The new KIS International has changed!

Korea International School in Shenzhen got off to a shaky and troublesome start, resulting in a lot of teachers and students leaving the school. The previous management team has all been replaced, and there is a new team of teachers, a new curriculum and a new direction!

I know this first hand as I joined the organisation as the Assistant Principal in September semester of 2007. It was a difficult time as the school was rebuilding and trying to repair the damage done by the previous management team. I came from Australia, without any forewarning of the previous issues, and was quite shocked to hear that many of the bad stories I heard after arriving, were in fact true! When I joined there was a new principal (his name is coincidentally Mr Lee too - the same as the previous one). When I confronted him regarding the horrible stories that I had heard he confirmed that many (not all) were true, and that his mandate was to change the culture and the reputation of the school.

Now I am the Principal! (Mr Lee is now a director of the organisation). We have adopted a completely westernised curriculum, work from 8.20am to 3.35 pm Monday to Friday and have class sizes of under 10 (with a strategy of never having more then 20 per classs). We have adopted Cambridge teaching methodology, teach all academic subjects in English (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, English Literature), and have almost removed Korean language studies from the curriculum! Our focus is English! ESL / Academic / Critical Thinking.

We have also moved to great new premises in Jui Wei. The facilities include a music room, basketball courts, tennis courts, table tennis, track and field oval etc... (much better). We are sharing the premises with another school, so it is not perfect - but it is good. We have yet to invest in a computer room, but intend to in the next semester or so.

Our teachers come from USA, Canada, France, China, Korea, and I come from Australia. They are all experienced academic and ESL teachers and are well looked after (I will not permit there to be any issues). We meet weekly to discuss teaching issues, behaviour issues, ESL issues, develop ideas and strategies to improve our programme, and work very much collaboratively.It is a great team!!!

The school is far from perfect ... yet! But we are seriously working on it, and offer teachers the opportunity to really use thier professional skills.
It can be very challenging to rebuild an organisation after it has developed a bad reputation, but we are committed to it!

If you want to know more then please email me your thoughts and questions to rmason_kis@hotmail.com.

Rob Mason
Principal
KIS International
www.kis.org.cn