ACHIEVEMENTS in academics, language and creativity were acknowledged at the Dulwich College Zhuhai Int’l High School Programme Speech Day event at the Holiday Inn in Jida last Sunday.
The Student Award Ceremony 2011-12 was kicked off by the song Memory from the Broadway musical Cats, played on saxophone by Jackson Qiu. The young musician also won the Arts & Design and Outstanding Leadership awards. The school choir, founded eight months ago, also performed.
Chinese student Tingsley Li won the Business Studies Award. She delivered a speech about the controversial national college entrance examination and said the educational system should have more diversity and better cultivate the generations.
Malaysian student Jack (Teh Jhia Jiat) talked about the enormous change he has gone through from associating questions with model answers to looking into questions from different perspectives. He shared his vision of getting straight A’s on CSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) and A-Level tests, better performance on the oboe, more proficiency in English, Cantonese and Malay, becoming a medic at Kings College or Cambridge University in 2015, and motor-biking around the world.
Finally, Carolina Seve of English-Columbian descent has dreams, ambitions and goals of communicating in fluent Chinese, getting high grades on the A-Level test and studying at a European university in 2015. Moreover, her most inspiring dream is to organise a team to help minority groups.
Maths/Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Mandarin, ICT, English, Geography, Music, Biography, as well as Outstanding Social Service, Top Academic Achievement, Most Prepared Student for University Application awards were presented.
Danny Harrington, director of ITS Management ltd, ITS Educational Services ltd and ITS Exam Services, delivered a speech before he presented awards. The celebration of achievement is part of a great tradition at Dulwich marked by Founder’s Day in London every June 30, he pointed out.
The founders of Dulwich 400 years ago set out to help local boys “to be taught in good and sound learning that they might be prepared for university or for good and sweet trades and occupations.” Since then, five Dulwich schools have been established worldwide.
“Clearly, Dulwich has always been innovative and sought excellence, and it is no surprise therefore to find it thriving today in modern China,” he stated.
Jonathan Taylor, director of Dulwich Zhuhai, talked about success and shared his hope for the future.
“One day I will read on the internet or hear on the television that a Dulwich College Zhuhai graduate has transformed the world with his or her ideas, whether it be the cure for a deadly disease or simply a totally new business product, it will be something that did not exist before and something that improves the lives of people across the globe.
“When I look into the future, I see great cause for optimism,” he concluded.
Rather than just being good or bad, the different educational systems tend to collaborate, Danny pointed out afterwards.
“Education and industry is probably one of the best collaborations. Many industry people compete against each other, but in education you can collaborate much more. We’re very keen that different cultures, different countries and different systems get to interact and meet each other, because that’s how learning grows,” he said.
Therefore, he said, it is great that a new programme is available for mainland students, and economy helps them access other forms of education around the world. Chinese students contribute theirs when they study abroad and then bring back to China, which will help people grow together.
“By learning from each other, everybody improves,” he proclaimed.
Director in Zhuhai for a year, Jonathan was delighted about the changes in the students. He said they: “are starting to think in a most creative way, stopping to think a traditional Chinese way, most of all a western way. They’re learning to pick the best of their traditional background for the new future.”
He also showed satisfaction that the students are starting to realise things are not all about the answer, rather, about ways of approaching questions and thinking differently.
-By Betty Lin, Zhuhai Daily
