Day 5 - School Visit

Day 5 – Headlines: Zhen Hua Middle School

Learning from the best!

Today I went to Zhen Hua middle school to have a taste of how the students in China study. Zhen Hua Middle School is a top school in Suzhou, China. We are very honoured to be hosted by them. In the morning we have welcome presentation by the teacher with 2 short clips. One is about their rich school history and another one is about their distinctive programme named”小薇” just like our school we also have distinctive programme Applied Learning Programme (ALP) and Life- Long Learning Programme (LLP).  Their distinctive programmes are micro lessons of enrichment which include Gardening, Intercom Technology (IT) and drama. While ours is Hearty Breakfast programme and Entrepreneur and Innovation (E&I). They have a future classroom which is very high-tech just like our very own Broadrick’s learning lab. We have a physics lesson in the morning. The students there are very disciplined, they are always very attention in class and they are hungry for more knowledge. The lesson there is very fun with the teacher using experiment and the everyday items in teaching the concepts of vibration to the students. I realised that good attitude is an important factor to succeed in studying.

Tan Jun Hao

What is holistic education?

When we arrived at Zhen Hua Middle School, we were immediately lead to the “future classroom”. In the classroom, sat 16 lower secondary school students and a teacher who was preparing for the first lesson. The class started off with a violin performance from one of the younger students. The teacher then begun his lesson with a few fun practices that were done with everyday materials such as bowls, water, erasers as well as straws. During the lessons I noticed that the Zhen Hua students were paying full attention to their teachers. When they answer questions asked by their teachers, they spoke in a clear and loud tone. They were very friendly as well. The students always made sure that we were involved in the discussions and made as feel very welcome.

After lunch we had another lesson taught by our very own Mdm Kim. It was a chemistry lesson taught in English. They did look a bit flustered when they saw the notes in English but they picked up the concepts quite quickly. After the science lesson, we had another lesson. We were taught the art of “Yong Chun Quan”. After a few day without any proper exercise we were all quite stiff. However under the guidance of the instructor we managed to pick up a few moves.

Before going to the school, I had thought that classes in China is slightly more traditional. Thus I was quite surprised when we entered the “future classroom”. It was filled with high tech gadgets such as the newest types of microphones and projectors. Moreover the school had different blocks for different classes such as physical education lessons, science practical lesson and normal theory lessons. The school also has a fairly big basketball court as well as a large field for physical education for lessons.

Soh Sim Min

Amazed – ‘amazed’ is an understatement

Today we went to Zhen Hua Middle School to learn more about their way of learning and getting to know more about their cultural. The first thing we do when we arrive in the school was going to a classroom which they called it the ‘future classroom’. When I first got into the classroom, I was amazed of how modern the classroom is as I expected it to not be that modern. The classroom was full of high tech technology for example, a touch screen TV, cameras and a room for people to see what the students without them knowing that there are people watching them while they are having their lessons.

The other thing that I was amazed by was the behaviour of the students at the school. They are all well behave and well manner. I was shock to see them all ready and quiet while waiting for class to start when I went into the classroom. Their teacher did not even need to instruct them to do anything, they just do what they are supposed to do automatically. The students over there also sing their school song loudly and proudly. One other thing that I notice was that they do not interrupt a person when they are talking instead they wait until the person stop talking and then they raised up their hand to ask a question or answer a question. This are the things that shocked and amazed me while I was at Zhen Hua Middle School as the students that we met were all Sec 1 and 2 and yet they are all so well behaved and have such good attitude to learning.

Randy Tay