More than 40 alumni representing classes between the 1930’s and 1950’s flew thousands of miles to China for the reunion in Shanghai to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of their mother school and talk with the current students.

One of the alumni was Ellis Jacob, whose family originated from Baghdad, Iraq, but was born and raised in Shanghai in 1931. His Grandfather moved to Shanghai in 1900 when he was called to manage some real estate in China. Jacob attended Shanghai American School in 1945 after the school reopened after World War II. During Ellis’ time in Shanghai from 1931-1949, he witnessed Shanghai being occupied under 4 different government rulings from the fall of the Imperial government to the Nationalist party, and then the Japanese and finally the Communist government. It was truly an amazing experience, one that is usually documented through books and documentaries, but Jacob lived it and experienced this memorable time period firsthand.

Jacob still remembers fondly his experience studying in SAS back in the post-war era, which, according to him, was quite a pleasant one. “The atmosphere was entirely different when I got to Shanghai American School,” said Jacob with a chuckle. “Other than the required courses, we actually got to pick our own elective courses from the 9^th grade on, which was unheard of at the time. It was really inspiring to study the subjects that you are actually interested in!”

Looking at the diverse nationalities among the current SAS student body, Jacob said that it wasn’t always so diverse back in the days since most students were children of missionaries, military and business families. The only Chinese kids that attended the school were those from wealthy families. “In the society I grew up in, there was very little mixture between Westerners and Chinese,” said Jacob. “We weren’t segregated, but there just wasn’t a lot of interaction with the locals so I’m really glad to see such diversity in today’s schools.”

Like Ellis Jacob, many alumni came from different parts of the world, but at one point in their lives, they were together at SAS during a now historical time period.

“It was a great pleasure to meet my old schoolmates in Shanghai,” said the other SAS alumni, Theodor Karl Heinrichsohn, or Teddy as his friends would call him. “My wife Andrea and I have been to quite a number of reunions in the US, but it was of course very special to meet in Shanghai, where we all had met first as teenagers. It brought back a lot of memories just catching up on the things we used to do together, the radio station we used to listen to and talk about the old school newspaper we all read, just fun old times.”

Unlike Jacob, Heinrichsohn shared a different life story. Born in Changsha, China to a German father and a Chinese mother, he was a boarding student at SAS in 1946 while his parents resided in Changsha. While he was attending SAS, the Sino-Japanese war had just ended when the Japanese surrendered after the atomic bomb drop. Heinrichsohn recalled vividly that he had never seen so many Japanese soldiers stationed in Shanghai once the war was over. “Japanese soldiers stayed and maintained law and order until the nationalists came in to take over,” he said. “I saw more Japanese soldiers when the war was over than during the war”. Heinrichsohn was later forced to leave China in 1955 due to his German descent and he was basically exiled without any money or property. However looking back, Heinrichsohn was actually glad for his exile as he managed to meet his future wife on a boat out of Hong Kong. Call it serendipity or fate; he was happy with how things turned out. Heinrichsohn is now serving as the current president of the Shanghai American School Alumni Association, which has over 450 members all over the world. Heinrichsohn represents the SAS class of ’49 and always remembers how his experience at SAS helped him later in life. “Shanghai American School provided a lot more independent thinking and creativity, and it really combined the best of both China and America”.

During their two week stay in Shanghai, the group of alumni visited many historical landmarks in Shanghai, including the iconic Peace Hotel, the old SAS on Heng Shan Lu, Shanghai Museum, Tianzi Fang (Tai Kang Lu), Xin Tian Di, Yu Yuan Gardens, and many more. One of the highlights during the centennial week was the SAS Centenary Ball held at the Fairmount Peace Hotel, where former US ambassador as well as one the honorary SAS alumni, J. Stapleton Roy, gave a public speech sharing his life experience in Shanghai and SAS, as he was born in Nanjing in 1935 and attended SAS as a teenager.

The week-long celebration culminated with the alumni guest speaker series on SAS campuses, featuring this year’s honorable guest speaker Ted Stannard, an alumnus representing the class of ’48 and also a professor and acclaimed journalist. Ted Stannard was only a 3rd grader when he first enrolled at SAS in 1938. He later returned to Shanghai in 1946 and enrolled back in SAS, graduating in 1948. Hundreds of current high school students at SAS gathered in the auditorium as Stannard shared his remarkable experience traveling all over the world and his unique experience of university hopping from Cal Tech to Cornell where he earned his MA. Ted later travelled around Asia working as a journalist in order to fulfill his interest in people and culture. “You never know what the opportunities are unless you turn the door knob,” Stannard shared with his young peers. “SAS encouraged me to nurture critical thinking, creativity, and independent thinking, and all these qualities served me well as I got further and further in my career.”

Bum Cheul Park, currently a junior at SAS, who served as the MC for the alumni guest speaker assembly, gained a new, profound outlook on his own life after listening to these alumni sharing their rich life experiences. “When I first came to China six years ago (from Korea), Shanghai was going through some rapid changes and just within a six year span, I’m seeing gigantic changes already so I can’t imagine what they (the alumni) have been through,” said Park. “I feel very privileged to hear all these inspiring life stories because this will allow us to look at our own lives differently.”  Park will have his own life story about SAS to tell one day when he returns to the school as an alumnus.

Park and Stannard, each representing their own generations, came together and called out to the crowd loudly “Once an eagle, always an eagle.” The proud slogan of SAS truly shows that the attitude and drive among students at SAS always remain the same.

The Centennial Celebration is to honor and recognize past achievements, but it also serves as inspiration towards an even more promising future.

By Richard Chung

At BISS Puxi, the brand new Auditorium was the venue for the production, and children, staff and parents worked incredibly hard to design and paint a set that transformed the stage into the Thames Valley, England! Transforming the cast of 33 children aged between 7 and 11 years into a range of riverbank and woodland creatures was also no mean feat and the make-up and costumes were the result of a great team effort.

The acting was superb all round but the four main characters certainly deserve a special mention for their stage presence, ability to improvise, clarity of voice and powerful singing. The show included a lot of humor and the audience were all absolutely enthralled and entertained.

The amount of work that the children put into learning songs, lines and extensive acting and choreography was very impressive indeed. A huge amount of hard work also went on behind the scenes producing and directing the play and BISS clearly has some talented staff. The musical accompaniment was excellent and the standard of musicianship amongst the music teachers was clear to see. The band was also joined by secondary students from BISS, demonstrating once again the team ethos at the school.

As a student about to begin at a university with extremely high alumni involvement, I knew that these relationships would be very useful to me in the future. In fact, I began to exploit these relationships before I even started college. Over the summer, although I had yet to become an official Princeton student, I got in touch with an alumnus and requested a summer job at his lab, to which he gladly replied yes. Throughout the summer, he personally taught and took great care of me, even though he could have easily left me with one of his graduate students. When I finally set off for college, he was sure to give me all the advice he had about succeeding at Princeton. At the time, however, I had no way of understanding why he treated me as well as he did. All I knew was that this was the way the alumni connection worked. I also didn’t realize that I was becoming an alum myself (of Shanghai American School, Pudong) and that I would have much to learn about being an alum over the course of my first year in college.

Surprisingly enough, the first step on my journey to understanding what it means to be an alum came from a caption on a Facebook profile picture. The picture was from my best friend’s Spring Break adventures of visiting friends at other colleges. Like me, he is an SAS Pudong alumnus. The caption itself was short, sweet, and simple:

"Did you get to go home this spring break?"

"Yes, yes I did."

But he didn’t actually go home. Not really. Not if home meant Shanghai, or Montreal, or Bangkok. So what did he mean? (And what does this have to do with alumni?)

As the cliché goes, “Home is where the heart is.” For me, as is probably true for most international students, my heart is in many different places. There are the obvious places to call home – places we once lived and the places we live now – but there are also more subtle places. One such place is what my friend above was referring to: a place where we find ourselves connected to home through people rather than geography.

One of my geographical “homes” is SAS Pudong. For better or for worse, SAS has changed me, and I have changed SAS, and that is something every SAS alum shares. What is powerful here, however, is the fact that we all share this home – collectively. This location is one of the many “centers” of my identity, and this center is common to all SAS alums. You could almost think of it as a common gene – no matter how different the rest of our traits, we will always have this one in common.

But what is the significance of this one simple fact? We share genes with distant cousins that we’ve never met, but that’s not an important relationship in our lives. Why should being an alum be any different? Thus, we are inevitably brought to the “alumni are like family” analogy. I personally believe this analogy fails in a sense because it conjures up images of the parent-child relationship or the brother-sister relationship. In reality, I believe the alumni relationship is somewhat more like a distant familial relationship rather than an immediate family relationship, like the relationships (or sometimes lack thereof) that we have with our distant cousins.

To put it in those terms, however, makes it seem as if alumni relationships have little real value. After all, our relationships with our distant cousins are not often important relationships in our lives. And yet here, I’d like to argue the contrary. I’d like to argue that these relationships are important, in ways that we tend to overlook.

When I first began writing this article, I happened to also be invited to an SAS reunion here at Princeton. It was a brief typical lunch in one of our dining halls, with all the SAS alums from both Pudong and Puxi campuses, which amounted to a total of ten of us. The opening minutes of the lunch were like the first hour of a big family reunion. You introduce yourself to those you don’t know (or remember), give out a few personal details that might connect you to the others in some way, and reminisce about similar experiences that you may share even though you’re not that close. Family jokes like, “Oh Aunt Marge can’t stop talking about her garden gnomes” are replaced by school jokes about typhoon days being the sunniest of the year, but their essence is the same – we may not know each other so well but we’ve got experiences in common. In addition, there are the people you know well, the people you don’t know so well, and the people you don’t know at all, just like there are at family reunions. The Pudong girls were like my immediate family, the Class of 2011 girls from the Puxi campus were like the cousins that I had spent some time with before but weren’t super close to, and the grad student in the economic department that graduated from SAS before it moved to its current location was like the one distant uncle I didn’t know I had. In many ways, we were just like a big family.

And that’s not where the similarities end. As human beings, we are always searching for ways in which we are connected to others. The alumni and family connections are just two of many ways we can find such a connection. One way in which these particular connections set themselves apart, however, are in the responsibilities that come with them. There are no laws or rules that say that family members must treat each other well or even favourably. Without a doubt, there are family members that do not. However, in the majority of cases, family members feel a sense of responsibility or obligation towards other family members. There exists the idea that we are supposed to love our family, and do our best to help them when we can, and this is true regardless of our degree of relation – distant cousins are included in this category of “family” just like brothers and sisters are. The alumni connection forges a similar sense of responsibility. Over the course of our hour-long lunch, the older alums did their best to give us what advice they had and were kind in ways that wouldn’t be warranted if we were just a group of random strangers who sat down at the same table for lunch together one day. It was, however, more than just an obligation they were fulfilling. Sitting there, you could sense a genuine desire from everyone to be a friend to everyone else at the table. We had been given the label of “SAS alums,” but it was up to us to flesh out what that relationship looked like in real life, just as it is up to us to build relationships with those people we label as our “distant cousins”. And that is where the distinction between immediate family and distant family becomes important – there are somewhat clear expectations for what an immediate family relationship is like, but there are no such constraints on distant familial relationships. The power to define the relationship is solely in our hands.

And here is where the true meaning of being an alumnus lies. We don’t have to be best friends with every single one of our cousins. But to be cousins with someone is a starting point upon which an important relationship can be built. This starting point is genetic in nature for family, but a similar idea applies to being alumni. As alums, we are connected by our ideas about home. A house alone is not a home, nor is a building, a school, or even an entire city. Home is a much larger concept than any physical thing alone because at the heart of this idea of home is the sense that we are connected to something much greater than ourselves. In essence, this is what it means to be an alumnus – to be connected to the hundreds or thousands of other alumni out there by a shared home, a shared experience, a shared identity. The label of alumnus is only a label until you give it meaning.

To be an alum means to be given the opportunity to create relationships you would otherwise not feel the need to build. To be an alum means to choose to be connected to others via something of mutual importance to all of you. To some extent, to be an alum means to decide for yourself what it means to be an alum. The SAS alums I have been lucky enough to meet here have given me many meanings for the alumni relationship, but friend and mentor have been the two most important. And as we get ready to welcome a few new soon-to-be alums from the Class of 2012, I hope they will discover for themselves in the coming year the same welcoming alumni family of which I am now a part.

By Jessica Hao

Last year in Kuala Lumpur the Lycée Français de Shanghai’s U12 team won the first edition of the French School Asian Soccer Cup. As our players are not afraid of anything, they are now putting their title on the line by organizing the second edition of this sporting event.

Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh and Tokyo have all taken up the challenge and will defend the colors of their schools next 26 and 27 May, on Qingpu Campus soccer fields. This project’s main objective is of course to create relations between the different French schools in Asia but also to offer the 160 best players, accommodated in families, a perfect opportunity to socialize and have some fun. You are all invited to attend the U12 and U14 finals that will be held on Sunday, 27 May. Last year in Kuala Lumpur, over 700 people came out to cheer on the teams and congratulate the winners of each category. The organizers have every intention of recreating the festive atmosphere that made the first edition of this event a real success.

More details available at: http://www.lyceeshanghai.com/spip.php?article544 or email Véronique Lebel, LFS Communication Manager, at veronique.lebel@ef-shanghai.com

Internationalism speaks in so many ways– culture, language, arts, and best of all: food. From the exotic flavours of the Thai to the classic-but-delicious tastes of the Italian, food is always a highlight of a nation, something that classifies the nation and a nation. But there’s one food that represents our world as one: the pancake.

A pancake is a thin, flat cake of batter; usually fried, turned in a pan, and most importantly, taste delicious. The Ancient Greeks, dating back to before 5 BC, created it! Over the years pancakes have evolved and spread their branches of tastiness far and wide.

Back home, pancakes usually meant waking up to the comforting smell of baking batter and pouring way too much syrup all over the piping-hot cakes. But since moving to Shanghai, I’ve discovered the many, many variations the world has created of the pancake, each absolutely sensational to the taste buds.

One of the most well known variations of the pancake is the French crêpe. Savoury or sweet, crêpes are thin, lacy pancakes that have a network of bubbles inside to create that heavenly texture when you bite into it. Filled with chocolate syrup, assorted fruits, powdered sugar, meats or cheeses, crêpes are a treat whenever and wherever!

There are so many variations of the pancake: the potato-based German kartoffelpuffer; savoury Indian dosa, filled with chilli, onions or even pickles; yeast-less Russian blintzes, Austrian caramelised Kaiserschmarrn, which were served to the Austria-Hungary King Joseph I in pieces; Singaporean roti prata, served with curry; sweet cheese-stuffed Polish naleśniki; pannenkoek, a pancake that belongs to both Holland and South Africa (the South Africans like to put cinnamon sugar and lemon juice in the batter, while the Dutch prefer it savoury and as a big as a pizza) .

There’s even a Chinese variation of the pancake! Cōng yŏu bĭng (葱油饼) is a thin, savoury Chinese pancake with green onion embedded into the dough. It’s available everywhere in Shanghai; mainly from the little street carts on the side of the road. You can have cōng yŏu bĭng with toppings of sesame seeds, soy sauce, chives, and my personal favourite, hot chilli sauce.

Internationalism speaks in so many ways– culture, languages, arts– but the international pancake highlights nations’ independence and culture but still manages to always achieve deliciousness.

By Steffi Cao,

Year 9, Dulwich College Shanghai

FREE LARGE PHOTOS AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL TO: littlestar_photo@qq.com

Sunny Kids Garden Summer Camp

Ages: 3 to 6 years

Dates: June 18 – Aug 24, Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 16:30pm

At Sunny Kids Garden International Kindergarten summer camp, children will enjoy field trips and experience creative courses including creative art, music, science, cooking and physical education.

Fees: RMB 1500/week.

If you sign in 4 weeks or more, you will have more discounts, please call us for more details.

Daily food (including breakfast, lunch, two snacks): RMB 30/day

For more information, call Liu Xuan on 8476 5353 or email: info@sunnykidsgarden.com

CISB Summer Camps 2012

For the past six years, the Canadian International School of Beijing has offered successful Summer Camps for all students in Beijing.

Kindergarten Creative Camp

Age: 18 months – 6 years old

Dates: June 25 – July 13 (3 weeks) / July 16 – July 27 (2 weeks) / July 30 – August 10 (2 weeks)

With CISB’s unique Kindergarten Creative Camp, children will enjoy learning and discovering. This program includes Phonics/Reading, Creative English Workshop, Chinese Language/Culture, Arts and Crafts, Music, Swimming and Physical Education.

Half Day program: Monday to Friday 8:30am – 12:30pm

Full Day program: Monday to Friday 8:30am – 3:30pm

Program Fees:

Half day: 2 weeks  at 3,400RMB; 3 weeks at 5,100RMB; 4 weeks at 6,800RMB and 7 weeks at 11,200RMB

Full day: 2 weeks at 5,400RMB; 3 weeks at 8,100RMB; 4 weeks at 10,800RMB and 7 weeks at 17,800RMB

Summer Enrichment Camp

Age: 6 - 15 years old

Dates: June 25 – July 13 (3 weeks) / July 16 – July 27 (2 weeks) / July 30 – August 10 (2 weeks); Monday to Friday 8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Application Deadline: June 1, 2012

CISB Enrichment Camp merges English and Chinese language classes, field trips, cultural activities and sports, allowing students to improve their language skills while enjoying their summer holidays.

The Summer Camp provides quality sports and recreational programs to the students, such as music, dance, kung fu, Lego Education, art, basketball, volleyball, swimming, ice-skating and badminton. (Activities are not representative of all Summer Camps).

Program Fees:

2 weeks at 6,000RMB; 3 weeks at 9,000RMB; 4 weeks at 12,000RMB or 7 weeks at 19,800RMB

(Program fees cover orientation, tuition, books, uniform, lunch and certificate)

If you want to apply or ask for more information, please contact CISB Admissions office atadmissions@cis-beijing.com, (86 10) 6465-7788 or www.cisb.com.cn

BIBA Summer Camp

Age: 4 to 11 years (Kindergarten/Grade 1/Grade 2 & 3/Grade 4-6)

Dates: July 9th – July 20th; July 23rd – Aug 3rd; daily from 9 am – 3 pm

Registration deadline: June 1st

Boost your English skills…and have some fun! Mornings will be intensive English study/training with our qualified native English speaking teaching staff. Afternoons will be spend on campus, but on a series of fun and sporting activities such as Kung fu, tennis, table tennis, basketball, soccer, arts and crafts, drama etc. Each Wednesday will be a Day Trip to a fun, interesting and somewhat educational venue, for example, the Shunyi Sailing Center.

Fees: 1800 - 2000 RMB per week (5 days).

Tel: 8041 0390

CLCB Summer Camp 2012

Age: 2 to 7 years

Dates: July 2nd to August 17th

Children’s Learning Center of Beijing will host a 7-week summer camp this year, with fun activities of each week on a different theme.

Week 1: Summer Olympics. Activities will be based around various Olympic sports, such as: Little Athletics, Basketball, Soccer, tiny tots gym and much more. Children will get a chance to show off their athletic skills while learning about team building and self-confidence.

Week 2: Tropical Hawaiian Water Fun. Aloha! Lots of beach games and water activities planned. Children will learn to hula dance and cook Hawaiian pizza!

Week 3: Travel the 7 Wonders of the World. The children will journey around the globe visiting mysterious wonders of the world, experiencing language, culture, games, costumes, the arts, music, dance & different cuisines.

Week 4: Outer Space and Super Heroes. 

Build a rocket ship and blast into space! Learn about gravity and what it means. Discover what and how astronauts eat in space. Create the Solar System and learn about the moon and different planets…

Week 5: A Magical Circus. Be the ringmaster of the show! Perform juggling tricks and balancing acts, walk the tightrope, be a clown and just have fun. There will be a circus parade too.

Week 6: Amazing Animal Adventures. Dinosaurs stomping, wild animals growling, whales are singing… The children will discover everything wild and construct their own Jurassic Park.

Week 7: Camping Adventures. Learn how to hunt for food and cook it on the barbeque, set up tent, pretend fishing, first aide & survival tricks, tell camping stories, sing camp songs and much more!

Flexible enrollment but min 2 days per week.

Registration fee: 150rmb individual child or 300RMB entire family

Fees: 1250RMB per week (5 full days), 2 Siblings at 2000RMB per week (5 full days); 3 or more siblings at 2500RMB per week (5 full days).

www.clcbkids.com

Email: administration@clcbkids.com 

Beanstalk English/Chinese Summer Programs

Ages: 5 to 12 years

Dates: July 2nd - 27th  (1-4 week program); daily 9 am – 3:30 pm

The Beanstalk International Bilingual School Summer Camp combines intensive English/Chinese language learning with sports and fun activities to help children improve and maintain their second language over the summer holiday whilst staying fit and healthy, making new friends, developing important motor and most importantly, having a great time!

Tel: 5130 7951

Dulwich Summer Camps

Super Kids Camp

Ages: 5 to 7 years

Dates: July 2^nd – July 6^th, 9 - 10 am

Super Kids Camp is designed to help children develop their agility, balance and focus. The course combines games and high-energy music for optimum engagement. Soft balls, rope swings, an obstacle course and a parachute are just some of the equipment that will be used during each session.

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Beijing Riviera, 1 Xiang Jiang Bei Lu, Jing Shun Lu


Fees: 1,000RMB

Jia You Football Club

Ages: 7+

Dates: June 25^th – August 10^th, 9 am – 12 pm

Designed and led by FA qualified coach Gary Saunders, the Jia You Football camps focus on providing children the opportunity for competition and skill development in fun environment.

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Campus, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District

Fees: 1,500RMB

Tennis Camp

Ages: 8 to 12 years

Dates: June 25^th - August 3^rd, 9 am - 12 pm

GS Academy will provide international professional coaches who are training to teach all levels of ability.  Children will learn the correct techniques and learn to play the sport that will keep them fit for life. 

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Campus, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District
Age

Fees: 2,000RMB

Chinese Language Camp

Ages: 5 to 14 years

Dates: June 25 - July 13^th, 1 - 4 pm

Whether your child is just starting to learn the language, or continuing study from the school year, this class will be led by teachers from Dulwich College Beijing Mandarin Department

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Campus, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District
Age

Fees: 2,000RMB

Camp Name: Basketball

Ages: 8 to 12 years

Dates: June 25^th - July 13^th, 9:30 am - 12 pm

The Basketball World coaching team led by Coach Hui, will teach fundamental and advanced skills using techniques focused on individual development and team play. Players will be grouped by age and ability level to work through this progressive training program. Each day combines fitness and conditioning, skill stations, team drills and games.

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Campus, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District
Age

Fees: 1,250RMB

Helen O’Grady Drama Camp

Ages: 8 to 12 years

Dates: June 25^th – 29^th, 9:30 am - 12 pm

The great Alfred Hitchcock once said Drama is like life with the dull bits cut out. The Fun-O-Drama seeks to help the participants discover the true beauty of drama and boost their self-confidence as they immerse yourselves in the rigors and the fun of drama drills and games.

Venue: Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Campus, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District
Age

Fees: 1,500RMB

Email: dcp@dulwich-beijing.cn

Tel: 6454 9127/9019

Ivy Chinese Summer Camp

Ages: 5 to 9 years

Dates: June 25^th  – July 13^th; July 16^th – August 3^rd; 9:15 am - 3 pm

The 3-week theme–based summer camp is ideal for children who want to improve their Chinese via an immersive yet fun program in Beijing. At the camp, children will learn Chinese (speaking, reading &writing) in a fun and engaging way; meanwhile appreciate Chinese culture through interesting activities and field trips. Camp teachers are all native Chinese teachers with International School experience.

The camp venue is Ivy Academy East Lake Villas campus.

Fees: Enrollment fee at 300RMB; course fee at 8400RMB; school bus fee at 600RMB.

Should more than one child be enrolled from one family, from (including) the second child on, each child will enjoy a one-off deduction of RMB200 off the tuition fee.

The Children’s House Summer Day Camps!

Ages: 1.5 to 6 years

Dates: July 9th – 20^th; July 23rd – August 3^rd; August 6th – August 17^th

(3 sessions; Half Day and Full Day sessions available.)

Let your kids go wild! The Children’s House International Montessori Kindergarten will let children explore the joys of the animal kingdom through play, song, dance, art and a whole lot of summer fun!

Fees: 3300 RMB – 6600 RMB per two week session.

For more information please call: 6535 8129 (China World Campus) or 64651305 (Kempinski Campus) or 80417083 (Yosemite Campus)

Email: paulazhou@montessoribeijing.com

TLC Camps 2012

Cyber Kids! Computer Camps

These camps are for computer enthusiasts who want to develop their skills in the area of computer programming, game development and multi-media production. A strong understanding of English is required.

Computer Game Design & Development Level 1

Grades 5 – 6 (June 18th – 22nd); Grades 7 – 9 (June 30th – August 3rd)

Multi-media Production Level 1

Grades 5 – 6 (June 25th – 29th); Grades 7 – 9 (August 6th – 10th)

Time: 9 am – 4 pm

Fees: 4,000 RMB

English Now! Language Camps

These 2-week, 60-hour intensive English programs are designed for elementary and middle school students who want to make significant improvement in their English language skills in a relatively short length of time.

Dates: June 25^th - July 6^th; July 9^th - 20^th; July 23^rd - August 3^rd; Aug 6^th - Aug 17^th (4 sessions)

Time: 9 am - 4 pm

Fees: 7,250 RMB for two weeks

Discounts are available for multiple sessions.

Jumpstart! Academic Enrichment Camps

These camps are designed to instill a love of learning in your child. Choose from a variety of half-day camps, or mix and match to make a full day of it!

Grades: 1 – 6 themes lasting one week

Grades: 7 – 10 themes lasting two weeks

Time: 9 am – 12 pm or 1 – 4 pm

Fees: 1,925RMB/week (half-day); 3,630RMB/week (full-day)

Discounts are available for multiple weeks.

SAT Intensive Prep Camp

Dates: July 16^th - August 10^th, Monday to Friday; 9 am – 4 pm

Camp program includes lessons in all SAT sections such as reading, writing & usage, math and essay writing, plus multiple practice tests.

Application fee: 100 RMB (Can be applied to tuition once you sign up for one of the TLC SAT Prep courses.)

Fees: 11,650 RMB

Venue: The Learning Center, 2108 Gahood Villas, Houshayu, Shunyi, Beijing

Tel: 8046-3886 or 1350-1298-445

Email: registration@learningcenter.com.cn or learningcenterbeijing@gmail.com

www.thelearningcenter.cn

AEA US Embassy Summer Camp

Ages: 4 to 12 years

Dates: June 18^th - August 17^th, Monday to Friday, 9 am – 4 pm

The AEA camp has been serving the Beijing Community for the past 14 years and is proud to offer safe, fun, and high-quality programs. Staffed by Red Cross certified counselors from the USA, each week includes FREE bus service, exciting field trips, Western-style lunch, rock climbing, daily swimming, games, theatre, and much MORE, all focused around different weekly themes! For example, week 1 is called “Wild Wild West”, campers will pull-up their bootstraps and put on your cowboy hats as the week transforms into a rip ride’n rodeo! Week 5 is “Around the World in 5 Days,” campers will visit a different continent each day as they race around the world at amazing speeds. No mountain is too high or sea too deep during this week! Week 7 focuses on “Olympics London 2012,” Campers who are fired up from the London Opening Ceremonies can keep the Olympic fever roaring! A week filled with fanfare, sports, and competitions a recipe for a gold winning week!

Downtown venue: Beijing City International School (June 18^th - July 27^th)       

Shunyi venue: British School of Beijing (July 27^th - August 17^th)

Fees: 3,116 RMB; early bird discount available.

Tel: 13720036421 (Vera Li)

Email: info@aeabeijing.com

www.aeabeijing.com

Beijing Playhouse Kids Summer Theatre Camp 

Ages: 6 to 14 years

Dates: July 30th to August 11th, 9 am - 4 pm

Audition date: July 7th, 4 pm

The kid’s theatre camp organized by Beijing Playhouse Academy of Performing Arts will be held at Daystar Academy in Shunyi. Participants will perform Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves with acting, song, and dance. Aspiring actors, singers, dancers, and musicians are all welcome. Some English proficiency is required.  Theatre internships are also available for older students.

Fees: 6,500 RMB

Email: performance@beijingplayhouse.com

www.beijingplayhouse.com

International Bilingual All-round Summer Camp

Ages: 5-13years

Dates: June 25th - August 17th (two weeks a term).

Neighborhood Chinese Language & Culture Center has successfully run summer and winter camp for 6 years. Supported by Sports Beijing the International Bilingual All-round Summer Camp will be held at Lido Country Club. Four independent camps including Neighborhood Chinese Immersion Summer Camp, International Bilingual Tennis Summer Camp, International Bilingual swimming Camp abd International Football Camp aim to improve the children’s specialized sports capability and Chinese/English language skills as well as experience practical life skills. The teaching language will be mainly Chinese.

Fees:

One person: 3900rmb/term or 2000rmb/week

Two persons together: 3800RMB/term or 1950rmb/week

Three persons together: 3700RMB/term or 1900rmb/week

Transportation Fee: 600RMB/ term or 300RMB/week (10 kilometers away）

Register before May 27th can enjoy 100RMB discount.

Discount is also available for students who had attended NCLCC camp before.

Tel: 8450 1789 or 13031038833

Email: service@chineseneighbor.com

www.chineseneighbor.com

Jihann Pedersen, mother of 5-year-old twin sisters Maya and Isabella, who are now attending Pre-K 4 at Concordia.

Although her girls just turned five years old, this is already their second international school. During the time the family was living in Panama, Pedersen sent her daughters to an international school there.

“My husband is Danish. Given the fact that my husband and I are multicultural couple, we always knew that our girls’ education would be in English to have a common ground or a common language,” she said. In fact, this is the second time that Pedersen’s family has lived in Shanghai. They were here in 2003 to 2007. “As we left the international life in Shanghai, we decided to make sure the girls attend an international at least. They will find children of multicultural families as well, being able to identify with their peers. I just want them to be with children who are like them – with similar backgrounds.”

When Pedersen and her husband found out they will come back to Shanghai last October, she contacted her good friend in Shanghai asking for help to find a school for her daughters Through this and online research, she narrowed the list down to 3 schools. From there, she started contacting the schools, visiting and talking to the admissions people…

“I did talk to several people when touring the campuses, but every parent feels very strongly about the school their children attend. It’s very personal and subjective,” said Pedersen. She finally decided to go with her own gut feeling. “Firstly, the ideal school needs to be a place where I feel my children would be happy; secondly, the school provides the values that are important to me; and, the curricula and emphasis on creating a holistic learning experience in academics, sports, art and everything else.” 

Marina Au, from Hong Kong, is a long-term Concordia parent.

Au has lived in Shanghai for 15 years. Her 3 children – 2 girls and 1 boy – are all studying at Concordia in Middle School and High School.

“This is the first school, first international school and first school outside my boundaries because I was educated in Hong Kong,” Au said of her school choosing experience, admitting that American system of Concordia was once a real challenge for her. Before she made the decision to send her children to Concordia, Au visited over 20 schools in Shanghai.

“As an expatriate, you never know when you will re-expatriate to somewhere else. So, we were not sure what we should choose: should we go into the local Chinese stream? Or should we join an international school? Or should we choose the international division in a local school? Then she visited different types of schools to find out. At that time Au’s family was living in Hongqiao, Puxi, so Concordia was the last school she visited.

“To me, teachers as role models to kids are very important. When I visited the schools, I was observing how the teachers were dealing with kids in the classroom. I wanted to find a school where my kids will feel comfortable at and enjoy learning,” explained Au. “When I visited Concordia preschool, my little girl went into the classroom, the other kids just came around her and they were holding my daughter’s hands and my kid just let them do it. Then it was the recess time and she just followed them to go play outside. At that moment I felt she was in the right place.”

Huguette Lewis is a school mom and also a teacher at Concordia International School Shanghai.

She is teaching Middle School as an Instruction Coach and her husband is the Middle School Principal. Lewis couple had worked at international schools in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia before joining Concordia 9 years ago. Their two children are also attending Concordia, the girl in 7th grade and the boy in 9th grade.

“In terms of international school, the quality of instruction is so much better than back in a public school in Canada. International schools like Concordia provide so many opportunities and our children are a lot more open-minded. We have lived here for 9 years and the kids really see Shanghai as their home,” said Lewis.

“We came here because of our job as educators. We looked for schools that have a strong curriculum, accreditations and good reputation,” said Lewis. She remembered at that time Concordia was still quite small compared with her previous school that had over 1,500 students. “We went online and found the school philosophy, and its mission to be an excellent international school really impressed us. So we came and we were pleasantly surprised. Our children really like the school and we are happy to stay on and witness the continuing progress year by year.”

“Concordia is a school that truly focuses on the children. We are seriously looking at what is important as a school to provide to them. Whatever decision we make (in the school choice), it is always important to know the school focuses on the children. That kind of school is where we want to be and where we want our children to be.”

Lewis also likes the active and involving school community of Concordia. Everyday, parents are seen helping out on campus; while in the evenings or on the weekends, a lot of activities are going on. “Parents are very much part of the school’s success,” she said.

Pedersen, Au and Lewis are all happy with their school choices, though they come from different backgrounds and have different needs and expectations. Evaluating a new school can be overwhelming for any family when in a new country and far from home. However, it can be a bit easier if we can learn something from their experiences:

A child’s needs are top priority, so know your child. No matter what decisions the parents make, it is the child who goes to school every day. Know your child: his likes and dislikes, his personality and learning style, his hobbies and abilities. The ideal school should be a place where your child feels safe and comfortable, enjoys learning and able to develop to his full potential.

Research online for necessary school information. A lot of expat families actually have made up their minds even before they arrive in China. Doing research online as Pedersen or Lewis did will get you a lot of useful information on the potential schools and save you a lot of time. For example, www.internationalschool.info offers up to 2,000 pieces of information, photos and videos on more than 130 international schools in China. Checking on the school official websites, you will easily find the general info of the school – from philosophy to curricula, admissions policy to school calendar and more. By doing the research, you can easily narrow down your list of potential schools for your children.

Seeing is believing; visit the school. There is no substitute for engaging in a school visit. Always try to visit during school hours if possible. Finding an opportunity to attend a school function can also provide valuable information about the attitudes of staff, parents and students. Are students happy, courteous, and disciplined? Are they actively involved in learning? Are teachers and staff helpful, approachable, and friendly? Look at the bulletin boards. Displays that feature work samples allow parents to see beyond test scores to what the children are learning and how they are learning it.

Academic performance and whole-child education are very important. Standardized test scores and college acceptance of high school graduates is easily available information and demonstrates a record of achievement. However, most important is that the school is focused on the children, and its commitment and efforts are about providing quality education and learning opportunities for them.

Does the school’s curricular focus match the educational goals for the child? Is the teaching approach child-centered and challenging enough to develop your child’s strengths and love of learning? 

Holistic education is very important. How does the school support learning outside of the classroom? What after-school programs, sports, academic enrichment and social service opportunities are on offer?

School-community is almost one word; get involved. School is part of the community. Are the parents and community involved in the school? Research shows children who see their parents involved in this way have a greater likelihood of school success. Once a school has been chosen, it is important that parents maintain a real commitment to that school, including supporting the staff and contributing time and talents as much as they are able.

There are many quality schools in Shanghai, and bear in mind that there is no such thing as a “perfect school.” However, you will soon find one school will be a perfect fit for your kids and the family. 

By XING Yangjian

FREE LARGE PHOTOS AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL TO: littlestar_photo@qq.com

FREE LARGE PHOTOS AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL TO: littlestar_photo@qq.com