Sharing and growth - Induction Week at Hiba Academy Nantong

On 1st August 2022, the founding teachers of Hiba Academy Nantong were on campus in the golden morning light.  A one-month induction week officially kicked off.

Mr Simon Kenworthy,the Master of Hiba Academy Nantong, expressed a warm welcome to all teacherswho joined Hiba Academy Nantong. He wished that all teachers could make fulluse of this opportunity to quickly establish friendships, share opinions andfeelings and listen to each other's teaching ideas and approaches, all of whichcreate an excellent teaching team with cohesion.

A tight and comprehensive induction schedule includes teaching concepts, teaching strategies, teaching management, training, teachers' physical and mental health development, classroom set-up and teaching-area function introduction etc. These trainings not only helped teachers quickly grasp the teaching rhythm, but also quickly get familiar with each other's teaching styles, unify the work pace and cultivate tacit understanding.

During the training of "project-based learning" in the Nursery, teachers first played a simple game in pairs, which promoted a pleasant atmosphere and narrowed the distance between each other. May Xue shared a large number of nursery teaching cases, guided teachers to think and exchange "project-based learning" in combination with their own teaching experience and ended with a wrap-up. Just like the children in project-based learning, the teachers participating in the discussion also expressed their opinions under the guidance of May Xue, Chinese Co-head of Early Years, and fully engaged in the training. This unique training enabled many teachers to have a more vivid and comprehensive understanding of Hiba's education philosophy.

During the training of Chinese teachers in the primary school, we invited Mr Wang, a senior Chinese teacher from Hiba Academy Shanghai, to share and exchange experience. Mr Wang deeply analysed the national curriculum standards of Chinese language, teaching materials and the practice of curriculum, and explained the vertical and horizontal consistent implementation of Chinese teaching and how to integrate Hiba's Chinese curriculum with the syllabus of the Ministry of Education. Based on the specific content of the current teaching materials, the differences between the new and old curriculum standards, how to break through the limitations of the teaching materials and maximize the classroom efficiency according to the characteristics of the teaching materials and the teaching practice, were explained in detail. 

Many warm and happy moments were interspersed between the professional and serious trainings of curriculum teaching. Teachers used their feet to measure this new and young campus step by step and set up their expectations for the new semester everywhere: they either recorded their first "meeting" with the campus by photos, or could not wait to decorate the classroom, or spontaneously went to the library to sort out the books for children. In August when cicadas are startling, the enthusiasm from the academic team added more heat to the whole campus.

After the beginning of the new semester, we will also arrange a wide variety of training programs, including leadership development, High Potential programmes, cultural awareness, coaching, and team building in both academic and non-academic areas, which provides the employees with diverse learning opportunities that are suitable for their own personal development.

In our academic team, every teacher was selected from hundreds of candidates. They draw from the talent reserve of Wellington College China and the strong group background to attract outstanding talent from all over the world. All teachers were not only assessed in terms of professional skills and work experience, but also strict background investigation to ensure that their personal character fits the values of Wellington College China.

All the teachers at Hiba Academy Nantong are making full preparation for the new school year with great enthusiasm and an attitude of striving for excellence. They are looking forward to meeting all the pupils on campus in September!