In light of the announcement by the Beijing Municipal Education Committee earlier this month  allowing Schools in Beijing to reopen for some year levels after months of online learning, due to the outbreak of COVID-19,  every member of YCIS-BJ staff has worked diligently towards ensuring that our School passed the final inspection conducted by representatives from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP), the Chaoyang Education Committee (CEC), the Beijing Education Committee (BEC)and the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (BCDPC) this week.

The purpose of this inspection was to guarantee staff and, most importantly, students’ safety upon their return to campus on Monday, April 27th. The inspection comes after weeks of preparation by the School Leadership Team and YCIS Beijing Administrative staff who has been undertaking a thorough campus clean-up since March to ensure our facilities are ready and the staff on duty is equipped with protective gear and equipment such as temperature sensors, UV document disinfection cabinets and UV sterilizers amongst others.

According to Amber Dang, EA to the School Leadership Team, who has been closely involved in the process of getting the greenlight to reopen our campus on Monday, the preparation was thorough and based on “a detailed list of what we needed to prepare in order to reopen. There were 10 main points including 100 smaller detailed items we needed to self-check on” she said. Among the list of items checked by the delegation was the Emergency Contingency Plan. It is crucial that all staff is aware of what procedures needs to be followed in case of an emergency – who to contact and what to do at each stage.

Another important aspect of the requirements by the local government was to revise some of the current school policies to fit the current situation, including the leave application policy, morning checks, lunch times and cleaning policies to ensure that health and safety remain a priority.

With the senior class returning to school on Monday, safeguarding theirs and everyone’s health also includes providing "staff with new masks every day when on campus, and in case of emergency, N95 masks are also available on site”  Ms Dang said.

During their visit, the officers inspected our school buildings and shared how impressed they were with the entire school’s dedication to the process. According to Ms Dang, the inspection team thought the School was well prepared and indeed paid a lot of attention to details, which made it obvious how important the process has been to the school.

With the campus now ready to welcome our graduating class back on campus, we would like to express gratitude to every member of staff for their tireless work during this process. Go YCIS Beijing!