With the new year around the corner, this is a wonderful opportunity to take in and appreciate what we have learned in the first half of the school year. In no particular order, we want to celebrate our students and community for a fabulous Semester One at YCIS Shanghai! 

Amazing Scholarship Opportunities 

We are pleased to acknowledge YCYW's new scholarship programme that intends to recognise and celebrate the highest level of academic achievement, leadership, and service to the school and our community. Universities often recognise the determination and commitment to excellence needed to receive scholarships, and this is an excellent opportunity to stand out in future university applications. 

The award categories underscore our school motto: to Align with Science and Technology, Culture and Arts, Love and Charity.  

For full details, including scholarship selection criteria, procedures, and documents required, please contact our Admissions team at 021-2226 7666.

More Maths Mastery!

Developing critical thinking and analytical skills are at the core of the YCIS Shanghai curricula across all levels, especially in Mathematics classes. Our Maths department encourages students to participate in competitions as an exciting way to challenge logic and problem-solving abilities while exercising a growth mindset.  

In October, more than 200 YCIS students from Years 3 - 13 participated in the prestigious Caribou Cup from Canada, with over 60,000 student participants worldwide.  YCIS Pudong’s Seongwoo won 1st place in the world, while his sister Yeonwoo scored in the top 3% for her contest bracket. 

We would like to congratulate all of our writers and recognise 42 of our students who scored in the top 15% of worldwide results for Round 1 of Caribou. We greatly anticipate our students’ new accolades in 2022! 

Prestigious Top in China Awards for our IGCSE Students 

The Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards recognise the students who attained the highest marks in China and globally in IGCSE examinations through CAIE, part of the prestigious University of Cambridge. 

This year, YCIS Shanghai repeated the successes of years prior, with multiple students receiving awards for their academic prowess. YCIS Puxi student Joyce received the “Top in China” award for English First Language, highlighting the many strengths of our language programmes. Across the river, YCIS Pudong student Daniel was also awarded “Top in China” for Design and Technology. 

YCIS Shanghai students have received awards from Cambridge every year for over ten years, which builds the foundations for success at the IB Diploma. As such, we are tremendously proud of their efforts! 

Launching Expert Parent Webinars

In September, YCYW launched the Parent Webinar Series. Experts provided parents with a deeper understanding of their child's learning experiences and enabled them to better support learning from home, ultimately helping children reach their goals. 

We successfully hosted four webinars with specialists, educators, authors and psychologists who discussed Learning Communities, bully blocking strategies, literacy, and how to prepare our graduates for the future. 

We look forward to the remaining six webinars and sharing the uniqueness of a YCYW experience with our community. 

Students Out of This World at Maker Faire

This year, under the theme Mars: New Frontiers – Exploration and Habitations, YCIS Shanghai showcased a variety of STEAM projects and interactive experiences at the 2021 Shanghai Maker Faire. Our students applied the skills and knowledge learned in class—such as environmental protection and sustainable living—to create STEAM solutions for life on Mars. 

Over 17,000 visitors attended the fair, which started in San Fransisco in 2006, and featured over 60 interactive booths packed full of engaging STEAM-related activities. It was great that our displays were so prominent at this marquee event.   

Our students extracted kiwi DNA and fostered vegetal life in a controlled environment, utilising skills attained in their Biology classes. The booth's visitors roamed with robotic rovers programmed in Computer Science lessons across a Mars terrain imagined by YCIS Shanghai students in their Art classes. 

We are always delighted to see the daily accomplishments of our students in and out of class and look forward to their participation in future STEAM-related events in the new year! 

Founder’s Day: Counting Down to 90 Years 

Because it is so central to our focus on health and wellness, at YCIS we make sport the theme of our Founder's Day each year.  

In October, we saw YCIS Pudong and Puxi students dressed in their respective house colours and participating in a wide range of activities including football, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, golf, archery, cricket, tchoukball, frisbee, tug of war, and many more. 

We also began the countdown to our 90th-anniversary celebration next year, which will certainly be a special one! 

Book and Wellness Week 

As a school, we emphasise the need for academic and emotional balance so that our students can better manage commitments in and outside school. Wellness Week and Book Week are two examples of how YCIS Shanghai prioritises this balance within our community. 

During Wellness Week, we encouraged all students—from K2 to Year 13—to engage in mindful, calm activities and to foster a balanced lifestyle comprised of hard work and intentional leisure. At the same time, the habit of reading also has proven long-lasting benefits for children. We recognised this through our annual 'Book Week' with activities to encourage the love of reading.  

Our educators all engage in activities that develop each child emotionally, academically, and socially. By dedicating time to explore wellbeing and reading with our students, teachers, and parents, we promote the importance and encourage growth in these areas.

Forging New Collaborative Spirit with Inaugural Gala

YCIS Shanghai held its first gala evening on November 20, bringing together students, parents, teachers and alumni. As the first independent international school in Shanghai approved by the Chinese government in 1993, YCIS Shanghai has always followed the school motto to "align with love and charity". The event celebrated this spirit, dedication and compassion of student leaders who have tirelessly served their community. 

The auction portion of the evening received generous support from YCIS parents and partners and featured over 70 items touching upon academics, art, music, sport and travel. The list included the "Principal for a Day" experience, a performance opportunity and master class at Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, and a two-week summer course at the University of Oxford. 

The gala was a huge success due to the help provided by our parent volunteers and staff. We trust that the scholarship recipients will carry our torch far and wide.

Showstopping Performances at our Christmas Concerts 

Christmas is always a highly anticipated time on campus as the halls become a little more festive and the community joyous. Santa Claus made a few special appearances in classrooms from ECE to Secondary, and each campus had its way of celebrating the holiday season as a community. The annual Christmas Concerts are always highly anticipated as students diligently practise to create showstopping performances for peers and parents alike. This year was no exception, with audiences truly wowed by the many spectacles before leaving for the much-deserved winter holiday.

Standout Social EnterpriseHope Beans Coffee 

This year saw the soaring success of Hope Beans, a student-led service-learning initiative meshing invaluable business experience, charity and helping to create a more sustainable environment. Launched in 2019 through a partnership forged by YCIS Shanghai and a coffee entrepreneur in Yunnan, the project has harnessed coffee beans to bring about social change.  

YCIS Shanghai students take on various responsibilities from roles in sales, accounting, photography and journalism, as well as working directly with suppliers to ethically source the coffee beans themselves. 

Delicious Hope Beans are now on cafeteria menus across the five YCIS Shanghai locations as a result of the popular social enterprise co-curricular activity. 

In November, our students set up shop at the Lujiazui Coffee Festival and exceeded ambitious sales targets for the four-day event. They made many new contacts and avenues to explore in growing the business and vision, all while enhancing their knowledge, skills, and experience.  

We cannot wait to see what our students and these magic beans have in store for us in 2022! 

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We look forward to more memorable moments in 2022 from the TEDx + Art Exhibition (click to see the last TEDx and Art Exhibition we had), YCYW ISTA Drama Festival, STEAM Week, YCYW University Festival, Sports Day, Father-Daughter Dance, and International Food and Global Community Week, to name a few.