This is the record of the presentation we made at the 4th IB China conference on April 15 2023. I and the Vice Principal Maggie Wang made the presentation collaboratively.
We use a broad concept of school curriculum: what students experience in the school, including academic, pastoral, hidden curriculum components.
Student wellbeing refers to the overall physical, mental, emotional, social health and happiness of students.
This presentation tells you how our school makes effort to build an environment, continuously develop the school curriculum, and create learning opportunities for the purpose of better student wellbeing.
After 7 seven years of operation, SABS recently revised it vision, mission, and values in the light of new education policies and new societal needs in China. The Vision and Mission of the school tell you that our education brings the best of the East and West into our campus and that we focus on whole-child education. The four core values guide our consideration and practices of education. Especially, the promotion of diversity and our actions of caring are highly aligned with the goal of student wellbeing.
We understand that holistic education is an education for student wellbeing. Holistic education cultivates intellectual, emotional, social, physical, creative, aesthetic and spiritual potentials of learners. The school tries its best to create policies and programs to raise children as whole persons.
It adopted both IBDP and IBPYP programmes at the very beginning of the school. In one of the IB documents, it states, “IB programmes promote the education of the whole person, by emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth through all domains of knowledge…The learner profile is a profile of the whole person as a lifelong learner… ”(IB, 2008). This statement not only tells that IB is a holistic education and hence an education that promote student wellbeing, but also it emphasizes the significance of IB learner profile as to whole person development.
IB will continue to be a champion of holistic education and quality international education worldwide. In the most recent, IBDP programme review, student agency and wellbeing is one of the key priorities of IB’s review of 16+ programmes (IB, 2023).
We understand that student wellbeing is not only about happiness and well-rounded development but also student success. Therefore, guided by the four core values of our education, which are quality, diversity, integration, and caring, we want to cultivate competitive and successful learners rooted in Chinese cultural heritage. Real student wellbeing must be supported by high quality curriculum and learning, as well as good learning outcomes.
While wellbeing must be important to any school, it is even more relevant to us because of a range of observations of the school context. We observe,
• Diversity of students who come from different social and academic backgrounds
• Increasing demand of studying in international schools, especially high schools
• Increasing competitiveness when applying world universities due to increasing number of Chinese applicants
• The anxiety that social media creates for teenagers who are constantly connected to the internet
• The anxiety that the students and parents experience before the students have to leave for other countries
• Increasing mental health issues among students due to a range of sources such as social media, study, peer relationships, family etc.
• Alignment with the holistic education philosophy of SABS, which provides the backdrop of our work
We created 12 learner attributes based on IBLP and our understanding of the school context. Ten of these attributes come from the IBLP, two are locally created. We categorize the twelve attributes into the four domains of well-rounded development—Learn to be, learn to know, learn to do, and learn to live together. This four-domain holistic education framework is publicised by the UNESCO in 1996 in the famous report titled Learning: the treasure within. This agreed holistic education framework guides our staff’s consideration and practice of curriculum development.
In the middle of the COVID pandemic, we came to understand that the IBLP might not perfectly fit the changing demographics of our students and the local and current circumstance of the school. Thus, we decided to add two more attributes—being respectful and being 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.
When we were considering the last addition of the list of learner attributes, the COVID 19 was hitting the world and China badly. Under this circumstance, teaching our student to be resilient became an obvious choice. In the post-COVID time, we think the quality of being resilient is still relevant because this generation will have to face many challenges and uncertainties that previous generations could not even imagine.
We adopt the IB’s descriptions for the original 10 learner attributes and we defined Resilient and Respectful by our own.
For Resilient, we use the following description.
We adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress, such as study, health or relationship problems. We will not only make it through the challenges and difficulties but also emerge to become a more confident and courageous self.
For Respectful, we make the following statement.
We accept people for who they are even when they are different from us; we accept established traditions and cultures for how they are and do not cause unnecessary offence; we always show humility and politeness as we understand that we could be wrong and others could also have admirable qualities.
While other learner attributes are all related to student wellbeing, we think that these two are extremely important. Being resilient is highly related to wellbeing of individuals, be respectful are crucial to the wellbeing of people when they live together with others.
Since the revised learner profile now have twelve learner attributes, one attribute can be linked with one month of a year. At the beginning of each month, the Principal of the High School would discuss the meaning of one attribute at the school assembly and ask the teachers and students to make connections with their teaching and learning. We call this explained learner attribute as the Monthly Education Theme.
We take a whole school approach to student wellbeing. A whole school approach to student wellbeing is recommended by the IB and relevant research. A whole school approach means that the total learning environment of the school is seen as the arena for change instead of narrow focuses on behavioural or attitudinal issues of individual learners. Many aspects of the school education should be taken into account for the purpose of student wellbeing. Considered aspects include systems and structures (e.g. HT, HH), relationships, curriculum, teaching and learning, school culture and ethos, physical environment, and policies and programs.
In our school,
• The learning environment includes the school curriculum (what every teacher does with students), the school culture (the hidden component as well as the physical environment), rules and policies (assessment policy, language policy, inclusion policy, student behavior, etc.), and special programs (Career development, PEP, AEUA, bluelist, etc.)
• Many teachers are involved in the work of student wellbeing, knowingly or unknowingly (HT, HH, CAS supervisor, CAS advisor, counsellor, psychologist, pastoral care leader, nurse, even dorm teacher)
• HSSA, club leaders, and PTA are also involved to some degree (provide suggestions, review policies)
• Later in the program development, we realize that the focus on student wellbeing actually provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our systems, curriculum, programs, policies, and practices. We got to learn our students better, and know the purpose of our curriculum, policies, and facilities better. This realization makes us more confident and makes our actions more purposeful.
When it comes to curriculum development, we are guided by an action theory, combining the educational goal, which is represented by the learner attributes development domains, with the three-dimensional curriculum. We are quite confident that the three-dimensional, balanced curriculum supports holistic development of students, and hence cultivate student wellbeing.
Academic curriculum means what is formally ‘taught’ in the school (knowledge, skills, understanding).
Pastoral curriculum means the practices that promote personal and social development and foster positive attitudes (social skills, personal skills, study skills, attitudes, values).
Hidden curriculum means the practices which is not explicit in curriculum guides but are regular and effective parts of the school experience (attitudes, norms, values).
(Hayden, 2006)
Informed by this curriculum development framework, we continuously develop components within each and make sure the overall curriculum is balanced, aligned, and connected. For example, in the Academic column, IGCSE and GAC are aligned with IBDP and A-Level, while other components supplement diverse needs of students. For instance, the G9 integrated curriculum and the G10 interdisciplinary units are designed to help students transit from the study in a lower grade to the higher grade.
In the pastoral column, House and Homerooms are connected and supplement each other. Counsellors collaborate with all teachers in the school and lead career planning and an academic enrichment program. Psychologists play an important role in promoting the overall mental health of the community and supporting students with special needs.
In the Hidden Curriculum column, student culture, physical environment, norms and rules, and community influences are all considered. These constitute the overall learning environment of the school. We try to build an uplifting, inclusive, and open community, where every learner feels being supported and cared.
Speaking of the pastoral care system, students are always put at the center. A real story may tell the essence of the system. During one Sports Day, one student Frank in Grade 10 wore T-shirt with some antisocial language printed at his back. One foreign teacher noticed the language and immediately talked to the boy and asked him to make a change. The boy agreed but just covered the T-Shirt with a jumper. The student didn’t fully understand the offence, he thought it was just cool. Later, the teacher saw the boy wearing the T-shirt again when competed in a race because he took off the jumper. The PE teacher at the game was notified, the student was brought away from the track. Since the sport day event was organized by Houses. The head of house was involved to educate the student.
Next Monday, I had a meeting with the student, letting him know what real cool means and what are the bottom lines of a student in the school. The homeroom teacher is involved to discuss this incident with the student and his parents. The parents confessed that they saw the T-Shirt at home but they didn’t point out the problem with the language. The parents appreciated the school’s intervention and promised to educate the student in collaboration with the school.
After the incident, the teachers better know the student, and we found some strengths of him that we didn’t notice before. For instance, he is a critical and creative thinker, he is very passionate about what he believes, he wants to become a scientist. A few months later, he become one of the House Captains and hence a member of HSSA. He is in Grade 11 DP now. He continues to be a model student in the school.
In this story, you can see how the student is put at the center of the safe net, in which all teachers pay attention to the student’s development and wellbeing. The principal, counsellors, homeroom teachers, and Heads of House all play their respective role to care for parts of the student’s wellbeing. Putting together, we make sure every student is safe, happy, actively engaged in the school, and hence grow to become a better self.
Since the inception of the DP program, we have been creating policies, programs, and facilities to meet the wellbeing needs of our students. From these practices, you can tell how we put students’ need at the center of our work, and how we genuinely live up to the values of diversity and caring. And we constantly review these practices and revise according to new needs. For example, we keep a list of students who are identified with potential mental health risks known as the Blue List. This list is shared with the teaching staff only. The student status on the list will be reviewed and updated regularly based on targets met, whole school assessments, ongoing learning progress and improvements regarding the individual student. Mental health support services are provided to the blue-list students.
Every semester, the school organized mental health week, a school-wide activity focusing on students' physical and mental health. Centering on the theme " We Will Be Always With You ", the High school conducted one-to-one psychological interview between teachers and students coordinated by psychology teacher, Besides, the school also carefully arranged a number of interesting interactive sites such as ”One-to-one Free Talk Hole", "Message Board", and ”Sunshine Bottle Graffiti", where students wrote down their inner words on the message board, and regain the courage and confidence to move forward.
We also try to identify impact of all these efforts we made for student wellbeing. Here is a list of data that we collected.
• PASS (The Pupil Attitudes to Self and School) survey (2019, 2020, 2021)
• Quality of online teaching survey (2020, 2022)
• DP students survey and interviews (2021, 2022)
• 30+ student learning stories inspired by the SABS 12 Learner Attributes
• National and international awards (0 before 2020; 19 in 2020; 56 in 2021; 73 in 2023)
• Number of CAS clubs and leaders (about 30 among fewer than 200 students)
• Richer extra-curricular events (World Mental Health Day campaign, Drama Festival, House Night, Charity Donation, CAS exhibition, CAS trips, Fun Run)
We encourage students to create many CAS clubs each year and the CAS coordinator makes a CAS calendar of each year to coordinate many events and activities in the school. Every academic year, we review student clubs and encourage students to continue and create clubs. For instance, AIM phorography and Guanchen reading clubs were initiated by our first DP cohort in 2017 and has continued since then. CAS is one of the core elements in DP. In our school, all graders ranging from G9 to G12 are involved in CAS. Not only for their CAS purpose as CAS is student wellbeing in action, but also, they get to learn many skills through organizing and participating in these clubs and activities.
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. This result reflects the demographics of our recruited students. Interventions have been discussed with our teachers.
The Teacher Librarian collected students’ learning story and is preparing a publication of these stories. Some of them were written by our current students, while some others were written by the alumni of the high school.
Here are several excerpts from their stories.
“The precious memories with Mr. Wang also largely attributed to my dream of becoming a teacher in the future. It gave me an idea of my ideal job as a grown up. I feel obliged to inherit this sensitive care to others, just like spring rain which moistens everything silently.” (Zezi, G11, Caring)
“I did’ t grew up with science, but it’ s my passion now. It’s my love, my joy, and nothing fills my heart more than conducting experiments. If you want to become a scientist, taking risks is necessary.” (Moyu, G11, Risk-takers)
In my understanding, resilient is an attitude of picking yourself up after failure…During my 7 years of Taekwondo training, I learned that the key to becoming resilient is to gain the motivation to move forward despite anything blocking the way. (Zixiang, G12, Resilient)
We just finished the first 5-year evaluation for the IBDP programme. The evaluation report praises our effort and achievement.
“Not many schools can truly put students at the center of its education, but this school is absolutely one of them.” “The evaluation visit shows a school which is committed to the student learning and wellbeing. ” (IB Evaluation Report, 2022)
We reflect on our practice towards student wellbeing. Using the PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement) model, we design the improvement of the next stage. Areas of improved are identified using this model.
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