On the last Friday of April, the first THIS Principal Breakfast was held! Proposed by the school’s Parent Council, the preparations for this inaugural event were completed in just two weeks. This along with other activities throughout the year demonstrates the priority THIS puts on family-school communication.
Executive Principal Ms. Wenping Li, Academic Principal Mr. Patrick Smith, Chinese Vice Principal Ms. Wenting Bai, and Administrative Director Ms. Wenbo Dong excitedly received parents starting at 7:30 am. In a harmonious and relaxed atmosphere, the breakfast meeting kicked off with parents fully sharing their thoughts and ideas with the management team.
/ How will THIS provide students a boost for their future development in the AI era? /
With the development of AI such as ChatGPT, parents and the learning community as a whole are wondering whether the education their children receive at school will be able to cope with the world of the future. How will THIS provide students the support their future development in the age of AI? This question was a key point of discussion at the breakfast. From their own professional fields and their children’s experience with ChatGPT, parents hoped that THIS would become teaching pioneers and promoters of the integration of AI in China.
Ms. Li said that with AI technology sweeping the world, the focus for schools cannot remain only on “teaching knowledge” but rather, we need to “cultivate abilities” and pay more attention to the development of students’ creative abilities and emotions. The school is planning ChatGPT workshops that include having experts, parents, and students actively exploring ChatGPT innovations. For our staff, we will pay close attention to the academic integrity of artificial intelligence and proactively addressing the educational challenges and opportunities in the new situation. Our teachers have started to study how to integrate ChatGPT into their daily planning to optimize the curriculum, to improve learning efficiency, to teach students how to ask questions, and to develop their machine interaction skills.
/ New Students Integrating into a New Environment /
In response to parents’ concerns about new students integrating into the new environment, Ms. Li said that it takes time. The school and parents need to work together to provide a relaxed environment where children can try and make mistakes. THIS is also working on a more detailed integration program to provide more personalized services to help new students integrate into the THIS family.
/ Sessions for grade 5,8 and high school /
Ms. Li outlined how the school provides various services to parents and students to help them better achieve their learning goals at each of their grade levels. For the 5th to 6th transition, the school organizes middle school parent sharing sessions and middle school peer sharing sessions. For the families entering high school, the school offers high school curriculum and course selection guide sharing sessions. Our high school students participate in guidance sessions on college admissions and career planning, graduate sharing sessions and parent sharing sessions. While ensuring that every student receives the same educational resources, THIS actively creates various pathways that promote students’ independent development and help them pursue their interests. For example, we invite university professors to provide research opportunities for students who have the ability to do so as well as encourage students to explore quality competitions and public service activities.
/ No Sports, not Tsinghua /
Strengthening the athletic program at THIS was also an important topic at the breakfast. “No sports, no Tsinghua,” agreed Ms. Li. Sportsmanship has always been an important heritage of Tsinghua. THIS will invest more in sports, set up more quantitative standards to promote students’ participation in sports, support students in various events, and coordinate the resources of physical education teachers for this purpose.
/ Daily teaching and Parental communication /
In addition, parents and the THIS management team had a sincere conversation about project-based learning, integrating community service into daily instruction, and communication between adolescent parents and their children.
Education is a two-way interaction between schools and parents. THIS has always advocated family-school cooperation and open communication to create a family culture. Understanding, support, and trust between parents and school can effectively create a positive learning atmosphere and growth environment. This allows students to receive consistent care and meaningful guidance.
With that, don’t miss the next Principal Breakfast on May 31! THIS parents are invited to meet with the principal and administration team.
Open Communication between Family and School