Foreign schools expand to meet expats’ growth

The growing number of expats living and working in Shanghai has attracted an increasing number of top international schools, and the head of one school believes it will help drive reforms in the city’s public schools.

The British Harrow School recently announced it will open a campus in Shanghai in September 2015.

The all-boys school will admit 250 international students in five grades for the first semester next year, and will eventually have a capacity of 1,500 students from grades 1 to 13. Its graduates include Winston Churchill and seven other British prime ministers.

Among the other international schools opened in the city, are the UK’s Wellington College, the Dulwich, a south London day school, and Yew Chung International School of Shanghai.

In August , Wel l ington College International Shanghai welcomed its fi rst 200 students.

The school accepts students ages 2 to 18, and offers a typical British boarding school curriculum that includes an emphasis on self- development, morals, spiritual cultivation, music, culture and various sports, said headmaster David Cook.

Currently, the schools only accept children of expats living in Shanghai, and students from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

The number of expats living in Shanghai keeps rising, with the latest data from city authorities showing more than 173,000 by the end of 2012, a 6.7 percent increase over the previous year and making up a quarter of the total expat population on the Chinese mainland.

“International schools pay more attention to the development of students’ overall quality and focus on extending students’ ability, which is what local education authorities should learn from,” said Wu Zijian, president of the international school Shanghai YK Pao School.

Wu once worked at a public school in the city.

The cur r iculum and teaching philosophy brought from these international schools will help promote education reform of the city’s public schools, Wu said.

International schools pay more attention to the development of students’ overall quality and focus on extending students’ ability, which is what local education authorities should learn from.” WU ZIJIAN PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL SHANGHAI YK PAO SCHOOL