FAQ: How to Adjust International Education Plan under Epidemic?

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This is a special year for all of us with the pandemic of COVID-19. We are all going through an age of changing. You may have to change your plans of all kinds, including the education plan for your children.

We fully understand if parents and students who are now staying overseas are willing to come back for education. We also understand that they will get very confused about how students can transit themselves smoothing to schools in China. Recently, the Admission Office has received relating questions from parents overseas. We hereby would like to answer some common questions for all overseas families.

 

Enrollment

Q: Is online application test available for students since there is no flight back in 2-3 months?

BIS: Yes. BIS offers both online application test and interview. Students who meet the enrollment requirements are welcome to apply.

Q: How to decide a student’s grade level? For example, my kid is studying in Grade 4 in Australia, where school year starts in February. Which grade should my kid study in if come back to China, where school year starts in August or September?

BIS: BIS generally decides students’ grade levels according to their age or birth date. But if a student has shown higher or lower capability than his current grade level, school will decide the best appropriate grade level after evaluation according to student’s actual capabilities.

Curriculum

Q: Considering that students will come back from different countries, with different curriculum background, what will the school offer to help the transition from students’ former curriculums to current ones?

BIS: BIS is an IB Continuum school which offers IBPYP, IBMYP and IBDP curriculum. IB is one of the most globally recognized curriculums and also seen as the most challenging one. Our alumni who finished IB curriculum had been attending world top universities.

BIS also offers Cambridge IGCSE and American College Board Advanced Placement (AP) for students. The school is also a recognized test center for SAT.

Q: How’s the faculty in your school? My kid studies with foreign teachers now, will he or she adapt teachers in your school?

BIS: Boston International School has an experienced team of international teachers. All subjects are taught by native English-speaking teachers except for our world language courses (native speakers of teaching language). The school is immersed in an International atmosphere, thus it would be easy for students to adapt themselves in the school.

Q: If we choose an international school in China, will the credits be recognized by foreign schools in the future?

BIS: When choosing an international school in China, the school’s authorization and accreditation is of great importance. At Boston International School, we have been authorized to offer IB PYP, MYP and DP programs, as well as Cambridge IGCSE and AP classes. We are also member school of CIS and WASC, which made our school reports and transcripts being recognized around the world.

Q: Do you organize face-to-face parent-teacher conference? Will you issue separate academic report for each student?

BIS: BIS organizes one on one parent-teacher conferences twice a year to promote the communication between parents and teachers. Each student will receive a comprehensive academic report per semester, which includes all subjects academic achievements with teachers’ comments for each subject.

Q: Besides English, do you offer other language classes as the 2nd or 3rd language?

BIS: Yes. English is the official teaching language in our school, and BIS also offer both mother tongue language and world language.

We offer Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German and French and students can choose the language according to their level of understanding, to be their mother tongue language, or 2nd/3rd language.

Extra-curriculum and others

Q: Does the school organize competitions with others? What’s the proportion of PE lessons?

BIS: BIS is a registered full-membership school in local and international sports conferences. We have a sports team called Boston Panthers. We endeavor to enter our teams into as many competitions as possible, especially for the core sports of volleyball, basketball and soccer. Our students not only compete in competitions within the Jiangsu Province but also in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Except PE lessons, we offer sports clubs in Boston Explorers program after school. We also organize Daily Miles for students everyday. The school is equipment with an indoor stadium, a dance room, a gym with shower area, a tennis court, a basketball court, track& field and a constant temperature swimming pool (coming soon). Students have free access to these areas at break times.

Q: Do you have extra-curriculum classes?

BIS: Yes. Our extra-curriculum classes are called Boston Explorers Program (B.E.). B.E. is aimed at providing a variety of activities that include clubs, academic pursuits and sports programs. Students are able to participate in a variety of activities to help them develop and grow the necessary skills and to be successful both inside and outside the classroom. We strongly encourage all students to be ‘Explorers’ and to B.E. everything they can be and to have experiences that will set them on a course well past their life at BIS.

No matter where you are, we sincerely hope you and your family safe and healthy. Please pay attention to official sources if you are planning to come back.

Below we have collected some latest notices from several embassies for your reference.

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