Related News

Home » Supplement » Class Art

BISS community reaches out to less fortunate students

STUDENTS at the British International School Shanghai (BISS), Pudong have filled gift boxes with goodies for charity in the past few years.

In 2008, students at BISS helped deliver 600 New Year gift boxes to the Wanliao Migrant Workers' School in Pudong. The BISS Pudong community has just finished collections for this year's gift-box drive, and this week students, parents and teachers will return to Wanliao Migrant Workers' School to deliver another 800 gift bags in time for the Spring Festival.

BISS CAS (Creativity Action Service) Coordinator, Deirdre Creissen, has been leading efforts to build a relationship with Wanliao Migrant Workers' School.

Creissen says, "Our aim is to develop a long-term relationship with the school, to create a service project which benefits the whole school community." The relationship between the schools was initiated by Stepping Stones, a charity which works with Shanghai migrant children providing English teaching programs.

The annual gift-box drive is an important project for the BISS Pudong community and Wanliao migrant students. For the last few months, BISS has been busy collecting basic items for the gift bags. This year BISS students from the primary and secondary schools have donated writing pads, tooth brushes and paste, soap, colored pencils, pencil cases, socks and skipping ropes.

BISS Pudong Principal Dr Terry Creissen says, "We are delighted to once again support children at the Wanliao Migrant Workers' School.?This is an excellent opportunity for our students to give something back to their host country and to make a real difference to the lives of the children attending the school."

The BISS PFA (Parent Friends Association) says, "We have chosen to distribute the gift bags to the children of Wanliao Migrant Workers' School at Chinese New Year as this celebration is as exciting for Chinese children as Christmas is for our children."

As special as the gift bag collection is, it isn't BISS students' only involvement with students at Wanliao Migrant Workers' School. Each week children from Wanliao visit the BISS Pudong campus to enjoy the facilities and participate in sports and arts activities.

The facilities at Wanliao are very basic and classes are very crowded. Visiting the BISS campus is very exciting for these students. During the visits, CAS students teach them English and the younger students play games and activities. The Wanliao migrant students are provided with lunch at BISS, as well as transport to and from the school.

The initiatives set up between BISS and Wanliao Migrant Workers' School provide an opportunity for BISS students from pre-school up to senior secondary school to reach out to students in less-fortunate situations.

Maybe the most stimulating and rewarding aspect of the relationship comes from BISS IB (International Baccalaureate) CAS students, who provide English lessons to the Wanliao migrant students.

Charlie, a CAS student at BISS, who is trained in teaching English, says: "I enjoyed teaching English to the kids - they were great fun and learned very quickly."

Teaching English to the Wanliao migrant students is a rewarding way to get to know another side of China's society and contribute in a meaningful way to the education of less-privileged children. By teaching English to the Wanliao students, the BISS students are helping the migrant students pass their middle school entrance exams and build a better life for themselves.

Meeting the migrant students also provides the BISS students with a valuable opportunity to practice their own Chinese language skills with native speakers and gain a real sense of how others live.

Members of The British International School Shanghai, Pudong are pleased that they can give back to the community and improve the lives of those less privileged than themselves.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend