Here Sasi offers some advice on being a successful principal and shares his experience as a community volunteer during the recent Shanghai lockdown.

What are the most important skills to be a successful Center Principal?

The most important thing is having regular, open and transparent communication. Keeping your center director updated with all the academic or pastoral problems you may be having will ensure that you are supported and get what you need.

The other important skill is listening. You need to be able to understand what your Chinese colleagues want while also respecting the host nation’s culture. Then you can make suggestions, rather than being a barrier or an obstacle to anything that they say.

How would you describe your own management style?

It all starts with earning the trust of your center director. Once they recognize that you can do the job, they usually just let you get along with what you’re good at.

I treat my teachers and heads of departments in a similar way. While you still need to drop in on them from time to time to provide support and guidance as needed, you are not going to be micromanaging them. They are the experts in their area. I trust them to do what they are experts at.

I will always ask for their suggestions when it comes to implementing changes or dealing with issues. I like to think that I have created an atmosphere in my school in which everybody’s voice can be heard. It is always worth hearing from multiple perspectives, especially when you have teachers from different nationalities and different educational backgrounds. All success comes from team effort, because only together can we truly thrive.

▲ Sasi’s close knit-team of teachers and staff is made up of many different nationalities

A lot of people stay with Dipont for a long time, why do you think that is?

For me, it’s about respect and inclusivity. Some schools have an inclusion policy but aren’t actually that inclusive when it comes to recruitment. When it comes to Dipont, however, once they find someone who is correct for the job, they will hire that person. This attitude of respect makes people loyal to the company.

You volunteered as a tester during the COVID lockdown. What motivated you to do that? And how did you find the experience?

I love Shanghai, it’s been my home away from home. To my mind, if you are in a city that has kept you and given you what you needed, you need to give back. So I wanted to do what I could to help my community.

Before the lockdown, no one knew my name. They only knew that I’m a foreigner. But now everybody knows me by name. Volunteering kind of made me popular! The local people in my community all started calling me S.A.S. Now, if I go for a walk in the evening, people smile and say hello. My experience of being a volunteer has been very positive.

▲ Sasi didn’t hesitate to volunteer as a COVID tester in Shanghai

How have you been supporting your teachers during this time?

People can sometimes forget being together during easy times, but they will never forget the time that you were together during hardships. As an IB school, and as a leader, we supported the wellbeing of our staff to the best of our ability.

As a school, we kept in regular communication with staff members and helped in any way we could. For example, we coordinated community WeChat groups to help them to buy things, or just keeping staff up to date with any instructions that they needed.

The same as with my housing community, my team is there for each other, and we all do what we can to help each other through this special time.

Imagine the supermarket is open, and you are the only customer. What is the first thing that you put in your basket?

I would start by putting a few beers in my basket, because I have a lot of food at home already, to be honest with you. My community has been great in this regard. We had Mcdonald’s a few times, we had KFC a few times, and we even had pizza a couple of times. Getting food has never been a problem.

▲ Sasi is keen to return to school to see his teachers and students

While the lockdown has been difficult in a lot of ways, it has also created some unexpected benefits. The community is stronger than it’s ever been before, at least in my experience. It’s almost like an extended family. There is even a discussion that after the pandemic is over the entire building should go out and have a party together. That side of it has been quite nice.

For now, I am just patiently waiting. I just want to get back to school to see my students and teachers in their classrooms. That’s the most important thing to me now.

The post Meet Sasi Antony: Principal and Volunteer appeared first on Dipont Education.

To celebrate the occasion, an event was held at the school that reflected on a decade of success for the IB curriculum center. At the event, Yao Ruidan, center director, and Sasi Antony, center principal, both spoke about the center’s history and reflected on its many achievements.

Front and center of the celebration, however, were past and present students. Over the past 10 years, hundreds of students have studied the IB Diploma Program, excelling across all subjects. Graduates have gone on to study at leading universities around the world and to have highly successful careers.

In order to reward students for their outstanding performances, the school presented various awards. Among them, the highest honor was the Principal’s Award that recognized exceptional academic achievement combined with remarkable conduct outside of the classroom.

Winning students received a carefully designed trophy that featured crystal and jade elements to represent the pure hearts of students combined with the humility and nobleness of Chinese intellectuals.

In addition, the Silver Award was presented to teachers who had worked in the IB center for five years or more, while outstanding teachers from the last academic year were also recognized.

Xu Xiangdong, principal of the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was a pioneer in the introduction of international courses into traditional top-performing high schools in China. In collaboration with Dipont, the school set up the IB program in 2011 with the aim of offering students academic courses that adequately prepared them for study overseas.

At the event, Principal Xu shared his vision for the next 10 years, saying that he hoped the center maintained its original mission and that it continued to create new, exciting chapters in its history. “Educators are not for the past nor the present, but for the future,” he said.

A decade of growth

The IB center opened in 2011 with a first cohort of 65 students. That first class graduated from the IB Diploma Program in 2014 with outstanding results (particularly for a new IB center), with an overall average of 32 points and final results over the IB world averages in nearly every subject. This increased to an average of 33 points with the 2015 graduates.

The center has built on that success and currently has almost 300 students over three year groups.

First-year pre-IB students take four Cambridge IGCSE-level subjects. These courses provide a solid, internationally recognized foundation for IBDP study. In the second and third years, students pursue the IB Diploma Program, taking six main subjects across a range of disciplines, three at higher level and three at standard level. On top of this demanding course load, they must also tackle a year-long, 4,000-word Extended Essay, 18 months of CAS (Creativity-Activity-Service) work, and the challenging Theory of Knowledge course.

IB courses are taught by a combination of Chinese and expatriate teachers. Student destinations for further study remain focused on the US, UK and Canada, with some students opting for top universities in Australia and Europe. Admissions offers over the past decade have been impressive, including Cambridge, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Emory, several schools in the UC system, and many top American Liberal Arts colleges.

Partnering with renowned high schools in China, Dipont provides complete management support in the operation of international programs. These are delivered through specialized curriculum centers within each partner school and.

Vacancies for experienced subject teachers are available across our network, visit our vacancies section for more information. 

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Nearly 500 teachers and managers from Dipont’s China-wide international curriculum centers attended the two-day event, held at InterContinental Hotel Wuxi.

The annual conference, which has taken place every year since 2007, brings together new and current teachers to get to know one another and Dipont, as well as exchange learning and information. It is thought to be one of the largest conferences of its kind in east Asia.

With Dipont international curriculum center teachers usually spread around China, the conference is also an invaluable opportunity to gather everyone in one place ahead of the academic year.

The conference featured a packed itinerary of workshops covering a range of subjects relevant to both teachers just arriving in China and to those with China experience already. The workshops were delivered by teachers, principals and senior managers, and were designed to encourage discussion, inspire innovation and share best practice.

For more than 100 new teachers, the conference was the start of their career with Dipont. New A-level mathematics teacher, Oleksii Khlobystin, who will teach at Jinling High School in Nanjing, felt the conference was an excellent way to prepare for his new role and better get to know both Dipont and his fellow teachers.

“It made me feel even more confident and prepared for the upcoming semester at my new school,” he said.

This year’s conference theme was ‘ethos is everything’. In his opening address, John Birchall, Academic Director at Dipont, spoke of the importance of working atmosphere in Dipont’s high school centers and complemented the work of center principals to encourage positive working environments.

He announced that the development of ethos policies in each center will be a major focus of work over the coming academic year. He also built on Dipont CEO Benson Zhang’s opening speech, outlining Dipont’s own ethos and approach, as well as the company’s past and future development.

Rewarding excellence

The conference was also a chance to reward excellence among staff in Dipont’s international curriculum centers, with several teachers from various centers being named teacher of the year:

• Eldred Apanya, physics
• Martin Bailey, psychology, economics and theory of knowledge
• James Chan, English
• Jason Chitty, science
• Mark Every, economics
• Claire Fan, calculus and statistics
• Nirmala Govender, geography
• Anton Jacobs, economics
• Joseph Kelley, statistics
• Joel Langat, economics
• Sintayehu Maru, mathematics
• Lyneth Masauring, physics
• Thomas McEleney, English
• Asmal Mohamad, economics
• Joseph Onyango, mathematics
• Hemant Rai, mathematics
• James Stringer, geography and English
• Lee Voon, English
• Joyce Xiao, chemistry.

A number of center principals were also recognized for their work, including:

• A-level centers: Simon Atwood (runners-up: Ryan Strugnell and Mathew Thomas)
• International baccalaureate centers: Leigh Smith (runners-up: A. Sharma and J. Humphreys)
• AP centers: Hywel Bennet (runners-up D. Brandau and L. McCardle).

Individuals were given their awards during a conference dinner, held on the first night of the event, which at which attendees socialized and unwound after a full day of workshops.

The post Dipont annual conference gathers new and returning teachers appeared first on Dipont Education.

He attended our annual conference for the first time in August this year.

“The Dipont annual conference, held at the InterContinental Hotel in Wuxi, was a fantastic event for a new teacher like me. Beforehand I honestly believed that the event was going to be two days of hard work and intensive workshops only, but I had the pleasure of staying at a luxury hotel and didn’t feel exhausted at all!

“I felt energized by coming into contact with more than 400 hundred educators from all over the world who were united by the same goal.”

Instead, I felt energized by coming into contact with more than 400 hundred educators from all over the world who were united by the same goal. It was really easy to get to know everyone and I was able to introduce myself and make friends. I added more than 50 new contacts to my WeChat [messaging app] and began the important task of figuring out who is who!

The atmosphere at the event was just amazing. Everybody was very friendly and supportive. I realized that the main aim of all the speakers was to let me know that I am not alone and we all are a big family.

The conference was organized to a very professional level and the content of the workshops was very interesting and helpful, especially for new teachers. It was also good for those who have just come to China and are trying to figure out how to live and work in a new environment.

“The content of the workshops was very interesting and helpful, especially for new teachers.”

I came to China in 2011 and have been teaching here for the last three years. But even though I am pretty familiar with the Chinese culture and educational system, I found many tips from the conference very helpful. It made me feel even more confident and prepared for the upcoming semester at my new school.

The presentations throughout the conference were very informative, but at the same time, included just the most important details. That helped me to feel inspired and not overloaded after the event.

In the evening, we had a large dinner together, there were some awards for outstanding teachers and a small concert performed by our talented staff. I have even booked three minutes of stage time for a show at next year’s conference – it will be a pleasure to dance for all the Dipont family!”

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