with the Student Behavioral Norms that was revised in the same year. Activities within Houses and competitions across Houses have been organized by teachers or student leaders in the Houses. From 2020, the role of Prefects was also created in each House so more students could be involved in self-management and leadership responsibilities in Houses and in the school. For example, House Captains and Prefects would assist evening study supervisors to manage the order in study rooms, which are also organized by House.
As of the 2021 academic year there were 12 Homerooms in the high school. For each homeroom, one Chinese teacher is appointed as the Homeroom teacher. The Homeroom teachers take three main responsibilities including individual student guidance, family-school relationship maintenance, and parent-teacher communication. The Homeroom teachers are required to meet the homeroom group every morning to take attendance, and pass important school information to students. During the morning meeting, some Homeroom teachers would also organize mini team building activities so better relationships could be created among the students and between the teacher and the students. The Homeroom teacher follows up on serious behavioral and academic issues reported by other teachers. Educative conversations would occur between the teacher and the student in question; the parents would be contacted if the level of seriousness is considerably high. When the degree of offence reaches a certain level the Principal’s Office would step in. Homeroom teachers also monitor each student’s academic performance, in turn encourage good progresses and flag alarming trends as to learning. Several more senior Homeroom teachers would also be involved in student guidance in terms of study plan or university application plan in collaboration with the University Counsellors. Homerooms teachers are also required to keep good communication with all parents of the students in the group, passing information, gathering concerns and complaints, dealing with students’ behavioral issues, and providing consultation services to parents. The Principal meets the group of Homeroom teachers weekly to learn possible concerns and complaints from parents and students so matters can be addressed timely.
It is obvious that the House System focuses more on the social side of student development while the Homeroom System focuses on the personal and emotional side. Since Homeroom teachers are all Chinese they are culturally, linguistically, and emotionally closer to the Chinese students in the school and their parents. Also, the school asks Homeroom teachers to study each student and his or her family education. This provides the teachers with useful information when they guide students and handle students’ problems individually. Moreover, a Homeroom teacher normally follows the homeroom group throughout the years when the group studies in the high school. This arrangement enables Homeroom teachers to support the implementation of the 3-year or even 4-year Student Career Planning Program for each student. The Program is mainly led by the University Counselling Office, homeroom teachers provide support when students and parents plan study, university applications, as well as career goals.
Students and parents are also involved in the processes of building a community that cares for student wellbeing. For example, at one high school assembly, the Principal informed the community including the students about the pastoral care components in the school curriculum. At the same time, the leadership team explained how the school continuously built programs and policies to support all students well-rounded development. The creation of the high school student association (HSSA) in 2020 on the basis of a more loosely connected student House Captains was an important action to engage students more, especially student leaders, in self-regulation and caring for the learning environment in the school. After two years’ development and with the guidance provided by the Principal and the Assistant Principal of Pastoral Care, the HSSA gradually grows to be an active group of student leaders who represents the student voice, organizes student events, and self-regulates the student body.
There is a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting at the beginning of each semester. During the meeting, the Principal informs parent representatives about changes of academic and pastoral care programs and policies in the semester. At the same time, the Principal also asks for support and resources from the parents in order to enrich student learning experience in and outside the school. For instance, parents could help the school invite lecturers. There is a communication platform which includes the Principal, the Assistant Principal, and one parent representative from each Homeroom class. The communication group provides the school administration with an important channel to learn concerns and needs, especially urgent matters, among students and parents. For example, one parent reported one food safety issue in the communication group, the Principal picked up the message and urged the Canteen to deal with the case immediately. Another parent flagged one minor safety concern in the lab policy, the Principal asked the Science department to review that item right away.
Secondly, the leadership team began to upgrade the HS international curriculum framework three years ago. The team took the opportunity of curriculum review to leverage the further development of programs, curriculum, and policies in relation to student wellbeing. Informed by curriculum theories, especially the literature on international school curriculum, we reviewed existing curriculum parts and began to upgrade the curriculum structure so that it would reflect the philosophy of holistic education. We decided that the three-dimensional curriculum framework, consisting of academic, pastoral, and hidden curriculum (Hayden, 2006), would guide us in the process of revamping and upgrading the school curriculum. Once this understanding was shared within the leadership team and the staff members, resources began to be gathered in line with each dimension of the framework and new strategies and programs were created accordingly. As of the end of 2021, there are nine clearly defined components under each curricular area. In particular, the nine components under student pastoral care are Houses, Homerooms, Psychologists, University Counselling, CAS system, Red Beech Writing Lab, Performance Enhancement Program, Nurses, and Dorms. All of these programs serve social, emotional, and physical developmental needs of students. Also, several components under the hidden curriculum, for instance, the culture in student organizations and the content and organization of school assemblies, are related to students’ social and emotional skill development as well.
While we were reviewing and upgrading the high school curriculum, we came to an understanding that the presumed educational goals of the school, which are manifested by the ten learn attributes in the IB Learner Profile, might not perfectly fit the local and current circumstance of the school and changing demographics of the students. We realized that the educational goals needed to be made more relevant to students and teachers who are living, studying, or working in the particular context of the school. Inspired by Walker’s (2010) advice that there must be some space for local traditions in a prescribed learner profile, the leadership team reached an agreement that in line with the upgraded high school curriculum we should also review and possibly revise the learner attributes and make them more visible in the school community.
There are ten learner attributes in the IB learner profile. Each attribute represents a value or quality that the school strives to foster in the students. In addition to the original ten attributes, we decided to add two more—be respectful and be resilient. The reason of adding respectful was our observation that this generation of Chinese students are losing the respectful heritage that traditional Chinese culture teaches. Due to the influence of western individualism and probably the already terminated one-child policy in China, many Chinese children pay too much attention to themselves without respecting the needs of others, community, and the environment. In the high school, for example, incidents occurred in which some students did not respect the library rules so as to affect other students’ right of learning in this common space. When we were considering the last addition of the list of learner attributes, the COVID 19 coincidently hit the world and appeared to prolong. The Principal delivered a few talks during the COVID lockdown and following online teaching and learning. The Principal encouraged the staff and students to stay strong and keep up learning in the face of adversities and uncertainties. Under this circumstance, resilience became an obvious choice for the addition to the learner attributes. As of April 2022, the COVID pandemic has been rampaging human societies for over two years and yet we still haven’t seen the light in the end of the dark tunnel. The high school students and staff have learned to cope with the difficult situations of the 2020 lockdown and the ongoing 2022 Shanghai Omicron outbreak. Regardless of repeated testing, reporting and endless online learning, we still learned to enjoy the work, study, and life in the physical and virtual school. We know we definitely made a right choice with the last additional attribute that is resilience.
Since we have twelve learner attributes, one attribute can be now linked with one month. At the beginning of each month, the Principal would discuss the meaning of the attribute at the school assembly and ask the teachers and students to make connections with their teaching and learning. We also categorize the twelve attributes into the three domains of well-rounded development—ways of being, ways of learning, and ways of doing. We created a nice diagram to demonstrate the relationships between the twelve learner attributes, the three developmental domains, and the three curricular components. This unified curriculum model is the manifestation of the holistic education in the high school that aims at all learners’ wellbeing.
Thirdly, we created a range of policies and programs that are related to promoting all learners’ wellbeing.
The high school receives students from all over Shanghai and a few other provinces in China that are close to the city. As we make the international education of the school more accessible to more students, the diversity of students increases. Different academic backgrounds and ability levels, English abilities, understandings of international education, mental health needs, and parental support all come under the seemingly common goal of studying abroad after a few years of study in the high school. Diverse needs of learning and student care are more and more visible to the administration and the teachers. Moreover, most students attending the high school are boarding students who go homes each Friday afternoon and return to the school each Sunday evening. That is to say, most students not only study in the school but also live on campus. The boarding students have to learn to take care of themselves physically and emotionally during their weekly stay at the school. Also, this creates more education and support demand for the supporting staff and faculty of the school. Comparatively speaking, it is obvious that the wellbeing of boarding students must be influenced by their school experiences more than their commuting peers who get to see their parents or at least family members every night.
Given the situation described above, the high school leadership team clearly understands that the school should provide more services to the students than a regular day school. Regular facilities such as sports facilities and study areas in the library areas are provided and interesting events and activities are also organized monthly or sometimes weekly to enrich students’ experiences at school. On the top of these regular services and learning opportunities, the high school also has been creating programs and policies the improve all learners’ wellbeing. The table below shows a range of programs and policies that involve many teachers and administrators in the high school. Several of these programs were proactively created by the school (e.g. student gym, cooking lessons, student lounge) whereas several others responded to emerging student needs (e.g. individual study rooms, Red Beech Writing Lab, the Blue List).
Program/Policy-Purpose-Created in (year)-Coordinator(s)
Student Gym
Students work out during breaks and evening time
2015 (renovated in 2020)
PE teachers
Cooking Lesson Program
Boarding students learn basic cooking skills
2015
Dormitory director
Mental Health Support
Provide mental health support service
2019
On-site psychologist teacher
Student Lounge
Students hang out during breaks and free periods
2019
Assistant Principal-Pastoral and HSSA
Individual Study Rooms
Students use individually when they need some quiet time
2019
Assistant Principal-Pastoral
Performance Enhancement Program (PEP)
Students know themselves better and hence become more motivated in learning
2020
Psychology teacher
Academic Enrichment and University Application (AEUA)
Students make better study and university application plans
2020
University counsellors
Reb Beech Writing Lab
Reduce anxiety caused by English writing and support writing
2020
Language B Subject Group Leader
The Blue List
Circulate the list of students with mental health care only among the teachers
2020
The Principal
Parents and student Complaints Procedure
Parents and students file informal and formal complaints
2020
The Principal
Sports Teams
Create a range of sports teams that represent the school
2021
Coaches of the teams
Student Min-TED Talk
Students tell learning and success stories in the community
2021
Assistant Principal-Academic
Radio Station
Students-led music broadcasting program during the lunch hour
2021
Music teacher
コメント