At the start of the new school year, our school welcomed the annual supervision visit from the SVS advisory council. The advisory council consists of five members, including the chairman, Mrs. Elizabeth Vallance, the Vice-Chairman Mrs. Gillian Swaine, Headmaster of SVS Mr. Bruce Grindlay, a member of the board, Mr. Andrew Hutchinson and Principal of SVPS Mrs. Claire Corkran. The SVS advisory council take charge of the pre-prep school, preparatory school, secondary school and sixth form. All the members have over 30 years' teaching or management experience.
The advisory council visited the buildings, playground and the refectory, which is currently under construction. They were impressed by the growth of pupils’ number and improvements of the school building. The advisory council observed English classes, Mathematics classes, Science classes, PE classes and Music classes in different year groups both in domestic and international streams and had feedback to the Chinese and international teaching teams afterwards.
As an international school, the unique connection between HIKSVS and Sutton Valence School in England is incomparable by other international projects. We actively promoted exchanges at different levels: meetings and exchanges between the management of the two schools, online and offline teaching interactions between students, students’ immersion such as overseas study and study tours, curriculum development by the teaching teams, and parents’ events.
Another important arrangement of the visit was an information session about the possibility of future study in UK. Mr. Bruce Grindlay explained the application process of studying in the secondary school in Sutton Valence and the advantage policy especially for HIKSVS students. Meanwhile, Mr. Hurst shared his own children's experiences growing up in a boarding school. We hope that in the near future, no matter whether our pupils stay in HIKSVS in Tianjin or go to SVS in the UK for further study, they will have a solid English and academic foundation and be able to cope with various international curriculum and environments, and become highly adaptable individuals.