First and foremost, “Xin Nian Kuai Le” to all our Hiba Academy Nantong community! I hope that you were able to spend some time with your loved ones over the holiday and that you are now looking forward to the Year of the Tiger. May it bring you happiness and prosperity. This is also a very exciting year for us at Hiba Academy Nantong as it is the year that we will be opening our new school! I, therefore, wanted to give you a few updates:
The building works are continuing apace, and we are still on track for the school’s handover in May. The construction team is presently working on each building’s façade as well as the internal fit out. The Boarding House is also another area where we have been focussing our attention, with our school team having inspected it at the end of January. It is progressing nicely and will provide a wonderful home for those that select that option. The furniture and fittings have also been selected and we are going through tendering and procurement processes at the moment. We are also hoping to sign contracts with both the catering and property management teams, and I will tell you more about them once that is done.
One of the best procurement jobs that we have to do is deciding which library books we are going to buy. The joy of reading is so important in a child’s educational journey and having a broad and appealing selection is vital. We are making sure that there are enough books in Chinese and English, as well as for our younger and older readers. Whilst most reference material can be found online now, we still value having it in written form as well. We are hoping that the library will be somewhere children feel safe, secure and excited to visit — it opens up a whole world of opportunities. I am presently reading “Girls on the Edge” by Dr Leanard Sax, which gives a fascinating insight into how girls differ from boys in the way they learn and act. Much of it is applicable in an educational context as well.
We have begun recruiting our Western staff, all of whom are really looking forward to making Nantong their home and meeting all of our Hiba families. Once the recruitment is complete, we will send out biographies of our staff so that you can see who will be teaching your children next academic year and learn about their backgrounds. The recruitment of Chinese staff traditionally starts a little later in the year, but there has been tremendous interest in working at Hiba Nantong, and we have already appointed several mathematics, Chinese and class teachers — all of whom speak both Chinese and English.
As a result, your children will genuinely be immersed in both languages whilst at Hiba Academy Nantong, and what an advantage that will give them later in life!
Simon Kenworthy
Master
