School sets sights on global future

Forward-looking provider gives students a range of innovative pathways.

Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School, located in the center of the Xi'an High-tech Industrial Development Zone and established in 1995, has become one of the top three high schools in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province in Northwest China, after 21 years of development.

With its core concepts of putting students first and continuously looking at probable future trends, the school works hard to ensure that its teachers receive ongoing career development to ensure that the highest possible educational standards are maintained.

It currently has 354 teachers, of whom 70 percent are senior teachers and 4 percent superfine eachers.

Half of the teaching staff have postgraduate qualifications and two-thirds are qualified to teach at State, provincial and municipal levels.

Some 62 of the school's teachers have received training in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain and Singapore, and all of its English teachers have attended internationally-recognized training programs. There are also a dozen foreign teachers.

The school has five campuses, three of which are used for junior high school and two for high school.

The total area of the campuses covers 16.7 hectares. There are 90 junior high school classes with more than 4,000 students in total and 72 high school classes with more than 2,000 students.

In 2010, the school established "innovation classes" as well as bilingual classes for each grade.

Students in the innovation classes complete a fast-track education, while those in the bilingual classes focus on language learning.

The school has introduced a range of special elective courses, such as ceramic art classes, Model United Nations meetings, robot-building competitions, web production classes and auto repair and maintenance, all of which give students opportunities to learn a wide variety of technical skills.

In 2005, it was awarded the title of "advanced unit of national primary and middle schools' information technology innovation and practical activity" by the Committee on Care for Children under the Ministry of Education.

In 2006, the school established an international course center which arranges for students to follow an international high school curriculum, including A-Level courses in Britain and AP and SAT courses in the United States.

In 2014, it became the city's only examination center for the TOEFL Junior tests.

The school's comprehensive facilities include a top-of-the-range physical digital laboratory, physical exploration laboratory, general technical design and production laboratory, biological aseptic culture laboratory, network laboratory, robotics laboratory, and an international course laboratory for the physical and chemical sciences.

It also has a campus broadcasting station, two multi-function halls which can both house 800 people for conferences and other activities, and a student activity center with an electronic reading room, audiovisual reading room and a pottery making shop.

In addition, there is an indoor stadium, table tennis room, dance studio, choral classroom, piano room and art classrooms for students' cultural and sports activities.

The school has established friendly exchange relationships with a number of world-famous high schools in more than 10 countries including the United States and Australia, and participated in annual student and teacher exchange programs with high schools in the United States, Australia, Canada and Singapore.

To date, 164 students have participated in exchange programs with foreign high schools and 52 of the 164 have been accepted into undergraduate programs at some of the world's most prestigious universities such as University of Cambridge in the UK, New York University in the United States, McGill University in Canada, The University of Melbourne in Australia and the National University of Singapore.

The school has also welcomed 97 students from the United States and the Republic of Korea.

Additionally, it has worked hard to help primary and high schools in poverty-stricken rural areas and also aided schools in Xi'an's rural Chang'an district, Lantian county, Zhouzhi county and Luonan county by donating teaching facilities and building classrooms.

It was upgraded to the status of "demonstration high school" in Shaanxi province in 2009.

Contact the writer at luhongyan@chinadaily.com.cn and malie@chinadaily.com.cn

Highlights

The school pursues a student-centered educational philosophy and is committed to helping teenagers grow up to become highly-skilled and capable of adapting to a rapidly changing work environment. From 2006 to 2013, 11 of China's top scorers of the national college entrance exam graduated from Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School. In recent years, 556 students were admitted into Peking University and Tsinghua University, China's top two such institutions.

A further 800 of the school's students have been enrolled by some of the world's leading higher education institutes, including University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and The University of Chicago in the United States.

Seventy students from the school have been admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University this year alone.

As well as traditional highschool classes, a range of international and art courses have also been introduced as a way to broaden students' horizons and cultivate both their critical thinking and artistic abilities. Students from the school also shone at the China Adolescents Science& Technology Innovation Contest and RoboCup Junior by winning gold and silver awards, showing their innovative abilities. Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 High School is the first National Security Education Base in Northwest China. Professional basketball and soccer teams have also been established in the area to encourage and improve standards in physical education. The school also cooperates with eight schools in four different countries, where more than 300 of its students are sent to take courses or participate in social activities every year. It also signed agreements with Harvard University and Yale University in the US in fields covering teacher training, curriculum development and student enrollment. The goal is to build a modern school that adheres to international standards.

(China Daily 08/09/2016 page12)