Traditional Values Matter

By Dr Neil Hopkin FRSA, Principal of The British International School Shanghai, Puxi.

As the pace of 21st century life gets faster and faster it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. Perhaps you have had the experience of having a young child help you to navigate some modern technology, or perhaps you have found yourself bewildered by the range of choices available for a particular product or service. Sometimes it just feels that in the past life was . . . well, simpler.

Social media trends, news feeds, the PR of the zeitgeist, all bombard us with the philosophical idea that constant change is inescapably woven into the fabric of modern life; that ‘new’ is good and that ‘old’ is bad, or at least not as good as the new. In a life where food is instantly microwaved and tweets are sent around the globe in seconds, it is easy to be taken in by this relentless pursuit of ‘the next new thing’. 

Of course, there is nothing wrong with change, nor is there anything wrong with embracing innovation. In fact, if we are to thrive in this 21st century, it is essential that we develop the skills to adapt and innovate. However, there is so much value in the traditional ways of the past that truly wise organizations have learnt to embrace the modern and the traditional. That is what we do at the British International School Shanghai, in Puxi. 

We have built our innovative approach to the very best in leading edge education on the secure foundation of traditional education, what used to be called the 3Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic). This is the rock upon which we build our approach to learning. At our school there is no contradiction in expecting students to pursue complex projects in our amazing STEAM centres inspired by our collaboration with MIT, as well as take rigorous spelling tests. There is no tension between exploring the creativity of music and drama through our world class Juilliard curriculum and learning to conjugate verbs in our rigorous English classes. There is no mutual exclusivity between our Olympic gold medallist coach training our elite athletes and our dedicated staff working in small groups alongside the record number of students who achieved Maths iGCSE ‘A*’ this year. 

This type of approach, traditional values delivered through innovative learning experiences, led to most of our IB cohort this year scoring 39 points, with our customary elite students scoring the perfect 45 once again. 

This is because the greatest places of learning achieve more than ‘just’ traditional standards and are not bound by the ‘limits’ of the latest educational trends. Great schools, such as the British International School Shanghai manage to achieve the seemingly impossible: we combine the very best of traditional values with the most inspiring of innovative world class learning experiences. 

It is the parallel development of these two aspects that are so unique to the British International School Shanghai, because in fact the students’ abilities to innovate are predicated on our commitment to traditional British educational values. By putting the traditional values of education at the heart of how we nurture the best learners in amazing facilities, we ensure that they are the best prepared students for all that the future has to offer.