September 20152015 年 9 月

In This Issue

Beijing World Youth Academy’s Monthly Newsletter

Vol. 2 No. 1

BWYA welcomes........

Principal’s column 3

Fusionists Charity Gig 4

PTA 7

Counsellor’s Corner 8

Wolves Athletics 9

At the start of the new year at any school there is always a few new faces to greet and welcome to the commu-nity. We always extend a warm wel-come to all here at BWYA and amongst the newcomers this year we have a new Deputy Principal for the IB School and a new Principal at our Primary School.

First of all, a very warm welcome to Emma Emerich, who has joined as Deputy Principal for our IB school, based at the Wangjing campus. Mrs. Emerich spent the last four years teaching in Zambia and has enjoyed a career spanning 21 years in education. Originally from the UK, she has held several senior positions at international schools and is now looking forward to applying her skills and experience to

her new role.

Mrs. Emerich said: “I am delighted to be here in China, and at BWYA, and I’m looking forward to submersing myself in all the history, culture and geography that China has to offer.

“My new role at BWYA is just as ex-citing. I am really looking forward to working with such an international body of teachers and making a contri-bution to this rapidly growing learning community. I will also be working hard to ensure that all of our students can make the best of their abilities and meet their potential, as well as help-ing them recognise the roles they play in our community and the rights and responsibilities that they have them-

selves.”

A big welcome also to Shannon Koga who joins BWYA as Director of In-structional Practices. She will also take on the role of Principal at our primary school at the Laiguangying campus. She has 28 years experience in educa-tion, predominantly in Japan, and most recently as Acting Head of School at Hokkaido International School’s Niseko campus.Mrs. Koga said: “This is an exciting ad-venture for me and I am really enjoying the experience.“This is my ninth year working with and supporting IPC teachers and I will be working closely with the team here to help them further develop their units and teaching skills.“As Director of Instructional Practices I will be working across all three of BWYA’s campuses, expanding on what our teachers are already doing in order to find common practices that we can implement throughout the entire school and ensure student success.”Good luck to Mrs. Emerich and Mrs. Koga in their new roles and we are looking forward to getting to know all of the newcomers to the BWYA com-munity over the coming school year.

Welcome

Kings of Clubs

A note from Ms. Wang Hong, Head of School

BWYA offers almost 60 after-school clubs

Upcoming Events

Sports Day5 October, Wangjing Campus

Graduation Photoshoot9 October, Wangjing Campus

Fusionists Charity Concert23 October, Laiguangying Campus

December Talent Show18 December, Beijing Theatre

For a full event calendar, please visit:

at http://quanzi.ibwya.net

At the start of each school year, BWYA hosts The Club Fair, which this year features almost 60 activity clubs and athletics teams.

The Club Fair gives students the chance to visit the club stalls, chat to club leaders and find out what the club is all about.

As well as including some of BWYA’s long-established clubs such as the Forensics Speech and Debate Club, Roots and Shoots and the Wolf Bites TV production club, this year also fea-tured Media Arts, Magic and Creative Writing. Something for everyone to get involved with!

Our clubs at BWYA are an important part of our community and an opportunity for students to grow and develop away from the classroom.

New clubs are added each year and we will bring you news of any exciting activi-ties or stories in future issues of Howls.

A warm welcome to the first issue of BWYA Howls for the new school year. For some of our readers who are new to the BWYA community, this will be the first issue that you have seen and we hope you enjoy it.

The new school year got off to a flying start, as you will see when you read on, and it’s already been a very busy month for the BWYA community. We were de-lighted to announce this year’s scholar-ship winners and I am extremely proud of the fact that we had 28 students achieve the necessary levels to win an award.

The fact that we had so many schol-arship winners is a reflection of the results achieved by last year’s gradu-ating class. BWYA students achieved their best ever results with a 100 per cent IB Diploma pass rate and aver-aged IB exam scores of 35 against a global average of 29. This is a fantastic

achievement and testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, our teachers and the entire BWYA community. It also demonstrates our commitment to striving for excellence in all we do.

And speaking of excellence, you will see news of our Outstanding Teacher awards, updates on our Wolves Ath-letics teams, as well as news on our student council elections, PTA and Club Fair, all in this issue.

So welcome back to our returning students, teachers and parents, and a very warm welcome to those who are newcomers. As you will see, we are already on track for another great year at BWYA.

Sept 2015

2

To a student who is new to the IB school, whether it is the Middle Years Programme (MYP) or the Diploma Programme (DP), the transitional period within the first few months can be an overwhelming learning experience with a lot of challenges. Understanding what these challenges are and finding strategies to deal with them by all parties, students, parents and teachers, are crucial for student success.

Perhaps the biggest change a new student faces is the different learning strategies used to acquire knowledge and skills. Now there is very little rote learning in class, and teachers seldom give long lectures; instead students are now required to actively engage themselves in making enquiries as independent learners, members of a group, the whole class and, in some cases, even the whole year group. Now, for learning to take place, students must participate in and contribute to discussions and projects through collaboration with peers. For most, this can prove to be difficult as some may lack confidence speaking in public while some others may not have the language skills to be fully engaged in the learning process.

Another huge challenge to new students is the criteria-based assessment methods used to check and report student academic progress. While there are still formative assessments that are, to some extent, similar to what students used to have in a public school, such as quizzes and tests, summative assessments are usually projects, reports or research papers that students must complete within a week or more, either on their own or in a group. To get a good grade, students will have to fully understand the criteria and the criteria clarifications provided by the teacher for the task, and then demonstrate such understanding and skills through the

Making the Transition

work submitted. This is no easy job at all for a new student, and typically most students tend to struggle with their first few assessment assignments. To someone who was conditioned to receiving homework on one day and submitting it the next, and whose academic progress and achievement were defined solely by the results of semester or end-of-year examinations, the above-mentioned changes in instruction and assessment make a huge demand on students for such skills as time management, organisation, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. However, most students new to the IB school have not yet developed these skills, which is another obstacle to overcome.

We must agree it is a huge undertaking for a new student to get adjusted to this new learning environment. But to the new students you must believe in yourselves that you can overcome these obstacles. Secondly, never hesitate to ask for help from your teachers and peers, as I am sure they would be very happy to assist you. Also it can be a good idea to make a few more friends, join a club, as many of you already have, or check out a book to read for entertainment, as well as to win a prize for your homeroom in the Book Battle, because you all need to find a balance between hard work and fun in your school life.

To parents, sharing your

understanding with your child as to how difficult this transition can be is a good idea, but it is not enough. You will need to get more involved in your child’s education by learning who we are, what we offer and what we strive to achieve as an educational institution. There are ample opportunities for you to do so: the Parent Information Evening, Coffee Mornings, Parent-teacher Conferences as well as many of the school events to be found in the school calendar and Quanzi. It is commendable that lots of you have already demonstrated exceptional enthusiasm to embrace these learning opportunities as evidenced by the well attended coffee mornings, the Parent Information Evening and the Parent Workshops in the last two months. Keep it up!

To the faculty, we must work as a team to provide the care and support the new students need in their transition into the IB school. It may mean a few encouraging words to a student who participated more in a class discussion for example, a few minutes during the lunchtime or after school to give additional help to a student in need, or using different strategies to meet student different learning styles in class. Your patience with, and kind and timely assistance to a new student will surely contribute to a smooth transition for them all.

Each month IB School Principal Robert Wang will use this column to bring you the latest news and opinions from BWYA and beyond

Sept 2015

3

The Fusionists, made up of guitarist, Jason Shin, bass player David Zhang, Keyboard player Rendolm Qian and drummer Mike Wang, will be playing on Friday, 23rd October, with the gig starting at 7pm until 8.30pm. It will take place at BWYA’s Performing Arts Centre at the Laiguangying Campus.

The proceeds will be donated to the Woodpecker Food Safety Centre (WFSC), an NGO with a mission to

BWYA Supergroup Forms For Charity GigSome of our budding rock musicians are channeling the spirit of Bob Geldof and Band Aid by forming their own BWYA supergroup in order to stage a charity concert next month.

ensure safer and healthier food for the community. It was founded in 2013 to educate the public on food safety issues and provide a food safety supervision service.

David, who had the idea to host the concert, said that it was his interest in science, particularly chemistry, that attracted him to the WFSC cause. He added: “We have all played in different bands and at different events but this year’s May Fair at BWYA was the first time that we have played together. We all really enjoyed that experience and we wanted to come up with another project that had a very strong message. When we found out about the WFSC it was the perfect match.”

Jason explained the thinking behind the bands name. He said: “We all have very different tastes and styles that we like to play and the songs we are planning to include in our set list are quite varied. The best way to describe it, a little bit of funk, a bit of rock, a bit of metal, would be a fusion, so we decided to call ourselves the Fusionists.”

“We are planning to play a lot more shows together,” added David, “so this is just the beginning.”

For more information on the band, or to reserve tickets please visit fusionists.eventdove.com.

Sept 2015

4

Poll PositionBWYA students went to the polls recently to elect this year’s Student Council members. And after a well-fought campaign by all the candidates the votes have been counted and the results are in.

All the candidates deserved credit for their posters and electioneering. And despite the wet weather on election day, the whole school braved the rain to make their vote count at the ballot box.

Congratulations to DP1 student Becky Yang who was elected Student Council President and to Woosung Lee, also in DP1, who is the new Vice-President.

Congratulations also to the following students for being elected to the Stu-dent Council:

Brian Han from E9 who is the new Student Council SecretaryBen Yang, also of E9, who is the new TreasurerSydney Liang (E10) who is the new Public Relations OfficerVanessa Yang who was elected Grade 6 RepresentativeAngeline Zhang who was elected Grade 7 RepresentativeLong Er Wang who was elected Grade 8 Representative

New President, Becky Yang, has been a student at BWYA since grade 7 and spoke about how the opportunities and friends that BWYA has given her inspired her to run for President of the Student Council.

She added: “I really want to show my fellow students how BWYA has helped me grow and change as a person and how they can do the same. I take the responsibility of being Student Council President very seriously and I promise to support all the members and listen to their views and ideas. I want the Council to be a real democracy. It might take a little more time to make deci-sions but I think this is the best way.

“During the campaign I learnt so much

and I wanted to thank Karen who really helped me. The result wasn’t the main thing. It was the challenge and seeing if I could put in the required effort to gain the support of students and teachers. I am really proud to have won.”

Brain Han, who was elected Student Council Secretary, is looking forward to gaining some leadership experience and taking on the responsibility of record-ing the Council’s activities and contrib-uting to the school.

He said: “I am quite surprised that I won as there were a lot of good candi-dates from all the other grades. This is only my second year at BWYA so I don’t know as many of the other students as rest of the candidates.

“I can be quite a shy person so I think joining the Student Council is going to push me a little bit and help me change that. I am really motivated and looking forward to helping our school shape its future.”

Well done to everyone who took part in this year’s election and good look to all the new Student Council Members.

TV Time

Did you know that BWYA has its very own TV channel?

Every week, BWYA’s TV Club meet to produce the Wolf Bites TV news show featuring exclusive interviews with staff, coverage of our events, and every-thing else going on at BWYA.

The production team have already broadcast their third episode this year and you can catch up with them by visiting http://media.ibwya.net.

Sept 2015

5

Making the Grade

In the next issue of

...and much more

Principal’s Column

Counsellor’s Corner

Congratulations to BWYA’s Scholarsdhip Award Winners

While we know the new school year is an exciting time to look forward in our journey together, here at BWYA, we also understand that it is important to take some time to celebrate our suc-cesses along the way.

And what a success story last year turned out to be as our graduating class had their most successful year ever. BWYA’s DP2 students achieved an amazing 100 per cent pass rate in the IB Diploma with an average exam score of 35. This is fantastic, especially when you know that the year’s global average score for the IB exam was 29.

The fact that our DP2 students did so well is also reflected in the number of scholarship awards we gave to students, with 28 showing the required level of excellence in order to qualify.

The BWYA Scholarship programme was launched last year and it rewards students based on their academic performance, community involvement and personal growth over the course of a complete academic year.Robert Wang, BWYA’s IB School Prin-cipal, said: “Our students performed excellently in the last academic year and this is reflected in the leap from 11 scholarship winners to 28 in a single year. As a school, we are constantly moving forward and developing and we will be encouraging all BWYA students to maintain the highest standards possible, both academically and as responsible and productive members of our community. Congratulations to all scholarship winners, the BWYA community is very proud of you.”

On Thursday, 10th September, the entire BWYA faculty gathered at the Wanjing campus for a very spe-cial awards ceremony. While it’s the achievements of our students that grab the limelight, and rightly so, Teachers Appreciation Day gives us the opportu-nity to celebrate the achievements of all the BWYA staff members who work so hard behind the scenes.

11 teachers in particular were recog-nised for the outstanding contribution they made to the BWYA community during the last school year. Congratula-tions and thanks go to:

Ke Li, Ji Fei, Zheng Dexiang, Sun Huiyu, Wang Quanlu, Sam Rajesh, Roya Pir-moradi, David Haysom, Kim Na Song,Sophie Lauratet

As BWYA continues to grow and develop, so does the faculty here as we add new, talented teachers to our already committed and dedicated team and we now have 151 teachers working across all three of our campuses. While there are plenty of fresh faces, here at BWYA we also like to celebrate the fa-miliar and recognise teachers and staff members who have been longstanding members of the BWYA community. So with that in mind the following teach-ers receive our congratulations and thanks for five years service to BWYA:

Glenn Jenkin, Cosmina Lascu, Kelvin Lamplough, Jan Rues

Finally, congratulations and thanks to BWYA’s Head of English, April Wang, and our IT Director, Lu Lihua, who passed the 10 and 15 year milestones.

Teachers’ Day Awards Ceremony

Sept 2015

6

Schools in for MYP ParentsAs part of our programme to help new parents get to grips with the BWYA community and learning environ-ment, our MYP Coordinator, Jane Xia, and our Technology Specialist, Abdul Oladipo, have been hosting a number of bi-lingual workshops at our Wang-jing campus,

Teachers, staff, parents and students were on hand to offer information and advice to the new members of our com-munity and Mr. Oladipo gave his tips on how to use the Managebac software, which acts as the online hub of BWYA. Students and teachers from the MYP programme gave presentations of their work to show what it means to be an MYP student and demonstrate how we

learn as a community at BWYA.

Special thanks goes to E7 Tina Han’s aunt Ms. Gao, E8 Justin’s mum Ms. Wang, and E8 Long Er’s mom Ms. Long, who came to share their tips and give invaluable advice from a parent per-spective.

We will continue to hold informal workshops, coffee mornings, and a wide range of community events throughout the school year, giving you the oppor-tunity to get to know parents and staff members alike, and benefit from any advice they have to give. Keep an eye on the school calendar for upcoming dates.

BWYA’s Parent Teacher Association held its first meeting of the school year recently to review last year’s activities and discuss plans for the coming school year. Together with 24 parent grade representatives, BWYA Communica-tions Manager, Pauline Wong and Dep-uty Principal, Emma Emerich, make up the PTA Committee.

Starting in January 2014, members of the PTA have worked hard and made contributions, not only to school events, but also with community proj-ects. The PTA organised family virtue

workshop for parents, invited all teach-ers and staff to a hearty Thanksgiving potluck lunch and hosted Chinese lantern craft sessions for parents before the Chinese New Year.

The PTA community projects include organising BWYA parents to help make Christmas wreaths and selling them to raise money for Love & Hope to buy new kitchen equipment. They are proud to say, together with the staff of BWYA, they organised the biggest charity event of the year, May Fair, two years in a row, and raised substantial

amounts for local charities, which include Love & Hope, Roundabout and Blessed House.They already have a dedi cated army of 20 parent volunteers ready to spring into action for Sports Day next month.

We’ll keep you posted on all the latest PTA news in future issues of Howls and many thanks to all BWYA parents who had contributed to the success of PTA events.

BWYA PTA Takes a Bow

Sept 2015

7

Whenever we get sick, our first port of call is usually to our doctor who will prescribe a treatment and help us get better. However, any good doctor will tell you that prevention is always better than cure and that is why they encourage us to not smoke, drink less, exercise more, and eat a healthy balanced diet. All of that helps with our physical wellbeing, but when it comes to our emotional wellbeing, quite often we don’t seek help until the situation is already serious. This is where a good counselor can really make a difference. Whether you are a student, a parent or a teacher, having someone who you can talk to in confidence can really make a difference.

For parents, a little guidance on how to communicate with their children as they grow and develop can really make a difference to their relationship and atmosphere in the home. There is a big difference between the ‘middle-schooler’ who might be nervous about

a new school and making new friends, and a ‘high-schooler’ who is dealing with teenage hormones and the stress of exams or university applications. The school counselor can be there to help parents adapt their parenting and learn new skills to help their children even more.

For students, the start of the new term brings with it a lot of different pres-sures, such as making new friends, adapting to a new schedule, maybe even issues around conflict or bullying. Again, having the opportunity to chat with an expert counsellor in a safe and relaxing environment can make all the difference.

A good counsellor will work closely with teachers whenever they have identified and emotional problem with a student, but teaching itself can be a very stressful job and again, having someone you can have a confidential chat with can help manage the stress.

I guess the short version of this column is that a student counsellor is there for the entire school commu-nity and everyone can benefit from my expertise from time to time. If you would like to arrange a time to come and talk to me, drop me a line at vho@ibwya.net.

We All Need Someone To Talk To

Counsellor’s Corner

Some of the newcomers this year to the BWYA community perhaps won’t be familiar with our School Counsellor, Veronica Ho, yet. Veronica works across all three of BWYA’s campuses, putting to good use her wealth of experience working with families. Veronica is always happy to talk through any issues you or your children might want to chat about. She will also be covering some hot topics and offering advice in her regular Howls column. This month, Veronica shares her thoughts on who could benefit from working with a counsellor.

Produced monthly by the BWYA Communications Department

Pauline Wong ManagerSteven Proud Coordinator

InquiriesEmail: sproud@ibwya.netTel: (+86 10) 6470 6336 ext 8006

Sept 2015

8

ATHLETIC UPDATE

Let the Games Commence

Although we are only a month or so into the new school year, the BWYA Wolves sports teams have had a busy schedule competing all over Beijing and beyond.

The U14 football teams kicked off BWYA Wolves Athletics programme for the new school year with impressive performances at BCIS. Both the boys and girls teams where in action, each starting the season with a tricky fixture.

Unfortunately, the U14 girls lost their first game 4-1 but the brand new squad did manage to get on the score sheet and things are looking promising for their upcoming schedule.

The U14 boys football team built on last years success and managed to win their game 7-0. There were impressive performances all round including a hat-trick for Terry Tang and two goals for Masoud Tavana.

For the following round of games the boys travelled to Tianjin to take part in a 3 game tournament in which they won two games. The girls played at Chaoyang Sports Centre where they

lost one and won one, getting revenge on the BCIS team who had beaten them the previous week.

Finally, both the boys and girls U14 football teams played matches at SMIC this week. The boys won 2-0 but it was the girls who took all the glory, winning their first game of the season by a tense penalty shootout.

U14 girls Coach, Mirko Mirkovich, said: “The first few games are the first time the girls have played together and, even though the results didn’t always go our way, the performances were good. The girls have shown a lot of sportsmanship and represented our school brilliantly and they fully deserved their first win at SMIC.”

U14 boys coach, Abdul Oladipo, said: “Many members of the team have been playing together for some time now and their experience and understanding of each other is really starting to show. I’m looking forward to an exciting season for BWYA Wolves football.”

The U19 volleyball teams also got their season underway with a tournament at BCIS. The boys competed with teams from five other schools and the girls six. It was a great experience for both teams to take part in such an event and they also represented our school well. De-spite not having much experience as a team, both the BWYA Wolves volleyball teams are improving all the time.

All the latest news from the BWYA Wolves Atletics Programmes

Sept 2015

9