This week, Grades 4 and 5 of Shanghai High School International Department Puxi Campus held the first parent meetings of the semester. These important meetings, that took place on March 19th and 21st, were led by the fourth and fifth grade teachers, who focused on the educational goal of "Cultivating Independent Learners", introduced the curriculum, moral education, mental health education and school activities to parents in detail.

Grade 4

Ms. Shi, Supervisor of Grade 4, reviewed the wonderful activities of the previous semester with the parents and introduced the Class Collaboration, the daily work of ASB, the basic information of Lunch Club and the monthly Assembly. At the same time, she also explained the specific arrangements of Community Service and predicted the wonderful activities of this semester, including Geo Fair, Chinese Culture Week, charity fair and Career day. In addition, Ms. Shi showed the parents how to personalize student reports to better track student progress and growth in academic level, moral character and interests.

Afterwards, Ms. Sun, the psychology teacher, introduced the thematic activities and education for the students’ mental health, including “Kindness Week” being conducted this week, and some real cases in the “chatting room”, such as emotion management, daily troubles and interpersonal communication. She also mentioned how to improve students' social skills through friendship clubs.

Ms. Truelove introduced the core values that will be taught this semester, stemming from the acronym ‘G.R.O.W'. They include gratitude, responsibility, organization and wellness. These values are explicitly taught and practiced in order to promote the sound development of students' moral character. Then, together with the teachers in charge of the subjects, she introduced the contents of the five main courses, the forms of assessment and a variety of subject-related activities for parents in detail. The teachers also provided effective subject learning suggestions so that parents can better prepare their children for fifth grade learning.

Ms. Lu, Director of SHSID Puxi Campus Grade 4-5, discussed the changes we are facing from the VUCA era to the BANI era, and discussed how to focus on the present and improve the core competitiveness of children from the essence of education. She stressed the importance of building links and promoting the development of children's core competencies such as cognitive skills, thinking skills and self-orientation skills. Ms. Lu also analyzed the problems encountered by parents in the current stage of parenting from the four "MANGs" - "busy, shining, vague, blind”, and put forward the strategies of realizing effective home-school co-parenting, including cultivating children's adaptability, efficacy, positive thinking, cognition, cooperation, and stimulating children's own motivation system.

Grade 5

The fifth grade students are already prospective graduates. This parents' meeting was under the theme of "Lifting", communicating how to help students successfully and happily complete the last stage of primary school academic tasks and school lives.

First, Ms. Zhuo, supervisor of Grade 5, and Mr. Land, liaison of foreign teachers in Grades 4 and 5, introduced the basic overview of Grade 5 and various activities inside and outside the school. They spoke about "cooperation between grades" to encourage teamwork, "lunch club" to enrich lunch time, the "semester plan" to cultivate students' self-management abilities, and “personal development lessons" to build students' character. As fifth grade is the graduation grade for elementary, there are many graduation-related activities this semester, such as shooting graduation photos and designing class signs. We hope the family and school can work together to ensure that the students spend an unforgettable graduation season.

Through this parent-teacher meeting, the fifth grade parents also learned more about the school's positive initiatives to promote students' mental health and character development. Ms. Sun highlighted the Kindness Challenge Week held this week and hoped that this activity would encourage students to continue to spread kindness and goodness in their lives. In addition to the chatting room and the friendship lunch club, the fifth graders will also carry out puberty education to help students face the changes and challenges brought by puberty more positively .

Subsequently, the five subject leaders introduced the curriculum arrangement, subject setting, extracurricular development and learning methods of each subject to the parents. This semester, all the subjects will carry out various interesting and meaningful activities to enrich students' learning life, cultivate students' learning interests, and improve their comprehensive learning abilities. The teachers also took advantage of this parent-teacher meeting to provide parents with some suggestions and methods to help students better consolidate what they have learned and make a smooth transition to middle school.

Afterwards, Ms. Lu, Director of SHSID Puxi Campus Grade 4-5, had an in-depth and insightful communication with the parents. Starting from the rapid changes of the current era and the new requirements for talent demand, Ms. Lu proposed that the current focus of education should be to help students establish links among knowledge systems, cultivate problem-solving abilities, and enhance collaboration amongst their peers. It is believed that these soft strengths are the core elements that can help students better adapt to the next stage of life and the future changing world. At the same time, Ms. Lu also gave the parents some concrete and feasible suggestions and methods, including helping children master life skills, learning to adapt to various challenges and changes, mastering the ability to learn, and stimulating the child's self-motivation system.

Shanghai High School International Division is committed to providing students with a comprehensive and diverse educational environment, through a variety of courses and activities, to stimulate students' potential and train them to become global citizens with an international perspective and social responsibility. This meeting not only deepened parents' understanding of the school's educational activities, but also promoted a closer cooperative relationship between parents and teachers. We believe that home-school can work better in the future, forming a powerful two-way home-school collaboration, and jointly helping children produce long-term progress and growth!

Written by Zhu Yiwei, Wu Yin

Pictures by Cao Minxuan

Edited by Bianca Noguera