Mr Casey Fanning, Character and Moral Education Development Officer, discusses some of the charitable activities that took place before Christmas.

Part of our Character Education programme is about showing our students that they have the ability to help others. We do this by engaging with charitable activities that will benefit those around us and allow our students to forge connections with people less fortunate than themselves. For those of us who celebrate Christmas, it is a particularly important time for charity and in the run-up to the Christmas holidays we took part in some very special activities that I would like to share.

The Book Drive

In the weeks before the holiday we held a school-wide book drive in effort to stock the library of our Seeds of Hope sister school: Xilian Primary School in Hebei province.

It was incredibly encouraging to see the generosity of our students and their families as we collected around 800 books across the whole school. The YCIS Beijing libraries also contributed around 2,500 books and reference materials to the cause. To aid their class learning, the Xilian school also needed TVs and our generous parents provided 6 new and used LCD TVs. In addition, the YCIS family is donating electronic keyboards, toys, games and IT equipment, all of which will go towards enhancing the learning experience of our neighbours in rural Hebei.

This semester, several staff and students from YCIS Beijing will deliver these items in person to the school along with a set of textbooks designed, written and published by our own Year 7 students during their project-based learning last year. The textbooks are bilingual, with real life maths problems the students devised on their own, with the purpose of being donated for a charitable cause. This year, the Year 6s will complete the same project, with another local school in mind as the recipients.

I was very touched by the generosity and kindness of our students, family and school. It is especially important when we know what a difference this will make to these young students’ learning.

A Visit to Migrant Children’s Foundation

On December 10, I joined Primary students and representatives from the PO on a visit to one of the Migrant Children’s Foundation schools. We had the pleasure of taking part in MCF’s Secret Santa project this year and our students and families donated many thoughtful gifts to the children. Delivering these gifts in person was a delightful experience and they were very gratefully received. We also got to spend the day making Christmas cards, singing carols and making friends, and the children were surprised by a visit from Santa Claus which brought a great deal of excitement!

A visit like this allows our own students to connect with others from different backgrounds. Building empathy and sharing in our common humanity is an essential part of charity and a great priority for our Character Education programme.

I am always moved by the kindness of our students and families, and these two festive events were no exception. Thank you very much to those who donated, books, equipment and Christmas presents and to those students and parents who showed great kindness and love towards the children at MCF. I am looking forward to continuing to make a difference this semester.