Education

As mentioned in the previous Jin Magazine issue which featured the 30 year anniversary of TEDA, one challenge that faced the early development was trying to provide proper education programs for children of expat workers that were posted to new companies in Tianjin. This is still the case for hundreds of foreign families that consider coming to work in Tianjin. Fortunately, there are excellent schools in Tianjin and one option is studying in an international school and we look at two Tianjin schools, International School Tianjin (IST) and Wellington College Tianjin.

The past for IST is over 20 years; having been formed in 1994, IST was established to provide schooling for International students. As in the past, each year the school celebrates UN Day and Earth Day and the annual China Week Spring Festival celebrations. They also had fun with their 2014 school play, Addams Family. IST also provides training for over 250 teachers of Chinese language at their Tianjin campus each year.

Presently, IST is a non-profit organization with a parent board of governors. In concurrence with the earlier environmental focus in this article, IST is proud of their recent installation of a school facility-wide clean air filtration system to ensure that students and staff have clean fresh air throughout the school day. The IST website also has a daily indicator of daily air quality levels.

For the future, the IST is expanding its network of international schools that presently stand at 600. It is noted that in recent years, the enrolment in Tianjin has been flat growth due to a decline of expatriates in Tianjin but the main driver for future growth is increasing numbers of local Chinese students and therefore positive growth is expected in the coming years.

Mr Steve Moody is the principal of IST and is a dual USA and New Zealand citizen having lived in Tianjin for 18 years. (Probably enough to qualify for a tri-citizenship.) His overall impression of Tianjin is it a rapidly developing world-city but in spite of the incredible pace of change, Tianjin retains the heart of a village: friendly, authentic and welcoming.

Wellington has a relatively short past in Tianjin, having opened in 2011 and recently opened a sister school in Shanghai. However, its overseas partner, Wellington College in UK is now over 150 years old, named after the great Englishman, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who is best known for his victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, after his death, the college was founded as a national memorial to him by Queen Victoria.

For 2014, Wellington Tianjin is proud of their successful stage production of the musical, Oliver. For the coming year, they will perform Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance which will be staged on March 16-20, 2015. Wellington will also celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. As for the future, Wellington Tianjin is embarking on a pupil-led initiative based on a Harkness philosophy that was developed in the United States. Wellington is becoming an active member in the Tianjin community and in keeping with the environmental theme; the older students have organized an environmental group to boost recycling opportunities around the school.

The Master or Principal of Wellington in Tianjin is Mr Julian Jeffery, who recently joined the Tianjin school from the sister school in the UK. Having come from England last September, Mr Jeffery and his family have adjusted well and enjoy the new food and surroundings. He likes Tianjin and finds it genuinely a vibrant place to work and live.