“Which country do you come from? What is your country’s weather? What do your country’s houses look like? Do you know why they have to make houses like those in that kind of weather? Do you know what material is used to make those houses? Are these materials man-made or natural? What do you think the answers would be for your other classmates? Why do you think there are so many different answers?” These are the questions asked by BCIS Grade One teacher, Ms. Diba, as a part of the “Unit of Inquiry” teaching program. At the library, through the assistance of the librarian, students searches for the answers from 15,000 books; At the IT laboratory, students seek answers through the internet; When they returned home, their parents become their subject of interview; At the Chinese lesson, children discovered that houses at different parts of China are made differently and they draw their own home countries’ houses from their own recollection, use different material to make model of those houses. Students from non-English native speaking countries are guided by ESOL teacher Ms. Carman to comprehend and interact with teachers and classmates, and also to express their own answers.   16 students from 8 different countries learned that there are different climates and different houses in different countries around the world through the UOI program, and China is a very large country, within one country alone it already has so many different climates and houses. However, no matter how many different houses there are, people live in those houses and each house has a family with parents and children living together, and their house is a home to them, and at home there is always warmth…

 

The above is a snapshot of grade one student’s learning process.

 

Beijing City International School (BCIS) is located at Beijing, Chaoyang District’s CBD area, occupying 51,000 square meters land area, and 38,000 building area, with a capacity to accommodate 1,600 students from kindergarten to grade 12. It is the largest international school located in Asia that is located in the heart of the city. BCIS took in its first batch of K-6 student in 28 August 2005, and they came from 30 countries. It started its Upper School section in 14 August 2006 for students from G6-10 and plan to expand its classes from K-12 in due time.

BCIS’ students came from all over the world and they have different cultures, skin colors, education backgrounds and religions, but they all share the same learning opportunities. Although their native languages are different, they attempt to communicate and learn through English. BCIS’ highly qualified and experienced teaching faculty came from English native language countries such as England, America, Australia and New Zealand, and they have accumulated many years of teaching experiences in different countries to provide equal but yet individualized learning opportunities for each student. The backbone of BCIS education – the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum is specially designed to cater to students coming from different educational background and has provision for primary, middle year and high school programs.

 

-      At the Primary Years, students are not mechanically injected with new knowledge, but are instead taught to develop learning interest, master learning skills and guided to understand the society and living environment, and to establish healthy and creditable characters. They are groomed to be inquirers, thinkers, communicators, risk-takers, and to be principled, caring, balanced, open-minded, knowledgeable and reflective persons.

-      At the Middle School stage students are able to make selection from a wide array of subjects. They are imparted with critical knowledge, enabled to be observant, developed proper attitudes in learning and living, mastered technical operations and social interaction skills, so that they could participate actively and enjoy their society and environment.

-      At the Upper School stage students are prepared with good learning and living attitude for their forthcoming varsity life. Social experiences and Charity involvements are important criteria towards Upper School graduations. Those whom have successfully completed Upper School programs stand good chances in being admitted to distinguish universities in America and England.

 

With a proven professional management model, teaching faculty, curricular setting, policies and procedures, BCIS has been successfully admitted into the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), Council of International Schools (CIS) and International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), and is a candidate school for IB Primary Years Programme. Through evaluation, it has also been admitted to the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS). BCIS actively participates in International School organizations’ activities and conferences and teachers are sent to America, Australia, Japan, Holland, Thailand and Hong Kong to participate in academic conferences and trainings. Currently at the Primary School level, there are 5 teachers who are IBO certified Trainers, and these teachers use their holiday to travel to different part of the world to train other teachers. The school is also in the process of a few accreditation evaluations and is working towards surpassing international standards.

 

The education BCIS provides is neither elitist nor is it meant for the rich and nobles. However the school’s mission is to let every student develops his own potential to the fullest, enabling them to be a well-balanced world citizen that could contribute to the society. Our educationalist focuses on and respect every student’s individuality and do not over-emphasize on competitiveness, rather than how to perform to everyone’s own best ability.

 

BCIS has an International Cultural Exchange Center which is called the Ice Box in short. The Ice Box invites artists from all over the world to perform drama, arts and cultural exchange activities at BCIS. It also organizes sports competition and other student activities to provide the platform and opportunities for students to understand different cultures. The Ice Box will also work with Embassies to provide lessons for non-English native speaking students to learn their own native language so that they will not forget their own roots even though they are living in China.

 

BCIS’ students are most happy on 24 October, the International Day. During this day, students, parents and teachers will wear their own national costumes, and perform traditional cultural programs of their home country. Parents bring their country’s local delicacies to t