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RELOCATION SUPPLEMENT

Settling in a new country

RelocationSettling in a new country

Lessons from living in three different Chinese cities

Moving as an individual

Education Stage, not age

How much homework is it reasonable to expect kids

to do?

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By Vela Ganeva

SETTLING IN A NEW COUNTRY

Going back to school is always an exciting period, but when

coupled with a new country and new school, the process can become overwhelming. Whether the family is moving to Shanghai for a temporary work assignment or a whole new life, making an international move with children in tow can seem a daunting task.

To ensure a smooth transition for everyone, parents should tell their children as soon as plans to move are confirmed. Regardless of the reason for the relocation, it’s important to explain, in simple terms, why the move will be a great adventure for the whole family.

Tips for a smooth international move

Here are a few tips for keeping children engaged, happy and secure when the family moves to a new country:

Enroll the children in language classes. They’ll feel more confident if they can speak to and understand the locals, and they’ll adjust faster.

Encourage a sense of discovery and adventure. Spend time deciding together what the family will see and do in the new country.

Prepare as much as possible to become familiar with the new culture and environment.

Be ready for culture shock. Listen to

children’s concerns and look for a way to smoothly resolve them.

Stay connected with family and friends back home. Pictures, emails and letters will help everyone keep in touch.

It’s difficult for kids to move to another country, leaving friends and family behind. Although the transition may take time, living and going to school in a new country has unlimited benefits for children. Being organised and keeping them involved in major decisions will help the international move go smoothly for everyone.

Getting adjusted

Adjusting and settling in might take a little while, especially when the new country is very different from back home. Take it slow and give the new place a chance. Once you’ve adjusted to the new neighbourhood and your house is growing on you, it’ll be time for the kids to start at their new school. Children need patience, as being the new kid is always a bit strange, but the good news in Shanghai is that your children will not be alone, as many new expatriates arrive every year.Little by little, your children will make friends and feel at home in the new city. Maybe they were taking swimming classes back home, so you’ll want to find swimming classes in Shanghai so they can take up where they left off. Or maybe being in a new place will inspire them to try something new – like art classes,

ADJUSTING AND SETTLING IN MIGHT

TAKE A LITTLE WHILE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE NEW COUNTRY IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM BACK

HOME

”football or a new musical instrument. The more your children communicate with other kids and take part in fun activities, the more your new city will feel like home.

Tips for the first few weeks or months at the new school

Talk to your kids. A lot. The first few weeks of school can be challenging and you might find that your child reacts differently than you had expected. Make sure you take the time to talk to them about their experience. Watch for any signs that your child is not adjusting. Ask for one-on-one time with teachers if needed, and resolve any concerns as early as possible.

Grades may change. Be aware that your child’s grades could be affected by the move. Often, grades go down. This can be due to the change in curriculum or teaching styles, or simply because they need time to adjust.

Encourage extra-curricular activities.

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Help your children find clubs and activities they’re keen on, either through school or a community centre.

Encourage sleepovers and play dates. Ask your children about new friends, then call their parents and invite them over for an afternoon or evening. Or volunteer to drive them to the mall or to a movie.

Remember, it’s going to take time. Adjusting to a new home, new school and new friends will take a while; give your child the chance to feel comfortable in their new space. It may even take a few months before things settle. Allow your child (and yourself) that time. And before you know it, you’ll all be feeling a lot more at home.

WHILE IT MAY BE DIFFICULT FOR PARENTS TO BE CLEARHEADED

DURING THE WHOLE RELOCATION AND

SETTLING IN PROCESS, MAINTAINING FOCUS ON THE END RESULT IS

A GREAT HELP

”

Conclusion

While it may be difficult for parents to be clearheaded during the whole relocation and settling in process, maintaining focus on the end result is a great help. An expatriate experience is the opportunity of a lifetime, providing children with unparalleled knowledge, an open mind and a unique opportunity to explore Chinese culture and language. While there may be a few difficult discussions, and undoubtedly some tears, parents need to remember that they are giving their child a gift. Following some constructive strategies such as those suggested above can help you all make the transition from early difficulties to the thrilling experience of relocating abroad.x

Tai Chi in the park

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MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH,

AND THAT WHEREVER POSSIBLE YOU HIRE

PROFESSIONALS TO HELP YOU WITH EVERY STEP OF YOUR RELOCATION

”

– as experienced by a French-Chinese family

THE CHALLENGES OF RELOCATING WITHIN CHINA

I’ve been in China for over 10 years. I first came here as a university student

visiting my expatriate parents, and then as a trainee in an international hotel chain. After that experience, I went back to France for my military service and then moved back to China, where I started working in the hotel industry. It was while working in a hotel in Beijing that I met the person who would become my wife. She was in Beijing studying and was originally from Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province, a city close to Vladivostok.

We’ve been married for eight years and have two boys, aged five and seven. Both were born in Beijing, where my wife and I met, married and lived until the end of 2007. For all of my professional life, I have been working in the service industry. I studied Hotel Management in university and this was naturally the field I chose to work in at the outset. In 2003, a couple of months before the birth of our first child, I switched to working for a moving and relocation company. This change in career was to do with better short-term opportunities as well as the possibility of a more balanced family life.

In the past three years, our family has moved twice within China due to my work. In December 2007, we moved from Beijing to Dalian; and this past summer from Dalian to Shanghai.

Both times we faced different challenges, but perhaps unexpectedly the hardest move has been the one to Shanghai. When we moved to Dalian, I had spent eight years in Beijing, and my wife nearly a decade. While we both considered Beijing our home, it was also a very stressful and polluted city, so that when I had the opportunity to take an assignment in Dalian, I jumped at it. Although we had expected that it would be difficult to adapt to life in Dalian (after all we were moving from China’s capital to a developing second-tier city with only a few hundred expatriates), we found that it was much easier than we had thought it would be. Our kids were both in kindergarten and we were able to live in downtown Dalian, but in a townhouse on top of a hill. Their school was directly across from our house so we were able to walk them to school. The beaches were less than 10 minutes away by car and almost everything in Dalian is 10-20 minutes away. The people were also very welcoming and made our integration easier. Having decided early on that our children would go to Chinese schools also made this transition easier, as we were able to choose between a number of schools, rather than just two if we had decided on an education in English.

By this spring we were seriously

considering moving out of that house due to maintenance issues, but right at the beginning of the summer we were offered the chance to move to Shanghai and we decided to take the plunge and move back to a bigger city, as this offered better career prospects as well as more choices for the kids’ education. Here are some of the challenges we have faced in moving from Dalian to Shanghai.

The challenge of moving back to the big city

Although Dalian has a population of six million and an urban population of over two million, it’s a smaller city by Chinese standards and certainly has that feel. One of the challenges in moving back to a city like Shanghai after three years in Dalian has been to

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get used again to the hectic lifestyle in Shanghai, as well as the traffic and the crowds. Anyone who’s never been to Dalian may assume that living in Shanghai is easier, as there are more ‘comforts’ here, but this has not been our experience so far. Although it’s true there are many options when it comes to going out, shopping and schooling, the key difference with 10 years ago is that most of these are also available in Dalian, albeit with a much more limited range of choices. At the same time, it should be noted that due to the scale of Dalian, this limited range of services is very easily accessible.

Useful tip: In order to avoid a shock to our system, we decided that we would have to live close to where our kids went to school, as well as close to where I worked, to minimise commuting time. The result is that our kids have settled in quite nicely, although we were not able to find schools within walking distance.

Schooling

Finding the right school for our children was an extremely difficult and

frustrating process upon moving to Shanghai. Whereas our kids attending a local school made things easier in our previous move, this time around it actually made things harder. The commute in Shanghai is much more of an issue, and local schools in general do not run school buses. Being able to collect information about the better schools and the enrolment process is also quite difficult. In the end, Enzo’s enrolment in a second-grade class at a school not too far from where we wanted to live was still relatively straightforward, but required a pre-arrival trip. Eric’s enrolment in a local kindergarten was far more challenging. We thought he had been accepted in a school, only to be told on the first day of the year that he no longer fit their requirements. To this day, we do not know the real reasons behind his sudden rejection. We were able to find him a school two weeks into the school year, but it was a painful process, mostly due to the fact that kindergarten is not mandatory and therefore you cannot appeal to any jurisdiction for kindergarten admittance issues. We also found

that every district and every school have different procedures and requirements for admittance and that few communicate what these are. Although we are now quite happy with the schools our kids are attending, we did not enjoy the process and would advise anyone relocating to Shanghai and aiming to put their kids in a local school to arm themselves with patience.

Useful tip: Do your research in advance and make schooling the number one priority of any pre-assignment trip, as this is possibly the most difficult choice to be made when moving to a new destination.

Transportation challenges

This has been one of the biggest day-to-day annoyances of life in Shanghai so far, even though we have worked at keeping commuting to a minimum. On this front, life in Dalian was heaven: taxis are plentiful at all times of the day and traffic relatively fluid if you drive yourself. My wife and I both like driving, but we are quickly finding that Shanghai is not a city where driving is enjoyable. On the whole,

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we have not found traffic to be too much of a problem, as we do not have a long commute, but parking has been a major issue. It’s incomprehensible that one could design a city this large with so little thought and emphasis on where to park. Traffic restrictions have had little impact on us, even though we still have a Beijing-registered car, simply because we’ve chosen to be in a situation where we don’t have to go on elevated urban highways during rush hour. We found, however, that keeping our car and shipping it down to Shanghai was more challenging than when we did the same thing from Beijing to Dalian, and we would advise wherever possible to avoid it. There are three main reasons for this: traffic restrictions for waidi cars; the difficulty of doing official technical inspections in a city other than that in which the vehicle is registered; and rules regarding insurance claims and reimbursement.

Useful tip: If you still choose to relocate a car within China, look carefully at the cost of buying a new insurance policy at your new destination, since according to current regulations any damage assessment must be done in the city where the insurance policy was originally taken out.

Shipping a pet

One of the most stressful moments of this relocation was shipping our cat. We opted to take him on the same flight as us as accompanied luggage,

and confirmed everything with the airline in advance. Amazingly, Juneyao Airlines does not charge for pets. However, although we arrived, as advised, three hours in advance at the airport and had gone through the quarantine inspection the day before, we were in for a stressful experience. We were told by ground services that our flight could not accommodate our cat due to a lack of pressurized cargo hold. It turned out that someone at Dalian airport ground services was making this up, but clearing up this misunderstanding took over an hour and would have been much more difficult if my wife had not been Chinese.

Useful tip: Make sure to check all procedures in advance with both the airport and the airline, to arrive very early and to keep in mind that pet shipments out of smaller airports are not common in China and you should be prepared for the unexpected.

Do not underestimate domestic cultural differences

Shanghai is the most difficult city to relocate to in China for non-Shanghainese. The first difficulty faced by most Chinese people relocating to Shanghai is the local dialect, coupled with the lack of warm welcome for outsiders from other regions of China. This is not to be underestimated, as it can make it more difficult for a Chinese person to relocate than for a Westerner. Having been brought up as

an expat, I don’t have a home town and find it normal to move every few years, even if this means not seeing my family often or having to lose sight of some friends. My wife finds this much more difficult, and as a result we are more careful to make sure that she has the opportunity to stay in touch with her friends and relatives and be able to visit or be visited by them. Of course technology also makes it easier to stay in touch, but face-to-face contact should not be neglected.

Useful tip: You may want to consider taking a cross-cultural training course when moving domestically, to make sure you’re as prepared as possible. Also, make sure your spouse is completely onboard with your move and that you address all their concerns, as their quick adaptation can be the key to the success of your relocation.

In conclusion, we are quite happy we made this move, as we believe it will benefit us in the long run, but we are still in the adaptation phase and in the process of getting used to a much more complex metropolis! If you’re in a similar position in the future, then we can only advise you to make sure you do your research, and that wherever possible you hire professionals to help you with every

step of your relocation. x

Crowded Chinese Bus Station

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By Thomas Coupat

BOUNCING AROUND

I’ve lived in China for over 10 years and spent the early years of this

experience in Beijing. I’m originally from France and first came here as a student. It was in Beijing that I met my wife, that we married and that our two sons were born. We came to think of Beijing as our home away from home, and enjoyed what life had to offer in that wonderful city.

In 2003, I started working in the relocation and moving industry, and I still do today. For the first four-plus years working in that field, I was content to see other people (mainly my clients) move, but having grown up an expat kid I wasn’t in that much of a hurry to move again. In the fall of 2007, however, I was given the opportunity to move to Dalian for a project and I jumped at it. We made the decision to take the assignment, as it would allow us to live in a better environment, but also a more professionally challenging one.

In August last year, as the project I was working on had come to an end, I was offered and accepted a position in Shanghai. While we are still settling in, here are the lessons that we’ve

learnt over the last few years and our three moves.

The first-tier versus second-tier story.

While most people expect that it’s more difficult to live in a second-tier city than in a city like Beijing or Shanghai, this was not generally our experience. Things have changed a lot in the last few years and Dalian now has good shopping and a couple of international schools, and its smaller size means that it’s easier to navigate. We also found that there was none of the big city indifference to foreigners that may be the case elsewhere. The local expat community is also, by virtue of its small size, quite easy to integrate into, and it’s therefore easy to meet people. Overall, we found the immediate settling-in in Dalian easier than in Beijing or Shanghai.

Preparation is key.

Knowing what you’ll be getting yourself into and what kind of place you’re moving to is really important. Preparing yourself and your family prior to any move is paramount. While children should not be neglected,

THE KEY IS IN FACT THE TRAILING SPOUSE, AND IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY’RE PREPARED

AND FULLY ONBOARD WITH THIS IMPORTANT

CHANGE.

”especially if they’re teenagers, they’re not the key when it comes to getting prepared. The key is in fact the trailing spouse, and it’s very important to make sure that they’re prepared and fully onboard with this important change. As part of the preparation, it’s important to ensure that they have a say in the decision. I also advise that you take a pre-decision or pre-arrival orientation trip to make sure that you and your family make an informed decision. This is a service that you should insist your employer provide, since it will help you find out whether or not you are all happy with the move.

LESSONS FROM LIVING IN THREE DIFFERENT CHINESE CITIES

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Get professional assistance.

Any relocation is tough. Whatever the motivation and the potential rewards, you are uprooting your life and that of your family when moving, and it’s important to ensure that you make that transition as stress-free as possible. Making sure that your stuff is moved by a quality mover, your visas are handled properly and that you have someone to guide you through the orientation, home finding and school search processes is extremely important and should not be underestimated. There are a number of vendors that provide some or all of these services and I encourage you to do your research (online and by asking friends) and to go with someone who understands your goals and with whom you feel comfortable, since after all they’ll be responsible for the quality of your settling-in experience. If you don’t feel comfortable with a choice imposed by your employers as to whom will assist you, then I advise you to outline your concerns early on to make sure that you’re heard.

Insurance.

Things break! The best moving companies out there mitigate the risks by training their staff and making sure only the best forwarders and materials are used, but risk can never be eliminated, so protect yourself. I have been pretty lucky in my last two moves as I had almost no problems, but I was in both cases still happy to have been insured against damages. In my move from Beijing to Dalian,

the water tank of my expresso maker broke; this was the only damage in a shipment of 56 cubic metres and a car. Still, it was still reassuring that even for that small item I was covered, and that most importantly I would have been covered in the event of greater damage.

Vehicles and pets are complicated.

Moving pets and vehicles is complicated for different reasons. If you are considering moving either then make sure you do your research. If you’re moving a car to another city then find out about the restrictions on transferring insurance, traffic restrictions for cars without local number plates and the inspections that all cars have to undergo per the law. You may find out that your insurance policy does not cover you nationwide; or that in some cases you’re still covered, but claims have to be made in the city where you bought the policy and transferring registration between cities is difficult and costly. Also, if you’re moving a car within China make sure that the loading and unloading points are well equipped with loading bays at the right height.

Pet transport in China also requires research in order to make sure that you know where and when to get health certificates issued, and how to book space. I advise moving your pet within China by having them travel with you as accompanied luggage, meaning you’re on the same flight. This will

reduce the risk, but you still need to be prepared for the unexpected. In Beijing and Shanghai, the procedures are pretty set and the airport is used to transporting pets. In a city like Dalian, it’s a lot tougher to pin down the actual regulations and even harder to divine if the quarantine officers will be on duty at the airport on the day of your flight. From 2007 to 2010, one of the services I supervised for my employer in Dalian was pet transport. As such, I advised everyone to prepare a health certificate. While this is technically required, when it came to our own flight it wasn’t even looked at. We arrived at the airport three hours early per airline guidelines and found the right place to check in. The clerk then told us that she had just been informed by ground services that the airline had changed plane models and our cat could not come with us. After contacting the airline and confirming that the plane had not been changed and that they were still willing to honour our booking, it still took my wife over an hour to convince ground services and quarantine officers to let us take him with us. In the end they called back to the check-in desk and waved him through without ever checking the documentation. As I said earlier, prepare for the unexpected!

While living in these three cities has taught us a lot more than this, the five points above are the key lessons we’ll bear in mind when we next move. Hopefully not too soon… and maybe back to Beijing! x

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”

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ONE COMMONLY OVERLOOKED

FACTOR IN FINDING FRIENDSHIPS CAN

BE YOUR CHOICE OF NEIGHBOURHOOD

”There are few things that compare to the excitement of moving

abroad. Nevertheless, it can be a daunting and stressful process, and while those moving abroad alone don’t have the responsibilities of a spouse or family, they can be faced with other challenges. So if you’re moving overseas by yourself, there are certain steps that can be taken to ensure a smooth transition.

It goes without saying that you should thoroughly research your location before you consider moving. Try to visit your destination at different times of year in order to gain a more realistic picture of what living there would be like; for example, summer resorts can be deserted during winter months. When there, try to build up a picture of what your day-to-day life would be like by doing routine things like visiting the local supermarkets and shops, as this will help build a more accurate image of how your life overseas may be.

Making friends is often the prime concern of people moving alone, and there are various steps which can reduce the stress of finding new friendships. Expat Internet forums can provide a great wealth of information. By chatting to like-minded people, many of whom will have been in a similar situation, you can often get useful advice and even develop friendships before you arrive at your destination.

It’s also a good idea to research recreational activities in the local area. If you’re a keen sportsperson (or perhaps just fancy your hand at trying something new), joining a local sports club or gym can be a great way of making new friends. If sport doesn’t appeal to you, there are plenty of other ways to meet people, whether through volunteering for a local charity, attending events in your area or hosting coffee mornings or weekly book clubs. By continuing your existing hobbies in your new location

you’re likely to expand your social network, and this can also be a great way to establish a sense of routine and familiarity in your new lifestyle.

One commonly overlooked factor in finding friendships can be your choice of neighbourhood. There are obviously a huge number of factors that will influence your choice of new home, such as where you end up working and what your budget is. However, certain neighbourhoods may be better situated for singles; for example, there may be limited opportunities to meet like-minded people if you live in a family neighbourhood. That said, given the importance of finding the right property for yourself, this should only be taken as one of many factors when deciding where to live.

If you’re moving to a country where English isn’t the first language, it’s advisable to enrol in a language course beforehand. Where possible, try to

build up some basic knowledge before you move, as this should make it far easier to engage with people upon arrival in your new country. Even if you can only say some basic greetings in the language, your efforts are bound to be appreciated. Once you’ve arrived, try to use your language skills in your new location, and if necessary improve on these skills by enrolling in a local course. Again, this can be a great way to meet others who may also be new to the area and looking for a friend.

Meeting people in a new place can be hard at first, but the best bit of advice is to be bold and take the initiative to strike up conversations. x

By Expat Essentials

MOVING AS AN INDIVIDUAL

Beijing traffic at night

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IN FACT, THAT’S WHAT TRAVELLING IS REALLY ABOUT. SOMETIMES ALL IT TAKES IS AN UNEXPECTED MOMENT – A

SNAPSHOT OF DAILY LIFE – TO BRING A TRIP INTO FOCUS.

”trip. The students were very serious about their work, and thoughtful about why they were doing it; but they also managed to have a tremendous amount of fun.

That atmosphere started at the top. It was established by the teachers, and my colleagues and I supported it in every way we could. The teachers did this by constantly reminding the students why they were in Guizhou, though this took the form of discussions rather than lectures. For example, a few hours after teaching in the school the students had a bit of free time. Some of them wanted to take the basketball they’d used earlier at the school for a pick-up game. The teacher shook his head, reminding the students they weren’t in the village to play basketball and that interacting with their host families or writing a journal entry would be a much more worthwhile activity. The students handed over the basketball. I watched this interaction, impressed. It might not seem like a big deal to let the students have a game or two, but that would have been a wasted opportunity to do something more meaningful with their very limited time in Guizhou. The teacher recognised that because the purpose of the trip never left his mind.

As the tour leaders on the trip, my colleague Sarah and I were there to help support the school’s mission, with ample help from our expert local guide, Jacky. We did our best to help communicate the needs of the

As a middle and high school student on the east coast of the

United States, my idea of educational travel was defined by school trips to New York, Washington, DC and YMCA camps in Massachusetts, always highlights of the year.

Of course, we were thrilled at the prospect of a couple of days with no classes, but the teachers’ goals for these trips were a bit more ambitious. They wanted to push us out of our comfort zones, encourage us to bond with classmates we passed wordlessly in the halls and expose us to history, culture and current affairs outside the classroom. That meant high ropes courses and orienteering at the camps, tickets to a Broadway show and tours of the United Nations building, the Met and the DC war memorials.

Now, as a member of the Education and Non-Profit Team at WildChina, I find myself constantly revisiting my concept of educational travel. I do think that educational trips should foster class bonding, cultural understanding and stretching personal limits, but I’ve realised that these things are seeded by a simpler idea. From my experiences leading trips around China for international high school groups, I believe the key to successful educational travel can be summed up in one word: purpose.

Purpose, to me, means having a theme and a focus, knowing what you hope to achieve out of the activities and sites

on your itinerary and encouraging students to reflect on the trip as it unfolds. Why are you travelling? What can you learn here that you can’t learn at home? How are you going to change after you leave this place? With this mindset, everything else falls into place.

This past autumn, I worked with an educator from Hong Kong who expertly maintained the focus of his 20 high school students during a community service trip in Guizhou Province. We spent three days in Baibi Village, an isolated Miao community outside Kaili in eastern Guizhou. We were there to think about what community really means. This spirited and driven group of students built a concrete retaining wall around the edge of a rice paddy, paving the way for the creation of a new fish pond – a crucial food source in a place where protein is in short supply. They also spent time in the village’s primary school teaching English vocabulary, basketball skills and songs to local children.

The students lived in very basic conditions with local villagers and worked hard during the day, diligently plotting out a curriculum to use at the school and finishing the entire retaining wall (they’d only been expected to build a portion). That was impressive enough; what stayed with me after I came back to Beijing, however, was the balanced, meaningful and consistent tone of the

LEARNING ON THE JOBWHAT MAKES EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL EDUCATIONAL?

By Devin Corrigan, WildChina

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After the trip, I got an email from the teacher. He’d begun to review the students’ journal entries, and the recurring theme was the crucial relationship between one’s happiness and one’s connection with the local community. From my perspective, our time in Guizhou was everything an educational trip was supposed to be. The students pushed their limits and surprised themselves; they learned about Miao culture; and they got to know each other better. And thanks to the various components of our trip’s consistent mission, planned or not, to learn about community, the students found that they’d learned a bit about themselves, too. x

mixture of Mandarin and Miao dialect, she explained to Jacky why she was so content.

Jacky told us she was happy about the sunny weather and our presence in the village. Jacky, who is half-Miao, then explained that she was about to start singing: “Miao people have to sing to show they are happy!”

Right on cue, she closed her eyes, tilted her head back and broke into a slow croon that might have seemed mournful if not for the smile still spread across her weathered face. Students, teachers and villagers alike stood motionless as she sang, and when she had finished she distributed bags of sunflower seeds as gifts. For all we had heard and experienced of the famously friendly Miao community, nothing brought it home like the infectious elation of this village elder.

village to the group, so the students understood that what they were doing had a true impact. We also put a high priority on organising everyone’s time in a way that encouraged a balance of service, fun and reflection.

This sense of purpose is something that began with a lot of planning, well before the day we arrived in Guizhou. Just as important, however, is being ready to embrace the moments you can’t prepare for; in fact, that’s what travelling is really about. Sometimes all it takes is an unexpected moment – a snapshot of daily life – to bring a trip into focus.

After the students had put the finishing touches on their fish pond project and we had gathered on the road to depart, an elderly Miao woman approached our group with a giant smile on her face. Using a

Harrow International School 6th Form Malaysia

expedition

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THE PROCESS OF STARTING A NEW

SCHOOL IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY CAN BE

DISCONCERTING AND DISORIENTATING

”

By Mark AngusPrincipalThe British International School

STAGE, NOT AGE

International school learners: who are they? A fundamental and

seemingly straightforward question, but nevertheless one that repays closer inspection if we are to better understand how pupils are best served in an international learning environment.

While young people all over the world are required to confront any number of pressures that their parents and grandparents didn’t have to face, it also seems that international school pupils – in addition to the normal problems of childhood and adolescence – face a range of challenges that are unique to them and which may have an impact on their learning, putting them under even greater strain than their home country counterparts.

THE ISSUES FACING INTERNATIONAL LEARNERS

Consider, for instance, the sort of transitions that many international school pupils undergo:

• leaving a familiar home

• leaving an existing school

• leaving a network of friends

• moving to a country where the language, culture, media and food may be unfamiliar and challenging

• being without extended family support groups

• perhaps leaving well-loved pets or toys

• restricted play or sporting facilities

• personal security issues

Any of the above could have an effect on the most resilient of children (or adults, for that matter), but for those who have not developed sufficient coping skills and strategies, the process can be overwhelming.

Consider also the types of home environments international learners may experience:

• separation for extended periods of time due to work

• limited social interaction with people outside the family

• a sense of physical isolation

• a learner’s parents may not speak English, meaning they mix socially only in communities who don’t use English

These are the sorts of circumstances in which international learners frequently find themselves. The

process of starting a new school in a foreign country can be disconcerting and disorientating enough, but when we consider all that pupils have to contend with, often at a very young age, it looks to be an extremely difficult task to support them, to help them to learn and to assist them to function in a relatively ‘normal’ way.

Western Academy of Beijing Students

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Teachers are not necessarily bound by rules that say topic X must be taught in Year 3, or skill Y in Year 7. Rather, teaching and learning programmes can be modified to build on an individual pupil’s previous learning and skills, and can then be used to develop attainable, personalised targets that enable pupils to make clear and measurable progress. In such a scenario, teaching and learning is driven by an understanding of what pupils need to know how to be able to do, rather than simply what they need to know.

THE BENEFITS OF STAGE, NOT AGE

This helps international learners in a number of ways. Firstly, teachers have clear guidelines when getting to know and assessing new pupils on the competencies and skills they’re looking for. They seek to place each pupil within one of the eight level descriptors described above, noting as they do particular areas of strength and weakness. This is important, as the school records that accompany international pupils do not always provide such information, or are simply unavailable. Similarly, for highly mobile families, pupils may start at new schools often and so the interruptions to their learning need to be minimised as much as possible.

Following on from this, teachers are then able to use the information gained from initial assessments to

The task becomes even more daunting when practical, school-related issues are also addressed. For instance:

• in international schools, pupils may not be entirely competent or confident in the language of instruction

• families may not understand the underlying principles of the system in which they have enrolled their children

• pupils and parents may be undecided as to the tertiary education system they wish to follow

• pupils may have large gaps in their knowledge as a result of frequently moving or transferring from one system to another

• pupils may have difficulty adapting to different teaching styles, school organisation systems and expectations

Therefore, the degree to which international learners need to be supported in their learning is probably even greater than in a home country environment. If this is the case, international schools should aim to provide a system of learning and teaching that takes into account the myriad factors above, while also providing the means for accurate assessment, setting clear targets for pupils to work towards and designing

programmes of study based on an individual’s strengths and the areas they need to develop.

HOW THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CURRICULUM WORKS

For these reasons, the English National Curriculum has proved to be a valuable and robust system for providing international learners with the right sort of challenges and support. Its greatest strength in this respect is that it operates on the basis of Stage, Not Age.

Subjects in the National Curriculum are divided into 8 levels of attainment (1 being the lowest, 8 the highest), and each level contains a number of key skills or competencies that pupils are required to attain.

In the core subjects of English, Maths and Science these 8 levels are divided into a further 3 sub-levels which are classified in ascending order as c, b, a (2b is higher than 2c, 2a higher than 2b and so on). This nomenclature is used to indicate a pupil’s security within that level. A pupil with a level of 2c has attained some of the competencies within that level but not all, while a pupil at 2a has achieved all or almost all of those competencies.

The emphasis on key skills and competencies means that there is a great deal of flexibility in how pupils are assessed and then taught, which is essential in an international school.

Harrow International School Beijing Chinese New

Year Celebrations

16 GOING GLOBAL EDUCATION

pat essentials xe

THE PROCESS OF STARTING A NEW

SCHOOL IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY CAN BE

DISCONCERTING AND DISORIENTATING

”

ascertain what is required to fill in the gaps in a pupil’s learning easily and effectively. This means that time is not wasted by teachers trying to get a handle on what new pupils already know. This is extremely important in the international school sector. A glance at the enormous and varied list of countries that pupils come from in a large international school tells us that expecting homogeneity is pointless. Year 6 will not be the same in the US as in Germany, Norway or Saudi Arabia. A Year 9 student from Australia will have studied different topics than their classmates from Belgium, Thailand or Korea.

This is why the National Curriculum and its focus on competencies is so useful and effective. It allows schools to describe in useful and practical terms pupils’ abilities and to delineate in detail the skills that they possess. It’s very clear, for instance, what skills a pupil who has attained a level 5a in Maths has. This information, because it’s clear and easy to understand, is also readily transferrable and helpful right across the world, irrespective of the system in which a pupil is learning. In an international school context, where families are highly mobile, being able to understand pupils’ abilities and skills quickly is extremely valuable.

In addition, the National Curriculum allows pupils to be put into class groups appropriate to their age, irrespective of their previous learning. This is extremely important in the international sector, where there are so many mitigating factors that might prevent a pupil automatically being at the same place in their learning journey as other pupils of the same age. Experience has shown that pupils are able to settle more quickly in a new school if they are with peers of their own age, even if their learning experiences to date do not entirely correspond.

National Curriculum levels also mean that it’s easy to identify where pupils need to be supported in their learning, or alternatively where they need to be extended. Pupils with English as a second language can learn alongside native speakers, for instance, or pupils who have studied geography in and about different countries can nevertheless work together with others with different knowledge when the focus is more on developing their key skills. This is possible because of the National Curriculum’s

adaptability and the importance it places on Stage, Not Age. Pupils are given the opportunity to develop the competencies appropriate for them as individuals, given the skills they have already acquired, and these are not defined solely by the year group they’re in. Very effective teaching can then be designed around this principle of personalisation; a common sight in a successful international school is pupils of the same age working alongside each other at very different stages of their learning journeys.

The focus on skills also means that units of work can easily and effectively be adapted for local circumstances. For instance, the History curriculum requires pupils to learn and develop a series of competencies, but it does not prescribe the historical periods, personages or politics they should study. This means that programmes of study can be made more relevant to local history and events, or to a particular class group, which in turn creates more relevant and engaging programmes of study.

A further benefit is that using the National Curriculum effectively in an international school requires imaginative, thoughtful and resourceful teachers able to adapt what they teach and the way they teach it to suit the requirements of the pupils in front of them. International school teachers often bring very different types of professional and life experience to the classroom, and these factors, combined with the demands of the National Curriculum, mean

that the international school teacher is often more flexible, more creative and more able to personalise learning than their home-based counterparts may be. (An excellent example of how this may be done can be found in Family Matters Issue 7, where Katherine Norris, a teacher of English and Literacy in Shanghai, describes how she personalises learning for pupils with different backgrounds, experiences, skills and knowledge in an international setting.)

Therefore, while the National Curriculum is very much a product of the English educational system, and was originally designed for use in schools in England and Wales, it has many qualities that make it eminently suitable to be used as the basis for programmes of study in international schools all over the world. It is flexible, provides good assessment tools and describes pupils’ skills and competencies in clear terms that can be understood anywhere, which is extremely useful for the mobile, international pupil. x

Beijing City International School Campus

Western Academy of Beijing graduates

18 GOING GLOBAL EDUCATION

pat essentials xe

MOST WOULD ARGUE THAT DOING HOMEWORK IS ONE OF THE MAIN WAYS IN WHICH CHILDREN CAN ACQUIRE THE

SKILL OF INDEPENDENT LEARNING.

”

By Mark Angus

ASSIGNMENT OVERLOAD

Schools in general take the view that homework can make an

important contribution to children’s progress in school. A good, well-managed homework programme helps children and young people to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful lifelong learning. Homework also supports the development of independent learning skills and provides parents with an opportunity to take part in their children’s education. Homework is important at all stages of education and, when used properly, challenges pupils and ensures that their teaching time is used to maximum effect.

Homework can be defined as anything children do outside the normal school day that contributes to their learning, in response to guidance from the school. Homework encompasses a whole variety of activities instigated by teachers and parents to support the children’s learning. For example, parents who spend time reading stories to their children before bedtime are helping with homework.

Why do homework?

Most schools would acknowledge that the educational experience they can provide by themselves is limited by the time and resources available; children can therefore benefit greatly from the complementary learning that they engage in at home. Homework

is thus seen as an important example of cooperation between teachers and parents. One of the aims of schools is for children to develop as independent learners, and most would argue that doing homework is one of the main ways in which children can acquire the skill of independent learning.

Most schools believe that homework makes the greatest contribution to learning when:

tasks are carefully planned and structured to support progression in learning as part of the school’s schemes of work;

there is a well structured homework timetable so that the workload is appropriately balanced and everyone – teachers, pupils and parents – knows what to expect each week;

pupils and parents are clear about what is expected of them in relation to the completion of homework, and parents are treated as partners in their children’s learning;

there are high expectations of pupils completing homework.

The purpose of homework

The purpose of homework for primary age pupils should include:

•developing and sustaining an effective partnership between school and home;

• enabling pupils to make maximum progress in their academic and social development;

• consolidating and reinforcing skills and understanding, particularly in literacy and numeracy;

• enabling all aspects of the curriculum to be covered in sufficient depth;

•providing educational experiences not possible in school;

• consolidating and reinforcing the learning done in school, and allowing pupils to practise skills taught in lessons;

HOW MUCH HOMEWORK IS IT REASONABLE TO EXPECT KIDS TO DO?

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GOING GLOBAL EDUCATION

• encouraging pupils, as they get older, to develop the confidence and self-discipline needed to study on their own, and preparing them for the requirements of secondary school.

For secondary age pupils, further purposes include:

•helping pupils develop the skills of an independent learner;

• allowing pupils to organise and prioritise their work;

•providing opportunities for extended project and/or research work (including examination coursework);

• sustaining the involvement of parents in their child’s learning and keeping them informed about the work they’re doing.

Types of homework

In most schools, staff and pupils regard homework as an integral part of the curriculum, and as such it is planned and prepared alongside all other programmes of learning. Pupils will usually be set a variety of different

homework activities appropriate to their age group.

In Foundation Stage and at Key Stage 1, children might be: given books to take home and read with their parents; asked to learn spellings or mathematical tables; asked to talk about a topic at home prior to studying it in school; asked to find and collect things that are then used in science lessons; asked to take home work that they have started in school.

Key Stage 2 pupils will usually be expected to complete homework tasks more independently. Literacy, numeracy and science homework is set more frequently and regularly, and the aim of such homework is generally to consolidate and reinforce the learning done in school through practice at home. At this time, homework is also used to ensure that prior learning has been understood and for helping children to revise for tests.

In Key Stages 3 and 4, and at IGCSE and IB, homework tasks are set which encourage independent learning, consolidate classwork, encourage the practice of new skills, involve research

and have as an endpoint extended pieces of work such as project or coursework.

How much homework?

As they move through the school, the amount of homework a pupil is expected to do will usually increase. There are of course no hard and fast rules, and these amounts will vary depending on the school, the subject and from teacher to teacher, but nevertheless the following may serve as a useful guide:

Years 1 and 2 1 hour per week, consisting of reading, spelling and other literacy and number work

Years 3 and 41.5 hours per week, consisting of literacy and numeracy as in Years 1 and 2, with occasional assignments from other subject areas, including simple research and project work

Years 5 and 630-45 minutes per day, based on a regular weekly schedule or homework timetable, with continued emphasis

Beijing City International School Students

20 GOING GLOBAL EDUCATION

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THERE ARE MANY WEBSITES CONTAINING HIGHLY EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL WHICH CAN

HAVE A POWERFUL EFFECT ON CHILDREN’S

LEARNING

”it in their own words. Pupils are not achieving anything worthwhile by merely downloading and printing out something that has been written by somebody else, particularly if they do not understand it.

There are many websites containing highly educational material which can have a powerful effect on children’s learning. School websites and Moodle sites also provide links to sites which support children’s learning, as well as containing their own valuable collection of relevant and age-appropriate resources. x

Parents can support their children by:

•providing a peaceful, well-ventilated and well-lit working space at home which is clear of distraction and where pupils can complete their homework;

• enabling their child to visit other places where homework can be done, e.g. libraries, IT centres or places for field work;

•discussing the work that their child is doing and making it clear that they value homework and support the school;

• encouraging pupils and praising them when they complete homework;

• expecting deadlines to be met and checking that they are.

Is using the Internet homework?

The use of ICT and the Internet has made a significant contribution to the amount of reference material available at home, and the ease and speed of gaining access to it. Nevertheless, your child’s teachers will expect them to produce their own work, perhaps by editing something they have found or by expressing

on literacy and numeracy but ranging more widely over the curriculum

Years 7 and 8 45-90 minutes per day, based on a regular weekly schedule or homework timetable, providing sufficient study time in each discrete subject

Year 91-2 hours per day, based on a regular weekly schedule or homework timetable, providing sufficient study time in each discrete subject

Years 10 to 13 1.5-2.5 hours per day, based on a regular weekly schedule or homework timetable, providing sufficient study time in each discrete subject

How to help with homework

Parents have a vital role to play in their child’s education, and homework is an important part of this process. Schools always want parents to encourage their children to complete the homework tasks that are set, so often suggest that parents help their children as and when they feel it to be necessary, and provide them with the sort of environment that allows children to do their best.

Dulwich College Beijing Student

Dulwich College Beijing Students compete in Brunei