Yang Mei, Wheaty Cai yangmei_szdaily@163.com Shenwai Longgang International School (SLIS) was immersed in a festive atmosphere the morning of January 17 as students, teachers and parents dressed in red celebrated the Chinese New Year with a variety of traditional Chinese cultural activities such as flower-arranging, paper-cutting and clay figurine-making. At the auspicious occasion, Ms. Luka Liu, school director of SLIS, announced that SLIS is now formally accredited as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School offering a Primary Years Program, making SLIS the first and only school in Longgang District to earn the honor. According to the principal, it only took SLIS two years of effort to win the recognition, a feat that is deemed as remarkable since it normally takes three to five years to obtain authorization from IB. Ms. Liu also announced that SLIS’s Grade 1 will add three additional classes with 20 students per class. The secondary school division has officially started enrollment with Grade 6 and 7 opening two classes with 20 students per class, thus forming a comprehensive system covering primary and secondary school education. According to the school, SLIS is also currently applying for authorization in the IB Middle Years Program (MYP) for grades 6 to 10. Additionally, Liu also revealed that SLIS’ permanent campus is now under construction and will be put into use in September. The well-equipped school buildings will be designed in a European style and will accommodate up to 900 students. SLIS has been committed to providing international curriculum education with Chinese characteristics as it attaches equal importance to Chinese and Western values and cultures in its educational philosophy. Entering its second edition, the Chinese New Year fair is a part of a series of activities for Traditional Chinese Culture Week at SLIS, aiming to give students the chance to experience the charm of traditional Chinese culture and encouraging them to carry it forward. This year’s edition opened with students singing household Chinese song “A Grateful Heart” to express their gratitude to parents and teachers for their dedicated work and efforts, which was followed by an array of traditional cultural performances including pipa performances, Peking opera, martial arts and dragon dance. After the performances, audience members were invited to visit the Chinese New Year fair where they could try their hand at handicrafts such as paper-cutting, flower-arranging and sugar painting as well as sample traditional Chinese foods such as dumplings. | 