A child with learning difficulties or disabilities that make learning harder for him or her can be described as having special education needs (SEN).  For your convenience, we have copy pasted the Beijing section of the US State Overseas Schools office provided guide on Beijing schools that provide support to children with special needs.  The contents of the guide were originally provided by the schools.

If you suspect your child might be learning at a slower pace than other children of similar age and that it might be a problem, consult Olivia’s Place for an assessment, advice, or for opportunities to attend free parent education workshops.

Extracted from the US State “Overseas Schools Offering Support to Children with Special Needs” 2015-2016:

 British School of Beijing, Shunyi:

In BSB Shunyi, the Inclusion Department consists of a Leader of Inclusion, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Special Educational Needs (SEN) Teacher and Counselor. The SENCO in collaboration with the Leader of Inclusion plays a key role in determining the strategic development of the Special Educational Needs policy, support and provision in the school to raise the achievement of children with special educational needs.

The SENCO will coordinate additional support, Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and Action Plans for pupils with special educational needs and liaise with their teachers and other professionals who are involved with their education.

The counselor supports children’s needs when they are going through a difficult time; this can be emotional, social, or behavioral. For children it can be difficult to talk about their problems with their family, teachers, or friends and they might prefer to talk to someone that isn’t a part of their life. The counselor gives them the chance to share their feelings in a safe and non-judgmental environment. By using different therapy, such as play and art therapy, the feelings of the child will be explored.

The School has a few SEN certified teachers that work with a small portion of students as part of the mainstream program.

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 British School of Beijing, Sanlitun:

The School does not offer a comprehensive SEN program. They do have trained SEN specialists within their network of schools and work with professionals and organizations locally. The School endeavors to work with families to ensure that they have provisions in place to cater to the specific needs of their child. The School offers the support of a one-to-one teaching assistant for any student that may need the additional support during their lessons.

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 International School of Beijing:

Learning Support Policy: In support of the mission, purpose, and philosophy of the School, as existing space and resources allow, students with mild to moderate learning differences will be admitted in accordance with the School’s admissions policy. This might include students with learning disabilities, ADHD and some high-functioning students on the autistic spectrum. However, placement in the learning support program is not based on diagnoses. Placement is determined by the level of support needed to be successful.

Description of Services: At this point, the School does not have self-contained classes for students who require a separate curriculum. Most services are provided through a push-in, inclusion model, with the exception of first and second grades in which a pull out model is utilized more frequently. Presently, they have ten learning support teachers, one speech and language pathologist and a director of student support services who also covers the school psychologist position. The School tends to use a modified response to intervention model (RtI) as the referral identification process. The modification is that they use standardized assessments as well as curriculum based to inform intervention.

Decisions regarding admission and services for a student will be made on a case-by-case basis within the policy parameters. The School does not have an educational program for:

• A student with intensive learning needs.
• A student who requires a self-contained learning environment with separate curriculum.
• A student with significant cognitive, developmental, physical and/or emotional needs/disabilities.
• A student who exhibits a continual pattern of behavior in the classroom that is disruptive to the learning process.
• The Student Support Team generally consists of an Administrator or designee, Counselor, Learning Support Teacher, and Classroom Teacher who interacts directly with the child.

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 Ivy Schools:

While several of the School’s teachers are special-needs trained or informed, they are not equipped to accept children with special needs on a regular basis.

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 International Montessori School of Beijing:

MSB employs two Learning Support teachers who are trained to diagnose and support children with learning needs. All learning support students must be identified during the admission process and will undergo observation and testing by our Learning Support staff. Admittance to the school will take into account their recommendations.

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 Side By Side:

Their program is solely for students with special needs and learning difficulties. The School will consider students with a variety of special needs, though they are unable to admit those in wheelchairs, or with moderate to severe medical needs. Their special education students usually have autism, are mentally challenged, have down syndrome, language delays or disorders, or global delay. The majority of their students have a combination of communication, behavioral and social issues.

Side by Side also offers 1:1 learning support and 1:1 music therapy for students who go to international school and have learning, behavior, emotional or communication difficulties. The School has a qualified special needs teacher, a music therapist/social worker/special needs support worker, and an assistant on staff. They refer to external therapy centers for diagnosis, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and/or physical therapy if it is required.

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 Yew Chung International School:

The School aims to assist children of foreign personnel as much as possible. However, there are limits to the range of services provided, resources obtainable, teacher and specialist expertise available in YCIS. For this reason, YCIS can only accept students with mild learning difficulties, i.e. children who can work successfully in a regular classroom environment with minimum support. The School employs a SEN teacher to work with students, in-class and in a withdrawal capacity. The School reserves the right (in consultation with the parents) to review all prior school reports, recommendations, and external assessments, and conduct an interview to determine the student’s level of need/s. The School will only accept students whom it believes will be successful in the YCIS program. Should a special educational need/s be identified after entrance (or a more serious need develops), the School reserves the right to review the placement.

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 3e International School

Children with special needs are considered on a case-by-case basis to ensure that all their needs can be met if admitted.

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 Beijing City International School – BCIS

BCIS provides learning support for those students who require additional assistance in mastering the curriculum. Acceptance into the school for children with special needs is made on a case-by-case basis. Determination is based on whether they have sufficient expertise and resources to accommodate the student. BCIS personnel do not diagnose disabilities.

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 Dulwich College Beijing

The School accepts students with learning needs on a case-by-case basis. Mild needs are supported either through in-class or pull-out sessions. Students needing extra support are requested to hire a shadow at their own expense. They do not have services for severe learning needs that may require professional services such as speech or physiotherapy.

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 Lycée Française International de Pékin

The School currently has 4-5 mentally handicapped or sight impaired students. These students’ families engage a personal assistant (with the help and agreement of the school) to assist their child in classes. The School also has several dyslexic students; 2 external speech therapists assist them after school.

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 Western Academy of Beijing

Learning Support Program: Students are eligible for admission if it is believed that WAB can meet their emotional, social, physical and academic needs. WAB can offer places at each grade level to a limited number of students with mild learning difficulties. For these students, assistance is provided by their Learning Support Center, both in and out of the classroom as appropriate, usually in small groups and occasionally on an individual basis.

Since WAB does not have separate classes for children with learning difficulties, a primary consideration in offering a place will be the student’s ability to access the regular curriculum with limited support. WAB takes into account the number of other students requiring learning support in the grade level applied for, and the level of resources needed to support the applicant. Thus, while WAB recognizes the value for all children of the social learning which can occur through contact with a peer group, places cannot be offered to students who need extensive program modifications, an alternate curriculum or constant support.

In accepting students with learning difficulties, WAB usually also adheres to the school admissions policy of placing students by chronological age and educational background, so the ability to function with a group of similarly aged students is an important factor. WAB is able to accept some students with minor physical disabilities, although expertise with any type of adaptive communications systems is not available. In accordance with the general admissions policy, the school reserves the right (in consultation with the parents) to conduct all necessary assessments and obtain copies of all previous reports and records. The School will offer a provisional place only to those students who they believe can benefit from the educational program it provides.

Photo: Flickr (US Army)

In our October 2015 issue we interviewed Kiran Bir Sethi, founder and director of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India. Sethi is a pioneer in implementing Dr. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory, which suggests that there are eight different kinds of intelligence: musical–rhythmic, visual–spatial, verbal–linguistic, logical–mathematical, bodily–kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. We explained Sethi’s “I can” teaching model, based on the Design for Change movement, which empowers students to “be the change they wish to see in the world”, with step by step instructions on how to develop the “I can” attitude in your kids.

Ivy Academy invited Sethi to Beijing as a part of their Ivy Distinguished Speaker Series, to determine how her Design for Change movement and MI applications could be implemented in Ivy Education Group’s culture, and to train Ivy staff on the “I can” teaching methodology. Ivy hosted several training sessions in Beijing after having translated all the teaching and training materials to Chinese. Then, in January 2016, Ivy sent faculty over to Riverside School to observe the Design for Change theory in practice—an experience they found so fruitful that another trip has been planned for this July for a different set of staff to experience.

This year, we followed up with Ja Wuttithamrong from Daystar Academy, part of Ivy Education Group, who visited Riverside School with her colleagues: Ryan Cardwell, Suzy Wang, and He Lixing, to see how their cooperation has progressed, what Ivy has learned from their experience, and how Ivy sees the Design for Change Movement influencing Beijing’s international education community.

Students and teachers are placed on equal ground, and parents and administrators are asked to step back from the picture

A good role model
Ivy Education Group’s purpose in visiting the Riverside School is to understand how the theory of MI and “I can” are implemented in a K-12 school environment, and how it is applied to all channels of communication: between teachers and students, teachers and parents, parents and students.    As the Riverside School has been established since 2001, the “I can” attitude is deeply ingrained in the culture of the school.  It is included in the pedagogy, visible from the slogans on the walls, and the problem solving attitudes of all students, from the youngest to the eldest.  Ivy staff were especially impressed with how the teachers had completely internalized the dialogue, using the Design for Change language even amongst themselves, and how students, regardless of age, also kept to the same language and discipline.

Ivy staff members attribute Riverside School’s success to their “people first” mentality, where firstly students and teachers are placed on equal ground, and secondly, parents and administration are asked to step back from the picture.  The importance of having students and teachers on an equal standing becomes apparent when you observe the manner in which teachers speak to their students, how the class is involved in the planning of their day or week, allowing them to critically think about why they need to have certain classes, why certain topics need to be covered in a period of time, and when, if not now, the time can be made up.  This type of open conversation breeds independence, develops critical thinking skills, and instills time and organizational skills in students from a young age, which they can further develop into the life skills children need in order to succeed in adulthood.

Administration and parents have to take a backseat at the Riverside School, not because their opinions are not valued, but because the school recognizes that only teachers and students truly know what the class needs to best proceed. Even if parents would like to be more involved, they are requested to abide by the “I can” language in order to foster a better home environment—and who are parents to argue when the school has been awarded numerous awards and their students are outperforming traditional schools academically?  No one is complaining at the Riverside School.

Imitation and adaptation in Beijing
Part of what Ivy Education Group plan on mimicking, and have already begun planting the seeds for, are the simple terminology and language utilized in the Design for Change movement, whereby Sethi has used her design background to create user friendly diagrams and learning modules with no traditional academic jargon.  This simple terminology is easy to remember, to teach, to model, and to use—which is probably why it can be so easily spread in the Riverside School.  An example phrase would be “glad, mad, sad”, wherein children would label their emotions with simple language instead of trying to define the shades of gray in how they feel: do I feel glad, mad, or sad?  By identifying their emotions, children are then encouraged to try solving the problem on their own, working out their conflict resolution skills while exploring possible unintended consequences.

“Closing the loop” was a phrase that is heard often at Riverside School, used by students and faculty alike.  The phrase is a simplification of the idea of “finishing what you have started”, and can be applied in all aspects.  Teachers use it to remind students why they have begun an activity, as a kind of “debrief”, and also as a tool to coax students to finish boring tasks or less-than-exciting projects.  Students are also encouraged to “close the loop” in their conversations, to hold up their promises, and to review what they have learned from each experience. “Closing the loop” is an important phrase that soon all Ivy School staff will also find themselves repeating.

Challenges in implementation
Yet of course there are challenges in implementing the Design for Change theory to Ivy Education Group, and in copying Riverside School’s successful culture. To start with, Riverside School is a K-12 private school with English as its main language of instruction, while Ivy Schools are bilingual and tend to follow a half-half schedule, meaning teachers only have half the instruction time of traditional schools.  The materials have been translated into Chinese, and both English and Chinese faculty members have begun their training into the program, but the language barrier is only half the challenge when the cultural differences of trainers and teachers surface.

In addition, while Riverside School is a K-12 academy, Ivy Education Group’s schools, including Daystar Academy, only have younger children at present.  Perhaps surprisingly though, older students encounter more road blocks in the process compared with younger students who happily adopt the methodology with open minds.

Some Ivy School Kindergartens have already successfully carried out their own “I can” projects, such as the water conservation project headed by Ivy Academy East Lake second graders, or the  four year olds who ran a bakery fundraiser, or the students who made and sold soap to promote autism awareness. In each project, students were asked to identify a problem that they would like to solve, to vote on it democratically, and then form an action plan with adult guidance.  Each Ivy School class is encouraged to find their own “cause” and project, with the emphasis on organic development, wherein educators foster the natural compassion and empathy children have for each other, others, animals, and the planet earth.

Designing a better future in education
Ivy Education Group has schools in multiple locations, but has begun their Design for Change implementation in their Beijing schools first.  Once the “culture” has been successfully tested and adapted in their Beijing school, it can be modeled for other locations.  In the meantime, Ivy Schools wishes to serve as a pioneer in the adaptation of a modern, scientifically-backed approach to learning that focuses on student wellbeing—one school at a time.

This article originally appeared on page 32-33 of the 2016 June-July Issue of beijingkids magazine. Click here for your free online copy. To find out how you can obtain a hard copy, contact distribution@truerun.com.

Photos: Courtesy of Ivy Education Group

In just one week, the Dartmouth Aires will perform at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing for the Daystar/Ivy Charity Cocktail Concert. The event will entail a silent auction featuring works from renowned artists, hotel stays, and restaurant vouchers in addition to a cocktail menu and free flowing drinks. All proceeds from the event will help support six migrant schools’ art and music program for a year and fund the college education of eight rural girls from Guilin. In anticipation of the noteworthy cause, beijingkids spoke to Dartmouth Aires Spring Tour Manager Brian Chalif.

Tell us about the group.
The group was founded in 1946, back when Dartmouth was all male. Although Dartmouth has become co-ed, the Aires have remained all male. We originally were part of the Glee Club, but over time we detached. When we departed from the Glee Club, we become completely student run, from logistics to budgeting, arranging, rehearsals, choreography and any aspect you could think that would go into an a cappella group. The group currently has 20 members, with a large new member class of six people.

Why a cappella?
As mentioned, we started as part of the Glee Club, but separated many years ago. In very old recordings, occasionally there were instruments, but that was only in the first couple of years. The reason that we only do a cappella is mostly tradition at this point, but I think most members would agree that the pure vocal music allows for some of the most beautiful music.

Is there a type of music that is impossible to vocalize?
We sing a wide range of music. Pop, classical, musical theater, jazz, and much much more. I can’t imagine singing something like heavy metal music, dubstep, or electronic music. That being said, we have never tried!

How many languages can the group sing in?
We sing mostly in English. However, we are learning a Chinese song for this tour! As a group, we have not sung in many languages, but individually many of us have sung in other languages. To name a few: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Hebrew, and Latin, but I am sure there are many more.

What types of songs tend to be most popular?
We tend to sing a lot of new popular music, as this is what our young college-age crowds generally enjoy. We also sing a lot of traditional Dartmouth songs, which Dartmouth alumni love.

What are some of the most different /interesting songs the group has performed?
We have sung new popular music like Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars, which is brand new and pretty mainstream. Last year, we sang Lady is a Tramp, a traditional jazz piece. Next term, after the tour, we will be learning a classical choral piece named Lux Aurumque, by Eric Whitacre.

What types of events do the Aires normally sing?
We sing at a wide range of events; there is no normal for the Aires! Since I have been in the group we have sung many alumni shows, school shows, and various Dartmouth functions. Some of the more exciting shows have included live video streams to tens of thousands of people, a performance at the White House, major fundraisers, an Obama presidential campaign rally for over twenty thousand people, and the national anthem at national league baseball games.

What the next move for the group?
Next year we will be working on recording a Christmas album. We also will be having our tri-annual reunions, in which 60+ Aires alumni come to Dartmouth to reminisce times singing with the group. Next year we will also do two tours. One on the east coast of the United States and one is yet to be decided, we are thinking maybe Iceland.

Is this your first time in China? Why did the Aires choose the Daystar Academy/Ivy charity event in particular?
This is my first time to China. A couple members have been, but most of us have not. For some, it is the first time leaving the country! We chose China because ever since NBC’s The Sing Off was aired in China 2 years ago (in which the Aires were runners up), we have been dreaming of going to China. This dream will become a reality in just a couple weeks. In regards to Daystar/Ivy, I give all the credit to Daystar Marketing Manager, Ja Wuttihamrong who has helped plan the entire thing. Without her, this show and our experience in China would not have nearly run as smoothly or been as enjoyable.

Are there any sites in particular in Beijing you’d like to see most?
We are performing a lot, but intend to also see some sights. We are going to see the Great Wall, of course. We will also see the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum. Some other things we are hoping to see are The Golden Mask Dynasty Show and Panjiayuan Flea Market. For us, a tour that combines sight seeing and shows provides for a wonderful cultural exchange. We are very much looking forward to the charity concert at the four seasons.

The Dartmouth Aires serenaded an audience of millions in 2011 with a strong runner up performance on the hit TV competition The Sing-Off. But on March 20, the a cappella group will perform a far more intimate encore for their Beijing fans.

Daystar Academy and the Ivy Schools are coordinating the event, which will be held in the Four Seasons Hotel’s ballroom. A statement from Daystar says that all proceeds from the event will be donated to A Bridge for Children, an organization that funds art, music and sports programs at six migrant schools outside of Beijing.

A silent auction will also be held in conjunction with the concert, where attendees can bid on Four Seasons’ hotel stays and restaurant vouchers, along with works of art and other items donated by renowned local artists and parents of Daystar and Ivy students. All proceeds from the ticket sales and the auction will be donated to charity.

The Dartmouth Aires— a long running collegiate singing troupe from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire— will perform at the Daystar/Ivy event as part of the troupe’s first ever tour in China. The tour comes on the heels of the group’s latest album, Truth or Daire [https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/truth-or-daire/id931640804], which was released last fall. The album is The Aires’ first studio recording since its widely viewed second place finish on the popular hit TV vocal competition The Sing-Off in 2011. The group’s first iteration formed in 1946, and since then they have won the 2003 and 2005 Contemporary a Cappella Recording Awards for Best All-Male Collegiate Album, along with embarking on tours in Aruba, Costa Rica, France, and Italy.​ The group’s upcoming Beijing concert, and its additional PRC performances, will be the group’s first trek in China.

The Daystar/Ivy charity concert will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing’s The Imperial Ballroom (48 Liangmaqiao Road, 5695-8888) on Friday March 20. Acocktail reception will take place at 6pm, and the concert will begin at 7pm. Tickets cost RMB 688 each. All children under 5 will be admitted for free, but must sit on their parent’s laps. Tickets can be booked here [https://yoopay.cn/event/daystarivycharityconcert]. For more information on The Dartmouth Aires, click here [http://www.dartmouthaires.com].

Stay tuned for Beijing Kids exclusive Q&A with The Dartmouth Aires in advance of their performance.

Photo: Dartmouth Aires Facebook Page