Uniquely YOUniquely BCIS 

It’s an exciting time to be a BCISer! The past few weeks have seen the campus filled with magical moments, including sports competitions, student projects, drama performances, art exhibitions and much more! In addition to all these wonderful activities, many of our community members have been hard at work helping to launch the school’s new strategic direction that will ensure BCIS continues to deliver high-quality future-focused education for years to come. Focusing on personalization, collaboration and leadership, our strategic direction is a community effort that ensures BCIS will become the worldwide model for cosmopolitan education.

To celebrate the launch of this strategic direction, BCIS recently held the fantastic Uniquely YOUniquely BCIS event. Hosted by our Head of School, Tom Egerton, the event saw several of our outstanding students take to the stage to explain their understanding of personalization, collaboration and leadership, immuninated with examples of their own work. Since the strategic direction requires input, cooperation and collaboration from ourentire school community, students, alumni, parents, teachers and leaders were all in attendance to celebrate. It is each unique member of the BCIS community that makes the school such a fantastic place to learn, and our community collaboration will continue to drive the school’s development.

Personalization will be at the heart of BCIS in two key aspects, strength-based and passion-driven. Strength-based personalization empowers students to personalize their learning outcomes to enhance their strengths, while passion-driven personalization will come from mechanisms that empower students to follow their interests. Personalization is already a key part of BCIS, with students able to create and implement projects based on their strengths and passions. For example, the circularity projects initiated by students in the Secondary School (SS) that focus on sustainability encourage students to use their passions to tackle environmental problems in creative ways.

Several of our Grade 10 student presenters at the Uniquely YOUniquely BCIS event have started circularity projects based on their own interests. Jia Rong, who is passionate about engineering and design, has set up both hydroponics gardening systems and solar panels at the SS garden. Anna has been working on an aquaponics project that scientifically studies the correct levels of nutrients in water that allow both fish and plants to thrive together. Amelia has used her knack for business to turn old coffee grounds into sustainable cleansing products and set up her own Dream Bean business. BCIS further empowers such business projects in the student-led Avenir business competition that draws in participants and mentors from all over China. Such personalized business projects are a big reason why BCIS won the “Enterprise and Employability Award” from this year’s China School Awards.

Students interested in fields outside of business can set up their own activities on any subject they are passionate about. For example, Anna also leads the ACG Art Club for students who prefer art and creating digital worlds. While personalized, these projects also necessitate leadership and collaboration. For example, Helen from Grade 11, who was also a guest speaker at Uniquely YOUniquely BCIS, has used her leadership skills to revive Unit E, a student-led magazine that accepts writing submissions from students at international schools all over the city. With her dedication, Unit E now has WeChat and Instagram content up and running and is preparing to publish its first physical issue! Through the school’s new strategic direction, BCIS will encourage and develop leadership wherever it might be simmering in our community.

Whether it was Helen working with students from multiple schools across the city, or students in the circularity projects mentoring younger students, or alumni mentoring high school students, all the project-based learning that takes place at BCIS requires constant collaboration. In 2020, collaboration was identified by the OECD as the most significant skill across all business sectors. At BCIS, we will encourage active collaboration within our curriculum, and between all members of our community. With this ‘team-first’ culture of collaboration, our students, alumni, staff and parents will all be able to work together more effectively and go on to create amazing accomplishments.

As demonstrated by our wonderful student speakers at Uniquely YOUniquely BCIS, student voice will be at the heart of our strategic direction. Students have also actively participated in the strategic planning process, and provided input into future changes at the school. The future of BCIS is a comprehensive effort by everyone in our community. It is each individual’s unique ideas that will help shape the future of BCIS! We can’t wait for you to join us as we continue to empower and inspire our students to be the leaders of tomorrow!