Again, this is the first Monday of a new month. I will give a formal speech on the monthly education theme and I will summarize the House Point competition of the previous month. If you listened to my previous speeches carefully, you should know that they were not just routine announcements. I prepared each of these speeches carefully. I wanted to show you my perspective on what happened in the school and tell you my expectations for students and teachers.
You all know that these monthly themes are not just some irrelevant words that randomly sprang out of my crazy mind. They are actually the essence of a good international education, which is represented by the IB and A-Level programs. We are happy to see many students embrace these concepts, live up to these words, and even write about their growth. The Teacher Librarian Miss Tiffany Zhan is preparing a publication of some collected student stories inspired by these learner attributes. Some of them were written by our current students, while some others were written by the alumni of the high school. I believe you will all learn from these inspiring stories when you read them soon.
I observe that it is those students who are exemplars of these learner attributes that make the highest achievements in and outside the school. These students listen to the teaching of their teachers, respect school rules, be engaged in school activities, take student leadership opportunities, and participate in competitions outside the school. To give several examples, you must remember those excellent graduates in the past a few years, such as Jemma Ye and Carol Hua (graduated in 2020), Megan Zhou (graduated in 2021), Cathey Cheng and William Jiao (gradudated in 2022). All of them are openminded, principled, respectful, and balanced. All of them are student leaders in the school and active players in Houses or Student Clubs.
For the current Grade 12 students, it is also observed that those students who demonstrate the learner attributes are more likely to be admitted by top universities worldwide. Their names will also be remembered by us and their qualities will inspire future students of the school. For example, Ocean Zhang, Lynn Xie, Christine Ge, Sam Li, and Annie Zhang. All of them used to be student leaders and made good contributions to the community while growing through these personal or social experiences. However, we feel that a few other graduating students could have achieved better if they had been more openminded, respectful, and balanced in terms of their learning and development during their high school study. I hope all students can learn from these lessons and arrive at your best approaches to learning in the future.
You may wonder why I am talking about these example students today. The point I want to emphasize is that evidence shows us the importance and relevance of the twelve learner attributes as to your study and success. These are the qualities of learners that best universities worldwide are looking for. These are the qualities that our school’s education tries to foster in you. Therefore, if you take your own learning and development seriously, you must be engaged in all the learning opportunities offered by the school, be it learning in classrooms, activities on the playground, assemblies in Houses, or events in this canteen.
I think it is fair to say that, when it comes to learning, as a student, you don’t have the knowledge and experience to make all your decisions yet. The adults around you, your principal, your teachers, your counsellors, and your parents do have something to offer in this regard. Therefore, you must listen to your teachers’ advice, and your parents’ suggestions, and your principal’s teaching. As a learner in the school, you don’t have the right to arrogantly pick what you want and what you don’t want yet. You must open your mind and listen first and you must learn to follow first before you learn to questions and challenge; you must learn to be respectful first before you learn to innovate and create. We encourage students to be critical thinkers and creative participants, but you should not skip the initial steps of learning before you move onto the next stage. Without a humble and respectful foundation, your growing tower easily falls apart.
Here comes the theme of April 2023.
Respectful
You accept people for who they are even when they are different from you;
You accept established traditions and cultures for how they are and do not cause unnecessary offence;
You always show humility and politeness as you understand you could be wrong and others could also have admirable qualities.
Thinking skills
You are able to think critically by analyzing and evaluating issues and ideas;
You are able to think creatively by generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives;
You are also able to transfer skills and knowledge across disciplines.
I want to talk more about what types of behaviours are counted as being respectful in the school. We see that while most students accept established rules and traditions of the school, such as following the school timetable, rules of using electronic devices, participation in assemblies, dinning in the canteen, wearing school uniforms, etc., some uneducated others often violate these rules and offend the school culture disrespectfully and shamelessly. Those disrespectful behaviours are damaging the learning environment in the school and if this trend continues it will eventually impact every student in long run.
For example, recently we noticed some students order take away food without realizing this behaviour caused offence to school rules and damage the school environment. When you were enrolled in the school, you signed a contract with the school and promised to abide by the school rules and respect its traditions and cultures. It is arrogant, foolish, and shameless if you think you can break the promise as your wish. You should not take advantage of our teachers’ caring and leniency. The school and your teachers do not accept this kind of stupidity and arrogance. Respect should be reciprocal, if a student does not respect the rules and teachers, we will not blindly be caring for you and be lenient to you either. In the next three months, we will try to correct some bad behaviours in this campus. As a starter, we will begin with tackling take away food.
I wrote an email to all homeroom teachers last Friday, asking them to inform every student that from today we will inspect more closely at lunch and dinner time. Teachers and staff members will be patrolling the school, especially those gates where some students could receive take away food. Upon finding any take-away food, it will be confiscated and thrown away at the end of the day. If any student was caught ordering take-away food, their digital devices will be confiscated immediately and the devices will be kept in the Principal’s Office until the end of the semester.
This school needs a better learning environment, this school needs a better student culture. This school does not need students who are disrespectful and consequently disengaged with the accepted normal student life in it. I, as the principal of the high school, will allocate time to support teachers and educate students for this purpose. I call on staff members to take actions against students ordering take away food and other inappropriate behaviours. I ask staff members to send students to the principal’s office if they do not follow your instructions.
There are good examples of respectful students in the school. For example, last Tuesday, we received a Danish student delegation. The eleven Grade 9 and Grade 10 students who paired with the Danish students really demonstrated their good qualities especially being respectful and caring. They looked after our friends, they also actively interacted with them to share ideas and knowledge. Wilson Feng from Grade 11, the leader of World Culture Club, helped the school organize the cultural exchange activities in the afternoon. These activities were very much appreciated by our guests.
Two weeks ago, we organized one House Improvement discussion. Each House made a good proposal and presented the plan on March 24th afternoon. The student leaders who led the discussion and other students who participated in that event practiced their thinking skills and showed their respect to the school’s culture and tradition in a creative way. However, some students escaped from House event without giving any excused to the Heads of House or House Captains. This behaviour was also disrespectful, unacceptable, and should be punished. I will tackle this problem soon.
Let me announce the winners of the House Improvement Plan presentations. The best proposal came from the Einstein House, they received 59 tickets. The best presenters from the four Houses are Lisa Guo (R House), Cynthia Fan (O House), Wilson Feng (S House), and Rain Jiang (E House).
Finally, I will summarize the House Point competition result of March 2023. The winning House is Shakespeare, closely followed by Einstein. Ren Bonian is the 3rd place, O’ Neal is the last this month. Congratulations to S House, and thanks to S House students for your good behaviors and achievements in March 2023.
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