Under the policies of "double reduction", "transfer of people to public", "diversion of middle school entrance examinations", etc., the most asked questions by parents is the question of school choice - is it good for my baby to study in the public office? Or should I go to an international school? Countless parents are looking for a way out.
In fact, there is no best school in the world, only the most suitable way of education for one's family.
At last week's briefing at Optics Valley Cambridge International High School, Julia's father shared his original choice of mental journey: importing from the exit, allowing children to attend international high schools, so that children have a greater chance of entering the world's famous schools with better teaching resources.
The daughter's frustration in losing the middle exam, to the confidence regained after coming to Optics Valley Cambridge, found love, received cambridge university interview invitations and pre-admission from Imperial College London and University College London... He sighed: "The facts have proved my choice. ”
We recorded Julia's dad's live sharing, hoping to help more parents who their hearts for their children.
Why international schools?
First of all, I analyzed the cruelty of the Hubei college entrance examination. Girl 2019 middle school entrance examination, when I analyzed the 2017-2019 three years Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei the minimum score line is 640 points, while the college entrance examination full score of 750 points, which means that you only have ≤ 15% fault tolerance rate. Choosing an ideal major is even more difficult.
I've always thought that the girl in our family is an ordinary person. In such a fierce competition, going to Tsinghua Peking University is something that I can't think of.
In junior high school, the girl attended Wuluo Road Middle School. At that time, the grade ranking had been stable between 50-200, but it was in the key exam of the middle school entrance examination that we encountered "Waterloo", and we missed the desired provincial experiment, and we completed the procedures for borrowing from the provincial experiment.
However, because of the cruelty of the college entrance examination analyzed earlier, after thinking about it, I am worried that if the girl receives another three years of education in the system, she will imprison her thinking and way of thinking, which is also a burden to the daughter herself.
And the choice of relatives also opens up a new way of thinking for us. Julia had a cousin who was studying at Cambridge in Optics Valley and was later accepted to the University of Toronto, Canada's number one. Through the consultation, we gained insight into more international high schools and optics valley Cambridge.
Julia's cousin Rose, who is currently studying at the University of Toronto
Finally, in the context of the globalization of education, the college entrance examination is no longer the only way out, and studying abroad has increasingly become the choice of more and more people. In the context of the country's discouragement of studying abroad at a young age, studying in a domestic international high school, and then going out to college to study undergraduate, from an economic, security and long-term perspective, I think it is a more correct choice.
Why Optimus Valley Cambridge?
Next, I would like to share with you why I chose or recommended Optics Valley Cambridge to parents.
The first is their grouping. I don't know if you know about Lingke Education Group, but I really did the investigation carefully.
The group has campuses in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Suzhou, and has come to see the Wuhan campus by itself, and has also entrusted colleagues in Shanghai and Guangdong to help me understand and inspect the site, and has received good feedback. Moreover, the results of leading the course every year are very eye-catching, and Niu Jian's admission ranks among the best in China.
△Other campuses of Link Group
Second, Optics Valley Cambridge is a school focusing on A-level courses, certified by cambridge CAIE, Oxford AQA, and Edexcel edexcel.
In recent years, due to changes in the international situation, many people have shifted their study destinations from the United States to the United Kingdom. If you want to go to the UK, in my opinion, it is the British national course, and the A-level course recognized by more than 190 countries and 16,000 universities in the world is the most suitable choice.
The third point is that the personal charm of Principal Han and Teacher Shi attracted me. At that time, I had frequent contact and understanding with Principal Han and Teacher Shi, and I could feel from the dialogue that they were really engaged in education. In a word, people with feelings. This is left to the parents here to contact and experience on their own.
The fourth point is the small class teaching in Cambridge in Optics Valley. In fact, when I first chose a school, I really didn't have much experience. But after the girl read it, I experienced it very deeply.
Why? My stupid idea is that there are fewer students, my girl will get more attention and resources, and there will be more opportunities to communicate with foreign teachers and practice speaking.
On the other hand, the school has two parent-teacher conferences every year. At the parent-teacher meeting, we were able to learn about the girl's situation at school one-on-one and face-to-face with her teachers of various subjects, and the teachers could tell us the small details of the girl's life and learning, such as the number of questions she asked more recently, and she got along better with her classmates. If there are many people in the class, this is basically impossible.
It justified my choice
The above was my consideration when choosing a school at that time, and after the girl enrolled in Optics Valley Cambridge, it turned out that my original choice was correct.
First, this school has a good school spirit and class spirit. Parents here may have a concern: What is the ethos of international schools? Will students compete? Are students not engaged in learning?
But it turns out that this school is really simple.
It has very sound school rules and regulations that tell you what to do and what not to do. Let me give you an example: students must wear uniforms at school, and even the color of shoes is regulated. If you don't wear it, sorry, go back to the dorm room to change, very strict.
And after the evening self-study back to the dormitory, the dormitory is also managed by the dormitory teacher, if the dormitory discipline is violated three times, it will stop for a month. These rules have been strictly enforced, which I agree with.
Second, I think the students in my girl's class are luckier: coming to a reliable school and meeting a responsible class teacher is a dream thing. The students of this school gave me the feeling that they were all struggling with their studies, that they were all studying with peace of mind, and that they had not heard of other messy things.
Such a school spirit and class style must be related to the class teacher. The students in their class callEdsey Teacher Lindsey an old mother, and when they encounter problems, whether they are studying or living, they are willing to communicate with Lindsey's old mother.
Third, Optics Valley Cambridge has a smooth communication platform and communication mechanism. After coming to Optics Valley Cambridge, every week in the parent group, the teacher will make a summary: which students perform well, what students have made progress, and where they need to improve, they will be very clear.
In addition, the school will also hold a regular principal's tea party, which is a face-to-face communication between the principal and parents. Usually, when we hear about our children's feelings in school and want to give advice to the school, we can communicate directly with the principal at the tea party. This mechanism is very sound.
△ Principal's Tea Party
The fourth is the excellent team for further education. This is a little bit that when the girl was in A2 (12th grade), we felt very deeply. School choice suggestions, professional suggestions, document revisions, professional counseling, interview processes, etc., the promotion team is tracked throughout the process. I am really grateful to these responsible and professional teachers.
To sum up, I feel that Optics Valley Cambridge is a very responsible school. Why? To take a simple example, there will certainly be good and bad student performance, and there will certainly be some students with a weak foundation. For this group of students, the school did not say that they would be left to fend for themselves, but organized teachers to open relevant extracurricular tutoring, and customized tutoring courses according to the different situations of students, such as special IELTS sprint lessons, mathematics module tutoring classes and so on.
Usually a teacher only takes 3-4 students and raises the grades of these students point-to-point. This seemed to me to be a bit of a thankless effort, but the school did it anyway.
I was very impressed, that is, at the beginning of the epidemic, when everyone was at a loss, the school invited professional institutions in Shanghai to open a psychological counseling lecture of "Heartside Heart" for everyone for free, and I remember that 8 sessions were held in a row, and the invited were very well-known and professional psychological counselors in Shanghai to talk about family education, emotions and communication. We are deeply touched and comforted by the epidemic.
In addition, the largest group in this school is called the "Parents' Book Club". In the group, there are recommended books every week, and the organizers invite parents to share the books every day. I noticed that this group not only has parents of students in school, but also some parents whose children have graduated for several years are still in this group and actively participate in various activities in the group.
What does this mean? Your child is trying to improve themselves, and parents can't be left behind, which is a school philosophy. We can see that the school has done a lot of seemingly "useless" work, but the educational concept reflected in these work is something that I very much agree with.
The girl in the Optics Valley Cambridge changes
Finally, I would like to talk about the girl's changes in Optics Valley Cambridge. Compared with the schools in the system and the international high schools, the focus of everyone's assessment is really different, and the one thing I feel most deeply is that the teachers in Optics Valley Cambridge are very good at discovering and amplifying the strengths of each student.
I appreciate this very much, such an advantage is to let every student feel the attention of the school, the teacher, this is especially evident in Julia's body, after entering the Optics Valley Cambridge, she gradually lost the middle exam led to the denial of her own slump quickly came out, quickly into a new learning life, people also became cheerful and generous.
Julia said in her New Year's speech: Thank you for keeping me alive
At the same time, the school attaches great importance to the cultivation of students' comprehensive quality. In addition to the necessary courses that require standardized grades, a variety of interest classes and clubs are offered, from the formation of student unions and student bands to a variety of activities.
△ Various competitions and social practice activities organized by the school
My girl used to participate in the school's volunteer teaching activities, hold charity sales to raise funds, and go to Macheng, deep in the Dabie Mountains, during the holidays to teach primary school students there. I think this activity is particularly meaningful, and it is very important for children at their age to establish the right worldview and values.
△ Optics Valley Cambridge students in volunteer teaching
On the other hand, I was glad to see that the girl had found her own love and interest in Optics Valley Cambridge – biology. When she first wanted to make biology her future specialty, Julia was more entangled. Because compared with physics, engineering, and economics, biology is a niche major that is more difficult to apply. The biology class that my girl chose, by the A2nd grade, the whole class was only 5 people, and the school was still running normally.
The teachers at Optics Valley Cambridge have always encouraged her to choose and stick to the professional directions she likes and is interested in, which I think is very rare. Only if you are interested can you persevere in the long life that follows.
Of course, in terms of results, the girl has also achieved very eye-catching results in further education - pre-admission from Imperial College, UCL (University College London), Cambridge University has also passed the interview, and is waiting for the 25th list. And students like my girl are not a minority in Optics Valley Cambridge.
Finally, to sum up my own experience: I don't want to jump at home chickens and dogs, Hedong lions want to get along with their children, play happily, and make efforts to get good results, then choose "Optics Valley Cambridge International High School"!
On the one hand, the burden reduction policy is frequently introduced, and on the other hand, the children compete "under pressure". Whether to choose an international school or not, I believe that every parent has some ideas in mind. However, as the father mentioned, school selection requires rigorous and meticulous examination, and it was only after many visits to the school that he decided to enroll his daughter in Optics Valley Cambridge.
This year, Optics Valley Cambridge's admission results in Hong Kong, China, are very eye-catching, and so far it has received 4 pre-admissions from the University of Hong Kong, 1 interview invitation from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and 3 interview invitations from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Therefore, the school will hold a special session on the planning of Hong Kong's TOP3 universities this Saturday (January 22), where professional teachers will explain the relevant plans for undergraduate study abroad in Hong Kong, and there will also be students who have been pre-admitted to the University of Hong Kong to share. Interested parents can register by private message.