YWIES
October Newsletter 1st issue
Upcoming Events Founder’s Day 10.11
Dear Parents,
Somerset 10.5-11.01
Welcome back to our new school year of 2013-2014. We have over one hundred new students and teachers from China, Croatia, Korea, USA etc. this year. Welcome again to these new students and teachers.
Math Week 10.14-10.18 Open house
10.16
Creative dress day 10.31
Inside this issue Principal’s letter
1
New Co-Principal’s greeting
2
New teacher introduction
2
Opening ceremony
3
Buddy system for pri-
3
Parent night
4
After school tutoring
4
Sand sculpture day
4
Making moon cakes
5
Scholarship
5
Creative writing con-
6
English proficiency test 6 Hong Kong trip Open House Visa Policy change
A Word From Our Principals
7 8 8
With new people joining in the school, the “buddy system” has been working successfully to help new students settle down and adapt to new school environment; it’s also been a good character development opportunity for the buddies. We appreciate the good efforts and teamwork demonstrated among the buddies. We are very pleased with our A Level graduates who were accepted by top universities all over the world-The University of Hong Kong, The Swiss Hotel Management School, The University of California, Savannah College of Art & Design, Miami University, Ohio and State University of New York etc.. We are also proud of our students who have achieved excellent marks in the past Cambridge Checkpoint, IGCSE and A Level examinations. Harry Jeon and Noah achieved 8 A*s in the IGCSE examinations and was awarded a full Madam Tsang Chor-hang Memorial Scholarship. The Madam Tsang Chor-hang Memorial Scholarship is to recognize and reward excellence of students in academics, conduct and school leadership. Congratulations to our A Level graduates and scholarship winners! In the past September, our students had fun during the Sand Sculpture activity and practiced teamwork while being creative making the sand sculptures; “Reading Week” starts the school year with encouragement of reading habits. Oct 11 will be our Founder’s Day/Sports Day. Sports activities will be organized in memory of the founder of the foundation Madam Tsang Chor-hang. We look forward to our students’ and parents’ active participation in these events. We appreciate your support in fixing students’ hair, shoes and uniforms at the beginning of the new school year and would appreciate your consistent support all through the year following through the school policies. The character trait for October is “Loyalty”. Let’s encourage our students to develop good character qualities through the Character Development traits all through the year. We look forward to seeing you on Sports Day.
New Co-Principal’s greeting October
I would like to thank everyone for such a warm welcome to the Yew Wah International Educational School of Yantai. We have a great team of teachers here and I am greatly looking forward to working with them and meeting you the parents over the coming months. Briefly, I am originally from Ireland but have lived and worked for over 14 years in International schools in Spain and Japan and for 4 years in schools the UK. Prior to that, I spent several years working in the Design industry. I sincerely hope that my background and experience can help contribute to the continued development of the school in some small way. Like you, I am passionate about education and how best to educate your child. I was attracted to the Yew Wah Foundation through its emphasis on holistic education and its commitment to
the best of East and West for both personal and professional reasons. My wife is Chinese and we also want our baby daughter to share both our cultures and languages. On a professional level, I believe that true International education is more than merely learning English, but learning about different ways of thinking and doing. Here we wish to place more emphasis on the Western concepts of critical thinking and creativity and combine them with the strong Chinese characteris-
tics of rigorous study and academic excellence, to help better prepare our students for an international future. A school is a broad community, consisting of students, teachers, parents and administration. We envisage our school as a Professional Learning Community where all the members, teachers students and parents, are engaged in life-long
learning. We support our teachers to participate in continuing Professional Development throughout the year. We are also interested in finding ways to support you the parents to create a learning community in the school, and encourage you to become actively involved in organizing classes for other parents in any areas of skills or expertise that you may have, from the Arts to languages Please contact us if you are interested in this idea. I sincerely hope that you can be patient with me as I settle into this exciting but demanding role and can excuse me as I make some errors along the way. I can only assure you we share the same aims and goals, and I promise you that I will work hard to earn your trust over the coming years. James Mc Crory
New teacher introduction Keith.Gao: A Chinese, graduate from Ludong University in Yantai. He is now the Humanities teacher of year 7 as well as the Chinese teacher of year 9, I am glad to participate in teaching and will do my best with my work. I’d like to say that many students are active in myclass. They really did a good job in learning knowledge. Maybe a few of the students still have room for improvement, so co-operation between teachers and students’ parents is necessary. Thanks . My name is Josh Young and I’m excited to be teaching fourth grade English this year. I’m from Indiana, but China has been my home for a little more than a year now. I graduated from Millikin University in 2003 where I studied art and education. Prior to Yew Wah, I was teaching English and learning Chinese in Penglai, but now I’m pleased to be part of the outstanding Yew Wah organization here in Yantai.
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Katherine Dyche. I feel very fortunate to teach Secondary Art at Yew Wah. I was born in India, and also lived in Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France as an international student. I have BA and graduate certificate in Fine Art from University of California, and MAT in education from Rhode Island College. I also just finished the English Learner Certificate program at UCLA. I have thirteen years experience teaching Art in the USA, Kuwait and Kazakhstan before coming to China. I enjoy living in Yantai, and especially working at a great school like YWIES!
Opening ceremony With the beginning of each new school year, teachers and students alike are filled with bright hope and expectation of what is to come. I am sure many of us were experiencing these feelings as we climbed the stairs to the auditorium for the Opening Ceremony. Another feeling that wells up in teachers’ hearts at this time of year is pride. We teachers are so proud to see how much our students have grown in the past year. Personally, I was filled with much pride and happiness for my student,
Angel, who was given the Primary School High Academic Achievement Award. As her former teacher, I know just how hard Angel had worked and studied in her classes. At the beginning of the school year (2012-2013), Angel was a little shy and unsure about learning a new language. However, as the year progressed, Angel’s knowledge and skills grew and grew until she blossomed into a confident and successful student. It is very rewarding to be a teacher for such students as Angel. Although her story of
success was not shared during the Opening Ceremony, I hope that all students in Yew Wah can feel encouraged by Angel’s hard work and perseverance. I give my congratulations in advance to all of the students who will be awarded during next year’s Opening Ceremony!
1st issue
-Mrs. Koppers Grade 1 English Teacher
Buddy System for Primary Each semester, there are some new students who come from different countries and transfer to Yew Wah. In order to relieve the new students’ tension because of communication difficulties and help students to establish a sense of belonging to Yew Wah, teachers have organized various activities, getting one or more old student(s) and one new student grouped (into pairs), so that the old student can help and encourage the new student to do well in our school. In the beginning of this semester, all year-level teachers in primary formulated and carried out a Buddy System according to different situations in each class.
in the morning, helped the new student to select the book for morning reading and read with the new student together. During the class time, the old student guided the new student to the classroom, translated the main content that the teacher taught in class. They also explained the ideas that the new student does not understand and then offered feed back to the teacher. During the break and recess time, the old student guided the new student to the bathroom, cafeteria, clinic and playground, and introduced the cafeteria manners to the new student.
The primary department deDuring the morning reading time, the old students assisted the signed different buttons for the new student to hand in homework students. “Student Mentor” is for
the old student who helps the new student. Smile face is for the new student. Whenever teachers and other students meet the new student who is wearing smile face button, they can provide the kinds of help they need as soon as possible. At present, the new students have successfully integrated into Yew Wah. We believe that in the future, the new students will be like the old students and help other new students do well in our school. - Primary Department
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Parent night October
I am very happy to share my experience with volunteering. First of all, I remember that time was parent night. It was one of the very important nights in my life. I won’t forget it, because it is one of best ways to improve my English. It is valuable. One thing I’m sure of is that this kind of opportunity does not
happen very often. I do not want to lose this chance. The time always goes fast. I am a translator for Pre-IGCSE and most of the Pre - students are my friends. So I feel nervous when I met their parents. It is stressful. In my opinion, I just want to do my best as much as possible, whether it’s successful or not. I am very excited to do my work. After this experience, I real-
ized I am not good enough in some parts. It will be a good feeling to try harder than before in studies. I have a duty to keep improving. I would like to encourage other students to volunteer as well. It is a useful experience and leaves you with a good feeling. - IGCSE 2B Jeff Ge
After school tutoring Last Tuesday, I took part in an after school tutoring activity as a volunteer teaching student in lower secondary in order to help them to improve their Math score and make them interested in this subject. On that day, many students went to the Math room for tutoring after school. Although they all wanted tutoring, there were too many of them, so some of them have to wait for next week. However, everyone was looking forward to these sessions. About 10 minutes later, they came
with their questions. Each of us was asked to teach two students. I tutored two lovely girls in grade 6. To begin with, one of them asked me about Chinese Math. Solving that question for me was easy, but it was hard to teach them and make sure they understood me. I solved the problem step by step while explaining it. When I finished, they said they got it and they could solve it by themselves, but they really couldn’t. So we practiced again until they could do it correctly. The other girl asked me about English Math. It was harder than teaching Chi-
Sand sculpture day Last Wednesday, September th 18 , when the sun shine and wind was perfect, all of our students and teachers went to beach for making sand sculptures. There were lots of creative sculptures built from different classes. For us, IGCSE 2 we made a pair of shoes, foot prints and a whale. Everyone was working very hard to finish the sculptures. It was a great success and I think most of the peo-
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ple who saw our statues were amazed. I was very happy to see people getting amazed by our figures. Although it was not my first time to have this kind of activity, but this time was the best time ever! Thanks to teachers for planning this activity and allowing us to have fun under a safe condition. - Sophia Son IGCSE 2B
nese math, as English also needed to be taught. However, the girl is a new student, so after some translating, she could solve the problem without teaching. She asked more questions than the others. Some volunteers finished their work and came to help her. Finally, we solved all the questions and she understood us. At the end of the day, we realized teaching is a difficult job and we felt tired after the tutoring. Though this activity is hard and makes us tired, we still want to do it again. - IGCSE 2B Eva
Making moon cakes Moon Festival is a festival celebrated all over China. On this special day, We eat moon cakes while admiring the moon. For this particular reason, the year five class made moon cakes with some help from the chef at school. The first thing we did, even before we started making the moon cakes was wash our hands thoroughly so we would be clean. The filling and dough was already there for us, so all we had to do was get around a handful of the filling, coil it into the shape of a ball, then get
some of the dough to wrap around it. After that, we used a special tube that you put around the moon cake and when you press it down it will shape the moon cake and make patterns on it. We all had fun making the moon cakes, and they looked quite good, even though it was the first time for most of us to make moon cakes.
school the next morning. We all got to choose two moon cakes each to wrap up and bring home.
1st issue
Altogether I really enjoyed making the moon cakes, and I hope all the other year fives did too. - Grace 5A
Over the night the chefs helped us to bake the moon cakes. Thanks to these people for their help, moon cakes were ready to be packaged by us when we got to
Scholarship Many people have asked me: “What are you going to do with the money?” In response, I just smiled all the time, leaving the answer to their imagination. When you think about it, it’s not even my money that I saved but my parents’. Moreover, as far as I’m concerned, the scholarship has more meaning to it than the 10,000 RMB or the crystal trophy or the record in my transcript. Who would have guessed that I would receive scholarship among all other students? I certainly wanted to get straight A’s and receive scholarship, but obviously getting straight A’s is not so much a piece-of-cake thing to do. I needed to spend more time and effort. Well, I didn’t really know that before taking the IGCSE exams. I was arrogant, and I regret it. Even though I somehow managed to satisfy the condition to receive scholarship, I,
on the other hand, wasn’t very satisfied with the scores. I knew I could have done better if I had prepared a little more, if I had spent a little more time on studying, if I had found out a little earlier that I wasn’t that smart after all. But it was already too late. It was too late to change my IGCSE scores, but fortunately it wasn’t too late to start doing something for the coming AS Level exams and SAT. When I was in IGCSE level, I though receiving scholarship would make me more arrogant and complacent. It turns out, however, that the scholarship helped me introspect and work harder than before. Some may think that the reason I’m working harder is to conform to other people’s newly-formed expectation of me. Even to my surprise, I’m not. It’s more like the scholarship presented me with so much more possibilities
that I’m more willing to work instead of letting the time pass doing nothing. I learned that if I worked harder than before, I could achieve anything, beyond the scholarship. The fact that I received the scholarship doesn’t change who I am or who I was – the fact that I was embarrassingly arrogant doesn’t change, sadly. I also can’t say with confidence, yet, that my receiving of scholarship marked the turning point of my life. Nevertheless, one thing I can be sure of in the end is that the scholarship was definitely worth striving for. - Noah As-level
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Chinese creative writing Contest 2013 October
In order to cultivate and improve Yew Wah students’ Chinese writing abilities and highlight our school culture, Yew Wah has again participated in a Creative Writing Contest for Secondary students sponsored by the Qilu Press. In last year’s contest, there were two winners. This year, students described their individual lives and dreams by writing essays or poems from a personal perspective. This year, eight students received awards and have since had their works published. Those works are as follows： 《逛兰州》by Maggie Zou, 《寻找 初夏的幸福》by Ida Guo, 《广东的
秋天》by Linda Li, 《自制力》by Angelia, 《台湾的秋天》by Tommy Zhang, 《温馨十七岁》by James Kao, 《我轻轻走近他心中的远景》 by Yolanda Ji and《你的土 地》by Danny Chu. Each year, the winning students were given books and were presented with awards at a Secondary assembly. Congratulations to them all! We look forward to more outstanding works next year in the third writing contest. - Peter Yang G6 Homeroom teacher Lower-secondary coordinator
English proficiency testing Beginning at the end of last year, we here at Yew Wah have introduced an English proficiency test as part of our school-wide curriculum. Some of you may have heard your student mention this test, and we thought it would be a good idea to write an article explaining what we are hoping to accomplish with it. Unlike our midterm and final exams the English proficiency test is not part of your student’s final academic average. Instead, we are seeking to use the results as a diagnostic tool to ensure that our English instruction is fostering progress in your student’s reading and writing skills. While we in all ways stand by the abilities of our faculty and staff, we would be remiss as teachers not to be concerned by the possibility that your student could plateau in his or her learning of the English language. To that end, here’s how the proficiency test works.
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There are five different tests, rated from beginner to native speaker. Students will be tested at the beginning of the school year and at the end—after finals are complete. The goal is to see that students move from the level that they are competent with to the next higher level at least once a year. Now, as I mentioned we consider these tests a diagnostic tool, so there is no teaching associated directly with the content of the test—rather, we are hoping to see that the content of the tests (which is very basic in all cases) is being communicated through the instruction students are already receiving. From my own personal experience I can say that we have had moderate success with these tests already. What I mean to say is that we made a trial of these tests at the end of last year, and gave them in earnest just this September, and when I compared the more
recent results with last year’s I found that in all cases students had either remained at the same level of competency or improved. It still remains to be seen if we can manage the rate of progress we hope for, but we are optimistic. As a final assurance I ought to say that we do not want you or your student to be concerned over the results of this test. As I’ve said twice before we consider these results to be a diagnostic tool. We hope to use them to tailor our instruction to best aid your students’ learning. We do not intend to use them to track students or to decide entry into any of our programs—academic or otherwise. Nevertheless, if you have questions or concerns, please, don’t hesitate to contact us through the school office. - Edwin G8 English teacher
Hong Kong trip An eye-opening experience, the trip to Hong Kong took place from 24th Sep to 27th Sep. Under the command of our master, Daniel Lo, 9 fellows headed for Hong Kong, a land we had not met. With everybody holding expectations of “foraging” World-Class Universities at the University Fair, we were all extremely excited about this unexpected trip. The main goal of this trip was visiting a University Fair in Yew Cheng International School in Hong Kong. Before even seeing the fair, we were overwhelmed by the scale of the Yew Cheng School. The school has a huge building and you need a road map to navigate yourself inside the building. The Fair took place in a big gym where numerous desks were arranged for each university. From about 5 pm, we were scattered to “hunt” for a “tasty” university. From my perspective, I felt as if I were lost in a forest because I did
not know where to begin. In fact, except for a couple of universities, the rest of them were unfamiliar to me. On the other hand, Harry Lee seemed well-prepared and passionate in asking questions to admission officials. He asked questions such as: “How can I prepare to get in to this university?” and “When can I apply for the university?” Not only that, he even collected every pamphlet he could get from each university. I think the hottest place was the University of Pennsylvania, the only university from the Ivy League. Boys and girls, tall and short, all gathered in front of a bald but attentive admission official and poured questions. Fortunately, I also had a chance to ask questions. Another famous university was Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the top engineering school in Asia. Apart from visiting the university fair, we also visited the three best universities in Hong Kong: The University of Hong
Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We threw our doubts to the universities staff who “advertised” their universities to us. I still remember a debate-like tense conversation between Mr. Lo and a staff member, who could not answer his question clearly. Among the three of the universities, most of us preferred the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as it had a tremendous ocean view and remarkable facilities in side with a four-floored library. It would be a dream university for all of us.
1st issue
It was a short four-day trip to Hong Kong. I believe this trip not only helped us to open our minds on universities, but also helped us to get along with each other . All in all, we spent a good time in Hong Kong.
- Harry Jeon As-Level student
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YWIES 9 Tianshan Road, Kai Fa Qu Yantai, Shandong, P.R.C.
Phone: 86-535-638-0068 86-535-638-6698 Fax: 86-535-638-3485
Committed To Holistic Education
Open house Dear Parents, We would like to invite you to our Open House on Oct 16th, 2013 (Wednesday). Our aim is to build positive parental involvement in education. You will have the chance to enter into the classroom, attend the class and get more information about your child (ren). Parents are welcome to sit in classes from 8:00-15:30, and please move between classrooms quickly during the break. Please turn off your mobile phone when you enter into the classroom. Please be quiet. If you have any problems about your child’s academic progress or behavior, please make an appointment with the subject teachers through the School Office. If you need lunch service in school, please feel free to contact school office at 6380068 /6698 in advance. Thank you for your attention and support!
Announcement of Visa Policy Changes for Overseas Students and Accompany Parents Starting from July 1st 2013 • Visa for Overseas Students According to the new policy released by local PSB recently, starting from July 1 st 2013, overseas students must hold “X” visa to enter China. “L (tourism)” visa will not be able to renew or change anymore. Visit www.ywies-yt.com for more information
• Residence permit for Accompanying Parents： Accompanying parents must hold Relationship Certificates confirmed by Chinese Embassy in their own countries. Accompanying parents must hold “S” ,30 days,”0” entry visa to enter China, Accompanying parents must do the physical exam at appointed exam center in Yantai before apply for residence permit. • Renewing Residence Permit must be applied 30 days earlier than expiring date. Otherwise would be found as visa expired. Application for JW202 form (overseas students only) JW202 form is used for Visa Application for Study in China for overseas students, which is one of the important documents for applying “X” visa. Procedure for JW202 form application: 1.Applicant pays for JW202 form and visa charges in advance. 2. Applicant needs submit the Application form, mail address overseas and passport copy to school. (Soft copy is acceptable. Handled by Marketing Department) 3. Upon receiving the documents/information, Human Resources Department goes to Jinan to apply for JW202 form, and mail to the applicant upon receiving. 4. Applicant prepares necessary documents required by Chinese Embassy in his/her own country and take JW202 form to Chinese Embassy to ask for visa. 5. Original JW202 must be brought to our school for residence permit. If lost, must apply for new JW202 form and leave China to apply for “X” visa all over again. 6. Physical exam is required for applicant over 18 years-old upon entering China.