At the start of the Chinese new year, our school welcomed the annual supervision visit from the SVS advisory council. The advisory council consists of four members, including the Vice-Chairman Mrs. Gillian Swaine, Headmaster of SVS Mr. Bruce Grindlay, a member of the board, Mrs. Jane Davies 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 observed English classes, Mathematics 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. Mrs. Swaine, Mrs. Corkran and Mrs. Davies are very experienced teachers. When they observed lessons, they were very interested in maths teaching in both domestic and international classes. The British method of maths teaching emphasizes practice maths while the Chinese maths lessons focus on calculation speed. When it comes to solving maths problems, there are similarities as well as differences. The advisory council were impressed by the outstanding progress of English our children have made after their last visit in autumn，especially in the area of phonics and reading ability.
Another important arrangement of the visit was an information session about the benefits of a bilingual education at HIKSVS. Mr. Hurst, Principal of HIKSVS, illustrated several benefits of a bilingual education including bilingualism, wider access to opportunities in further education and jobs, community building, high self-esteem, critical and creative thinking, cognitive skills and high academic achievement. Mr. Hurst also shared his own experience about his daughter growing up in a bilingual setting. International education has become not only a trend but a real need for the future. Mr. Grindlay, Headmaster of Sutton Valance School, also witnessed increasing number of Chinese students studying in SVS each year. Many more Chinese students can be seen in British universities like Cambridge and Oxford. Whether our children stay in China or go abroad in the future, a bilingual education will open up a wider world to them.