Beijing School – Beijing Kids

Beijing International Schools Delay Start Dates Amid COVID Concerns

Vivienne Tseng-Rush — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 01:00:57 +0000

Over the past week multiple international schools in Beijing have delayed their previously announced starting date for the new academic year, in part due to the recent batch of COVID-19 cases in the city, as well as a newly-enforced government mandate.

The Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB) sent out a formal notice on their WeChat platform to parents and guardians on Jul 30, revising their original start date from Aug 9. The notice did not provide a new start date, but promised to provide the latest update as the school receives information from local authorities.

Three days earlier on Jul 27, Beijing International Bilingual Academy (BIBA) sent out a letter to parents that the school’s start date would be postponed from Aug 11 to Sep 1, citing a government-issued notice that requires public schools to start school at the same time.

AISB-Hope International has also revised their starting date from Aug 17 to Sep 1.

This is in line with the news that all private bilingual schools are required to follow the Chinese National Calendar, as part of a new law enacted by the Chinese government back in May. However, the manner of enforcement of this law was not specified, and enforcement has been varied depending on the different school licenses and board members. It has been said that this law was passed in order to standardize all Beijing schools, starting with the academic calendar, and possibly extending to the curriculum as well.

Many international schools have yet to issue notices regarding school start delays. The starting date for Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) is still Aug 26 as previously planned. As of Aug 3, the school has not issued any notice to parents of their intention to revise their starting date.

KEEP READING: Beijing Leads Forbes China’s List of Top 50 International Schools in China

Images: Pexels

Home Away From Home

As a student at the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), I often hear students and teachers making references to The International School of Beijing (ISB). I think people from both ISB and WAB subconsciously compare themselves, and in turn their academics programs, sports programs, and facilities to those of the other school. There is some sense of rivalry between the two schools, especially in terms of sports. But how much of this gossip and talk of the two schools is actually true? As a former ISB student who attended ISB for many years and a current WAB student with a sister who attends ISB, I think I can speak quite objectively about the reality of both schools.

When I first informed people about my decision to transfer from ISB to WAB, some people disagreed with my choice to the point that they wrote on my Facebook wall, saying that they strongly believed that I should revoke my secured spot at WAB. Their reactions really aggravated me because they likely had some misconceptions about WAB. Some perceive WAB as a “party school.” If WAB is deemed a “party school,” then it would only be fair to consider all schools “party schools.” Perhaps if you compared the ratio of people who party in ISB to people who party to WAB, there will be a difference, but there are students who enjoy partying at every single school.

There is a misconception that WAB is less academically rigorous. WAB is a more liberal school that emphasizes educating the “whole child” and helps students grow in all aspects, not just their academic/athletic/artistic abilities. WAB’s mission statement is “Connect, Inspire, Make a difference,” and WAB makes an effort to create a close, connected community that encourages students to engage in the community to try to make a difference. It is evident that it works because of the amazing college acceptances in recent years.

The school’s attitude is reflected in its architecture; the entire structure and design of the school creates a welcoming and intimate atmosphere. Everything is very open; WAB doesn’t have a cafeteria, it just has a big open area with tables and couches where everyone hangs out and is free to mix. The library doesn’t have any doors, it’s not in a room; it’s basically just many bookshelves and tables/chairs in an open area.

At WAB, you can spontaneously break out into song with your friends and be admired for your talent instead of being looked at weirdly. Many students call WAB their ‘second home’ because they feel completely comfortable in the school and the students and teachers are like family. WAB embraces people as they are. WAB is liberal and arts-based, encouraging creative thinking in all subjects. For example, in Information and Communication Techonology (ICT), one of the projects was create a remix (audio, image, video, or text) and the students had the freedom of doing whatever they wanted.

WAB has a strong academic curriculum just like ISB, but WAB really puts that extra effort into its arts programs. The students themselves are also very artistic; almost every single one of my friends does at least one type of art. Even though the art rooms are based in a building separate from the high school, the art teachers still painstakingly carried at least 70 art pieces across campus to the high school, and set up and hung the art for display. They even had a gallery opening night for all this art.

Most people perceive ISB as a very academically-driven school that is also very strong in sports, which is true. One of the most apparent strengths of ISB is its undeniably spectacular facilities. Recently, the school finished building two domes with tennis courts, a track, a basketball court and soccer pitch. The domes also have an air filtration system, which will greatly benefit the students since we live in a city where having a pollution index of 100 would be considered a good day.

Regarding academics, students most commonly receive A’s, which shows their devotion to education. ISB is a competitive school, which drives students to be more engaged in activities and put in extra effort. A lot of students thrive off the competition and pressure, and it actually improves their performance. Being surrounded by many conscientious students really gave me an extra push in my academic work.

A common misconception about ISB is that it’s not a fun place. Actually, ISB hosts many fun, unique and interesting events each year. For example, for Movember. lots of male students and teachers shave their hair and mustaches/beards to raise funds to promote men’s health. The Spring Fair every May is another huge successful event that a lot of people from the whole Beijing community attend.

One of the specialties of ISB is that it offers a personalized education for each student. It offers so many opportunities for students to focus on their own personal interests. WAB does as well, but since ISB is a bigger school it offers more options than WAB in some aspects. ISB has also been around for a much longer time, and has had more years to develop, expand and improve its system and curriculum.

Students at both ISB and WAB claim that their school is the better one, which of course is true in a sense because the school they are is the more suitable for them personally. It depends on the student’s personality, interests, and self-motivation.

I have found the school that is my “home away from home” at WAB. I liked attending ISB and I am grateful for my experiences there because they have shaped me to be who I am, but I believe my personal interests will flourish at WAB. In the end, everyone will have a different “home away from home.”

Talia Jin is a student at WAB.

Photo courtesy of Gerald Klein of Nations Park Home Plate via Wikimedia Commons

Thinking of Enrolling Your Kid in an International School or Program? Make Sure they Have a Visa

beijingkids — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

We popped into the admissions office of Fangcaodi International School during their International Day Fair this past Sunday and learned a very important bit of information from our friends, whose daughter had just been in an enrollment interview with the school that morning.

As they were picking up their daughter they witnessed a heated argument between a mother and administrators because the former was told that her child did not qualify for enrollment in the school’s international division because her daughter did not have a Chinese visa in her foreign passport.

This requirement has been enforced by local schools for some time now, but was news to us. Essentially it means that Beijing families with de facto "dual citizen" children – i.e. a child born to a Chinese/foreign couple holding both a foreign passport and a local hukou – must renounce their child’s Chinese citizenship in order for their children to be enrolled in any local school’s international division.

China does not officially recognize dual nationality and assumes automatic citizenship for children born to a Chinese parent in China, which can be extremely confusing for dual nationality families here in Beijing and even more so for parents from countries that have similar "birthright" laws.

For instance one local Polish father who is married to a Beijing woman told me that his country mandates that any child born to a parent from his country is automatically a citizen and only the child has the legal right to renounce his or her Polish citizenship.

Thus if he were to choose to send his child to a local Chinese school with an international section (or an international school, for that matter) he would effectively have no choice but to go through the bureaucratic hassle of renouncing his child’s Chinese citizenship to secure admission.

As I described in this earlier post my family is in the same situation – our oldest daughter has a US passport and a Beijing hukou, both by birthright. When we took our first trip back to the US a few years we presumed that we’d be obliged to renounce her Chinese citizenship, but were told by an agent at the PSB that she could effectively keep both and choose for herself when she turned 18. We were issued a one-time exit-and-entry passbook (or tongxingzheng, 通行证), which was good for one exit from and re-entry back into China.

This seemed like a pretty sensible approach and we’ve been able to travel this way with our daughter out of China numerous times since then, but with her enrollment in primary school impending we don’t anticipate being able to do this in the future – it seems likely that we will be obliged to renounce her Chinese citizenship in order to qualify for the international division of our desired school, Fangcaodi.

New reforms to Beijing’s visa regulations for foreigners are coming in June and you can fully expect even more stringent enforcement of all such regulations – if your family is in the same situation you should be prepared to face the same decision when it comes to enrolling your child in an international school or program at a local Chinese school. The gray areas and loopholes of years’ past are closing fast.

And so we will now begin diving into the red tape of renouncing our daughter’s Chinese citizenship (and this still leaves the matter of sorting out a Chinese visa for our 1-year-old son) – I will keep you posted on how things proceed.