“Any slowdown in forward momentum offers valuable time for introspection to reset priorities, find fixes, and reimagine the future,” says YCYW CEO and School Supervisor Dr Betty Chan Po-king.

Having just completed week three of e-Learning, we would like to thank our YCIS faculty, parents, and community for their continuous flexibility and support. Although the actual duration that e-Learning may be implemented is tentative at this stage, we are confident our students are in excellent hands with the guidance of our teachers and in the systems we have in place.

It has been very encouraging to see how positively our students have adjusted to e-Learning. YCIS Shanghai continues to seek feedback from our community and persevere in moving forward and with our students’ growth from all angles. Wellbeing has been a priority for us, especially now while students are off-campus and online. So, here are the different ways we continue to put the long-term wellbeing of our students and community as our focus.

🏃 Active

PE Lessons

Scheduled Physical Education lessons at YCIS Shanghai ensure that students are still moving as part of their regular timetable. Topics and tasks go beyond just physical activity and include learning about daily nutritional intake, sleep cycles, and the importance of balancing these essential components to student wellbeing. Additional areas of focus include controlling screen time, physical fitness, relaxation techniques, and exploring current events across worldwide sports to complement our Life Skills programme. Students are expected to come prepared as they would for a regular PE lesson with the YCIS sports uniform and water bottle.

50k Steps Challenge

Staying physically active is essential for our physical and mental health, although challenging when our lives and activities are interrupted by lockdown and classes confined to a screen. In addition to daily Active Kids sessions and PE lessons online, students and teachers in Secondary at YCIS Pudong have taken on a steps challenge to get 10,000 steps a day for at least 50,000 steps from Monday through Friday. Top step counts are celebrated, tips for increasing steps are shared, and students and teachers inspire each other. It has been timely to motivate our community to stay moving during these lockdown spans.

🎨 Creative

Brain Art

YCIS Puxi Visual Art Teacher Mr Emre Ozkurt worked with Secondary students to create mind-blowing visuals at home through Neurographica. Mr Ozkurt explains Neurographica as “an art style which works with the subconscious mind through drawing. This creative method stimulates new neural pathways by combining art and psychology. As the symbolism of their current quarantines, students had to use food juice and other organic items from their home to colour some parts of their paintings.”

Haru Ga Kita

The YCIS Pudong Junior Choir did an outstanding job using their voices and technology for a recording of Haru Ga Kita. In the Junior Choir cross-curricular activity (CCA), students learn about vocal techniques, like dropping their jaw to sing and using the lips, the tongue and the tip of their teeth to enunciate words, which were immensely helpful when syncing their performance with the final mix. The students learned that they need not sing loudly, but pitch and rhythmic accuracy are most important.

This choir project required more technology than usual as we are currently socially distanced and away from the classroom. Luckily at school Ms Connie Chou, YCIS Pudong Regency Park Music Coordinator showed the students the recording studio set-up during Music class. Ms Chou notes how “the students were very interested in the technology side of music and had to use headphones, a microphone, and the GarageBand platform to record their voices in real-time. They saw how I mixed several takes and what sound engineering is like with adding reverb, equalisers, compression, and different editing methods during post-production. All of this sounds complex, but ultimately the students used their experience with Music and Computer courses to build on their already comprehensive skillset.”

🌟 Emotional and Social

PAWesome Pets

Our fuzzy friends have been loyal shoulders to lean on and keep us company while we are at our desks, studying with our screens, and even on our yoga mats! We are thankful for our cats, dogs, and other scaley and feathery companions acting as a source of support and comfort.

Wellbeing Webinar

Staff members across the YCYW organisation tuned in to a special webinar dedicated to wellness to reflect the times. It is natural for people to be experiencing anxiety and stress, therefore our faculty continue to push on as professionals, serving our students in each school. YCIS Puxi Head of Student Support and Child Protection Officer Ms Jana van Zyl arranged for Andrew Fuller, clinical psychologist, family therapist, author, and professional speaker to lead the webinar that focuses on strategies to manage time and energy, and identify ways of promoting personal well-being. Andrew has worked with over 3500 schools internationally and more than 500,000 young people to identify The Resilient Mindset.

Leopard Says…

It has been great to hear the positive language being used and student’s being awarded “homemade” hero tokens or e-High Five cards. Sharing and rewarding positive behaviours we see online during lessons remind the class of our character virtues and award those doing the right thing.

Student Council on Teams

Student Council has made it a priority to represent and support their peers in the e-learning experience. They have provided a platform for students to contact respective peer leaders via scheduled Teams calls to share suggestions or feedback on their e-learning experience. The call is open to talking about anything, but focus on getting student input on how to improve the e-learning experience!

📝 Tips

YCIS Puxi Head of Student Support and Child Protection Officer Ms Jana van Zyl shares her tips on how to use our indoor time to be healthy, get organised, and be productive:

1 Healthy eating

Soups and stews are great comfort food and also provide necessary vitamins and minerals.

2 Exercise

Take up a fitness challenge or practice yoga.

3 Be mindful

Stillness is good for the mind. Take time for mindful moments and write in a journal.

4 Get connected

Make time to video call or voice message friends, colleagues, or someone overseas.

5 Keep a routine

Wake up, get dressed, show up even if it for yourself or your family only.

6 Get organised at home

Spring cleaning and donating items you do not use anymore will make you feel lighter and help others in need.

7 Make a to-do list

Organise your days, plan ahead, delete old emails.

8 Go online

For staff – complete a professional development course or read something new.

9 Get creative

Complete an arts and crafts project.

10 Spend time offline

Read a good book, find a boardgame, finish a puzzle.

The Year 12 students at YCIS Century Park Campus have filmed and edited a video sharing some of their personal strategies to cope with e-Learning. Daniel in Y12C suggests taking the time used to commute to and from school to have a heart breakfast to start the day. Emily in Y12B likes to practice her hobbies and try new things, like cooking! This video was shared to our Primary students and acted as a discussion topic during Class Community Time or Year Level Assembly.

Since YCIS' founding in 1932 many obstacles and challenges were faced that caused each school and campus to grow stronger, and leadership wiser. YCIS Shanghai is thankful for our dedicated teachers and parents, communities coming together, and our local neighbours being incredibly friendly, helpful, kind, and supportive. We look forward to seeing you back on campus soon!