Opening ceremony speech, Sep 2nd, 2019
Good morning ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you very much, Principal Gong for your very kind introduction!
It is my honor to serve ECNUAS as the Vice Principal and the Principal of the International Division.
I am very excited to meet all, new and returning students, new and returning teachers, on the very first day of the 2019 academic year! You must be equally excited and anticipating as I do. A lot of interesting and challenging learning opportunities awaiting you in the following 360 days. I believe you will be trying many new things, meeting many new friends, and making greater achievement soon.
This year will see the fifth anniversary of ECNUAS. The school originates in this place and grows to be a large multi-campus, multi curricula school populated by more than 1500 students and hundreds of staff members. We should be proud for we are members of this growing family. We are working here, studying here, and living here. We eat here, study here, entertain here, and some of you even sleep here. It is so true that this campus is our small world.
American educator and philosopher John Dewey said “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Indeed, some of you have been living in this school for quite a few years, and still you will stay here for more years. Generally speaking, each of us would spend almost a quarter of your life in educational institutions. So, why wouldn’t you treat the educational life in ECNUAS seriously?
The international division of ECNUAS is an IB school. The IB aims to “develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”. Following this Mission, we should begin with making this campus a better place as it is our small world. The Vision of ECNUAS is to Originate in China and Impact the World.
To be able to create a better world, we want this campus to be populated by “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people” at first. We want our students to be “understanding and respecting”. If we work hard enough, I strongly believe it is possible to impact the world and make the world a better place.
As a four years old school, we already have some role models in this respect. For example, in the just graduated class of 2019, we had two students who achieved higher than 40 points in the IB global examination. We will remember their positive contribution to the community and their names will be recorded in the school’s history. The second class will graduate next May. I believe, given our teachers and students’ consistent and relentless effort, we will see even higher IB scores next year!
Probably you remember the ROSE that I put on the first slide. Rose is the flower of the school. The four letters in the word ROSE also represents the four Houses in ECNUAS. We have two parallel student care systems—House and Homeroom. Obviously, one of them is from the western traditions, the other from the east. I believe both of the two Chinese characters, one is 房，the other is 家should give you a feeling of being looked after and guided. This is exactly the purpose of the two parallel systems.
In the past one month or so, I have been working a team of passionate and highly dedicated educators in this high school. Among them, a team of Heads of Houses draw on western and eastern educational traditions and strengths to support students’ lives in the school. Please allow me introduce the Heads of each House. Their leadership and guidance will help you navigate the lives in the school and lay good foundation for your future success no matter where you will go.
...
In addition to this House System, we also have a team of patient, dedicated, and inspiring Homeroom Teachers, who will be closely companying you while you study and live your lives in this school.
...
Academic study is one main strand of school life, we put this very important responsibility on the shoulders of of Subject Group Leaders and other academic coordinators. With their strong academic leadership, we will build a stronger and coherent international curriculum for the international division of ECNUAS.
...
Working closely with these talented people are me as the DP Coordinator and Ms. Maggie Wang as the Assistant DP Coordinator.
You are about to begin a new school year in this school. School is a complex organization, as an organization, there must be certain rules that everyone should obey by. We won’t have time to go over all the details of these rules such as HS Students Behavioral Norms, Evening Study Rules, Policy for the use of library, Academic Honesty Policy, etc.
I just want to highlight a few things that we think you should follow,
1. Respect others in the library, study rooms, and really all public space (be quiet, clean up when you leave, etc.). Classrooms and library are tidy and quiet at this moment, please let everyone enjoy this kind of tidiness and quietness every day.
2. Cellphones in Phone Box in each classroom before you enter a classroom or even study room
3. No food in the library, class rooms, and study rooms. Eat properly at meal time, keep snacks in your locker and enjoy them outside these rooms.
4. Learn to manage your time, pre-book rooms in Smart Campus if you will have group projects or special individual needs (HTs will teach you how to use Smart Campus to book rooms)
5. Eat healthy in school, no food delivery into the campus. The school provides 3 meals and some alternative snacks, students are not permitted to buy food deliveries.
To reinforce these rules, we introduce a House Point system that record every student’s merits and calculate each House’s total points monthly.
I wish you happy and very productive school year!
Comments