Head of School Welcome

Welcome to Hangzhou International School
 
Borrowing from Shakespeare, I believe that all a school is a stage. An effective school is where all students, at some point, have an opportunity to shine on their own stage.

 That stage may be the basketball court; a student art exhibition, choir recital, heated debate in a Model UN committee, creating animated characters in the computer lab, or on the student council. This list is by no means exhaustive. The more stages a school has, more students are able to develop their strengths, reveal their unique intelligences and shine. The teacher’s role is to provide multiple forums for students to demonstrate their strengths. This is at times a challenge for teachers who by and large are people who were successful in traditional academic settings, on traditional academic assessmen

ts. Although test– taking skills play a very important role in our school and we strive for academic excellence through programs like Advanced Placement (AP), we know that the world around us also demands other skills that can never by accurately measured by selected response tests or simple grades alone.
 
At HIS we pride ourselves on trying to provide as many stages as possible for our students to shine and show off their talents. As a small school this creates challenges yet also unique and incredibly rewarding opportunities. This is a school where one night I may watch a thrilling drama production, the following day attend a great choir/band concert and end the week cheering for our students at a basketball tournament and realize that the same students participated in these three very unique venues.  A school like HIS invites students to take risks, to challenge themselves and be part of a whole much greater than their individual roles. In many schools students can be streamed into being “jocks” or “artsies” and dozens of other little sub-groups that isolate students from the rest of the school community. That is not the case at HIS. We are a tight community that invites everyone to take risks and we collectively celebrate students’ individual and collaborative successes. We subscribe to something I learned many years ago from a very good professor in university – knowledge is indivisible. Everything we learn, every skill we develop, every opportunity we have to extend our understanding of the world and our fellow humans, and in the process our self-awareness, is a valuable and worthwhile pursuit.
 
As a team of educators we strive to find alternative challenges for students that recognize there are multiple intelligences and each students’ gifts and talents have the potential to contribute to our learning community. Students must also be engaged in authentic, meaningful work. When the audience of a student’s work goes beyond the teacher, when it is placed on some form of stage, their work becomes authentic, important, and as the stakes are raised so do the student’s expectations of his or her own ability. An essay written for a teacher will not inspire the same level of writing and passion as an article for the school newsmagazine Dragon News that has a potential readership of thousands. A presentation in front of a classroom of peers will probably not challenge a student as much as a presentation, on part of the student government, in front of the entire student population. Again, the more stages the more opportunities for students to shine in their own limelight of success.
 
In short, this is a unique school community, international, cohesive and open to diversity. HIS is also a great place to learn in a beautiful community at a pivotal and interesting time in China’s history.

Rob VanderEyken
Head of School