Just before the start of the school year, teachers were busy arranging their classrooms and organising their new classroom materials. This year, teachers from YCIS Shanghai Regency Park Campus added one more project to their to-do list: painting a large-scale, Shanghai cityscape mural on campus!

Primary Art Teacher, Ms Anita Dai, had the idea to paint the mural along a large wall in the inner courtyard to add even more colour to the school. When explaining the motivation for the mural, Ms Dai said, “I chose the Shanghai skyline because it is a unique and aesthetically exciting feature of this amazing city.” This project ties in well with the learning at YCIS, because, Ms Dai continued, “last year, our students worked on a number of different art projects that involved drawing, painting, and making collages of the distinctive buildings in Shanghai.”

A number of YCIS teachers from a variety of different year levels and specialties volunteered time to pick up a paintbrush and contribute to the painting efforts, showing their tremendous school spirit. Each building in the mural creates its own, unique impression, since each structure was painted by a teacher or a small group of teachers, resulting in different painting techniques. Portraits and a brief introduction of every Regency Park teacher decorate the buildings so that each image is a “window” for parents to get to know the teaching staff. Students were thrilled to come back to the campus and see the beautiful addition to the courtyard, and some have tried to guess which teachers created which part of the painting!

Students at YCIS are provided with an abundance of opportunities to explore and create art: during the normal course of the school day, through fun After-School Activities, and through special art exhibitions. Art plays an important role in developing well-rounded students, who then graduate from YCIS to become well-rounded global citizens. Ms Dai says, “I hope this will help inspire interest in art for all of the children who see it. Since the students will see me continuing to put the finishing touches on it during recess or transition times, they will understand how a piece of artwork progresses. I hope that when they see me make these changes and additions they will understand that when making art its okay to try something, and to even be faced with a problem, and then to continue to strive towards a solution. That is actually part of what art is about: solving problems.”

For students who pass through YCIS, where they receive a global education, including engaging art lessons and experiences along the way, the future is indeed bright, as they become well-equipped to be the leaders of tomorrow.