Yang Di/Shanghai Daily news

Relocating to a new city can be difficult for the person being transferred but it can put an even greater strain on the expatriate family if the children have difficulty adjusting.
Shanghai singapore International School (SSIS) represents some of the dynamic globalization developments in the city and it has played a vital role in meeting the academic needs of the expatriate community over the past nine years.
The ssis campus was founded in 1996 to cater to the educational needs of Singaporean families in Shanghai. It has developed from a school with a pupil enrollment of 18 into one with 1,200 expat students aged from three to 18 on three campuses being taught by 160 qualified teachers.
"The past nine years have witnessed a great leap forward for the school and we have kids from a wide range of cultural experiences, representing 20 nationalities," says Chong Leong Chin, Principal of SSIS Minhang Campus, adding that only 30 percent of the students are Singaporean children.
Chong is excited about the school's next move due to the ever-increasing enrollment. The SSIS Minhang Campus will be moved to the International Educational Development Zone in the district next year, with many other International Schools nearby.
The new campus will be three to four times the size of the current one and will provide better facilities for students from primary school to high school, according to Chong.
"The main reason for coming to the SSIS is that it offers a balanced and unique curriculum in line with the bilingual educational policies of Singapore and this is available to all expatriates students," says Chong.
"As an international school, we need to prepare our students to meet global challenges. Thus, they have to speak good English and good Chinese as well."
Ssis has refined and updated its teaching methods in the Chinese language program over the years. In order to serve the diverse needs of the students with different levels of Chinese language proficiency, the school now has developed four categories of the program to cater to pupils' differing abilities.
It also offers its students many opportunities to gain a fuller knowledge of Chinese culture. As an example, pupils have a chance to learn Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting in primary school.
Since the mission of the SSIS is to develop well-balanced children with good values, good life skills, and to become good global citizens who can serve the world, Chong is expecting more Western children to be attending the SSIS in the future, making the school even more like "a mini-United Nations."
"Globalization is the way that the world is developing, people are moving around and don't stick to one country and even one culture," says Chong. "For these young learning minds, it's their best time to get in touch with people who come from around the world and get to know how to appreciate the world and different cultures at an earlier age."
While the SSIS seeks to lay the fundamental groundwork in academic areas like English, Mathematics, Science and Chinese, it also has a complementary range of co-curricular activities (CCA) to balance the curriculum.
"We foster teamwork and cooperation among pupils from a wide range of cultural backgrounds so that they can learn to appreciate each other's differences," says Chong.
Kids are immersed in diverse activities for one and a half hours each week, designed to develop their creativity.
"We do realize that knowledge is not everything. Without good character and virtue, knowledge can be a dangerous weapon," says Chong. "Character building has always been an important feature in the school curriculum and our moral education program attempts to develop within each pupil values that cross the lines of race and religion."