The famous educator Tao Xingzhi said: "The principal is the soul of the school". The importance of a good principal to a school is self-evident. On the occasion of the new school year, Meilun officially welcomed a new principal, a senior and famous principal, Principal Liang Ruijuan. Who is Principal Liang Ruijuan? How will she lead the development of Meilun?
About the Principal – Jenny Liang
Famous principal of Guangdong Province
Leader of English subject in Foshan
Top 10 class teachers in Foshan
The first batch of high-level talents in Nanhai District to enjoy government subsidies
From 2005 to 2019, he served as the principal of Nanhai Middle School and Guicheng Middle School, a key high school in Foshan
In August 2019, he served as the principal of Meilun (MIC).
1. Host: In the past 36 years, you have spent your education career in Nanhai Middle School and Guicheng Middle School, which are the traditional public schools, what kind of opportunity prompted you to come to Meilun as the principal?
Jenny: I spent my student days and the 29 years of my teaching career in Nanhai Middle School, a century-old school, because I have always taught English, and because I am in the overseas Chinese and the advantage of language, I have more and earlier opportunities to contact international education. After coming to Guicheng Middle School as the principal in 2012, he was responsible for the Guizhong International Department project (the predecessor of the British Curriculum Department of Youlian Nansha British High School) in cooperation between Guicheng Middle School and Youlian Education, and gained a further understanding of the international curriculum, especially the British high school curriculum.
Meilun is the first international high school curriculum school in Foshan, offering IGCSE and A-level courses authorized by the three major examination bureaus in the UK (Cambridge Examinations, Edexcel Examinations, Oxford AQA Examinations), and is the first school in Guangdong Province to offer a high school curriculum authorized by British Columbia, Canada. In the past two years, the school has achieved outstanding results, and all the first graduates have been admitted to the world's top 100 universities, and 80% of them are the world's top 30 universities. This is rare and proud for Meilun.
2. Moderator: Please talk about your understanding of international education.
Jenny: True international education is about producing well-rounded people with outstanding strengths. International education is more focused on giving different nutrition to different students, for example, maybe student A will never surpass student B in mathematics, you don't try to make him catch up with student B in this regard. Maybe student B will never be better than A in art, in terms of imagination. If we can build and cultivate each person's strengths and interests, so that his personality and quality can develop in an all-round way, then he will have his core competitiveness in the future society.
There are some misunderstandings in the understanding of international education in society: first, some people think that the student management of international schools is very loose, second, they think that international schools are schools for rich people, and third, students studying in international schools do not have to study diligently. In fact, this is not the case, the examination of international education is also there, this degree of examination is not worse than our domestic college entrance examination, but the form of the exam and the function of the exam will be different. For example, in the Chinese exam, a single exam or a test paper will determine a person's destiny, while Western exams, although also very strict, do not have such a powerful elimination function, and students will feel much less pressure. Western education emphasizes more on the process, for example, emphasizing students' understanding and application of mathematics, the use of mathematical knowledge, etc., rather than too much emphasis on repeated questions.
So at Meilun, at least my ideal is to let our students really find the direction of self-development on this campus, learn independently, learn happily, and go to a good university at the same time.
3. Moderator: What basic qualities do you think you need to have as a principal of an international school?
Jenny: Whether it is traditional school or international education, whether as a principal or a teacher, you must have an educational feeling and a strong sense of responsibility, you must love children, like children, and even when children are naughty or rebellious. I believe that as an educator, the driving force for doing a good job in teaching and education must be to have love for this cause and for children.
4. Moderator: As the principal of Meilun International School, which students do you think are suitable for Meilun International School?
Jenny: I think that children who are self-motivated, willing to learn, and have a certain foundation can come to Meilun, Meilun does not refuse children who are willing to learn, and the layered teaching system provided by Meilun can allow children to quickly adapt to learning here. Students can apply for Meilun through the results of the high school entrance examination or take the exam organized by the school.
5. Moderator: As a senior high school principal, what advantages do you think Meilun's international curriculum has in students' further education?
Jenny: Domestic high-quality higher education resources are relatively scarce, only about 4% of high school graduates enter key universities every year, and Meilun can pass advanced education and teaching concepts, mature training models, so that children through 2-3 years of international high school courses, enter the door of world famous schools, can also use international curriculum results to apply for Hong Kong, Macao and even domestic famous schools. It has a greater advantage than applying with college entrance examination results.
Meilun's training goal is to enable every student to get a better education, provide more ways and methods, let excellent students fly higher and farther, and let more students with medium grades enter the ideal foreign famous school.
6. Host: Some people say that it is better to go to an international school than to put your children abroad, what do you think of this?
Jenny: My son went to the UK to study at university, and Imperial College joined the workforce after graduating, and because we matured when we went out, we had a lot less to worry about as parents. As a passer-by, I personally do not recommend junior high school and high school to study abroad directly. There are many uneasy things about going abroad at a young age, in addition to personal safety, it also particularly affects the feelings of parents and children; Due to the junior high school stage, students' outlook on life and values are still very immature, and it is also a rebellious period for children, which is easily affected by the bad atmosphere of the outside world. In addition, young children studying abroad, due to their inability to take care of themselves, language learning disorders and poor communication with others, coupled with the loneliness when studying abroad, many Chinese students will often skip class, play games online or go on a shopping spree, etc., seriously delaying learning and wasting money, and it is impossible to achieve the original purpose of going abroad. At present, domestic junior and senior high school students are not fully prepared to study abroad at a young age, and they are only in their 10s, which is the age when their personalities are gradually formed, and studying abroad alone obviously does more harm than good. What's more, many of them can't even take care of their basic lives, so how can they be assured to study abroad?
And if the child returns to China to develop in the future, if the younger the child goes to study, the less Chinese elements he has, and it will be more difficult to adapt to life and work in China in the future.
7. Host: What is the difference between going abroad after completing an ordinary high school in China and studying in an international high school in Meilun? What is the difference between it and the international department of a regular high school?
Jenny: Going to ordinary high school, participating in IELTS, TOEFL and other institutions training after class, to balance between the college entrance examination and studying abroad, will make children very tired, unless there is a very high talent in learning, otherwise neither can achieve the best results. In addition, after students go abroad, they need to spend a lot of time improving their language skills in order to adapt to university studies. Meilun provides a complete curriculum system that is closely integrated with university learning, in addition to curriculum learning, there are also rich extracurricular activities and social practice courses, which help children adapt to study and life abroad. Students from international schools have a higher chance of success in college.
The International Department is only one of the departments involved in student management, logistics, etc., which need to coordinate with non-international students, and often interfere with each other. Meilun can operate independently and use a complete international education system, which can ensure the improvement of teaching quality and school management.
8. Moderator: After performing your duties, how will you lead the development of Meilun? How will Meilun internationalize education?
Jenny: First of all, pay close attention to the construction of the teaching staff. No matter how tall our equipment and facilities, how exquisite our publicity and planning, in the end it is necessary to return to the quality of teaching itself, therefore, the quality of teaching must be improved, the school culture should be rich, the social reputation should be good, students and parents should be satisfied, "how long the school can go, how far to run, the key is the teacher", for this reason, we will first work hard from the source of recruitment, and the people we select must have a subject education background and certain international education teaching experience. Our existing teachers are composed of three parts: foreign teachers, Chinese teachers and overseas returnees, bilingual teaching, Chinese and foreign combination, more use of overseas returnee teachers, these teachers not only understand the characteristics of Chinese students, but also have received the influence of international advanced educational concepts, foreign teachers mainly teach international courses and improve students' after-school level, Chinese teachers are responsible for strengthening Chinese curriculum. These teachers have relatively high quality, and we must promote the implementation of teaching and education by doing a good job in teacher construction and team management. On the one hand, we implement character education through a series of education and teaching activities, help students form a sound personality, establish a correct outlook on life, world view and values, and on the other hand, promote the overall improvement of students' academic level, so that they can really go out.
In Meilun, language is only a means to achieve a goal, Meilun cultivated students not only to have good cultural knowledge, but also moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, labor all-round development, but all-round development must have a process, from the original examination-oriented education to cultivate all-round development of quality talents, the process is not simple, some schools only aim to improve English performance, and ignore the cultivation of students' outlook on life, values, values and social practice ability in international education, and there is no real concept of international education. In a society where English is equivalent to Mandarin, it is difficult for students to achieve all-round improvement in the short term, while in developed countries, famous universities will pay more attention to the comprehensive quality and ability of students. The teaching concepts and models of Western developed countries pay more attention to the development of students' potential, pay more attention to the cultivation of various abilities, and pay more attention to the cultivation of students' social practice ability, we must absorb it; And we must also inherit and carry forward the good things of basic education in China. In particular, we have always grasped the education of basic subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, and the academic performance of Chinese students in this field has always been relatively excellent. From the perspective of international teaching, I personally believe that our teachers need to learn Chinese and Western culture and history, and truly understand the differences in understanding and values between Eastern and Western cultures. Of course, as a principal, I also have to continue to learn, so as to absorb the essence of Chinese and Western education in depth.
9. Moderator: In just three years, Meilun has established a good international education brand image in the minds of students' parents and people from all walks of life, and has made a good start. It is believed that under the leadership of President Liang, the cohesive Meilun people have the confidence, determination and ability to provide high-quality international education for the students of Guangzhou University.
Thank you, President Liang, and wish Principal Liang success in his new job! I wish Meilun a better tomorrow!
