Weekly Message from Head of School 2025/1/12-2025/1/17
Dear Keystonians,
As we head towards the last week before the holiday, I am excited to share a little more about some of the developments related to Keystone’s newest strategic plan.
As you can see, our plan has two big ideas, and four key priority areas. This week and next, I’ll update you on some actions and processes related to our key priority areas so we can all continue to understand how any changes we make at Keystone are part of our strategic plan and continual improvement. This is not a comprehensive list of our actions and work, but rather some important projects and updates in key areas. I will update you on Priorities 1 &2 this week, and 3&4 next week.
Priority 1: China
Promote and enhance programing/learning experiences that deepen students’ personal identity through connection to and understanding of China. ?
One of our most important projects in this area is the school’s development of student experiences at our Rural Service Center in Sishui, in Shandong province. Last year groups of 8th graders and faculty made good use of the space to connect to the community there and deepen the understanding of our school community with rural China. It is exciting that our 2025 iteration of the 8th grade ELP will take place over 9 weeks giving students a more personalized and immersive experience in the community there and allowing students and teachers to live for several days at a time in the courtyard home we have renovated there. The middle school leaders have been working hard on making this meaningful and inspiring ELP experience a reality for our 8th graders. Personally, I am excited to go as an Administrator on Duty for one of the weeks. I love being in Sishui and it will be a special experience to spend that time with students and a small group of teachers.
For Priority 2: The World:
Increase and enhance the global diversity of our student body and experiences of global connection for all our students.??
After appointing a Director of Global Programs last year, we have increased our exchange and travel programs opportunities for our students this year. In addition to our global trips, we are having groups of students from schools outside of China come to spend time at Keystone. We also have a couple of students coming from the US and Canada for longer term individual "study in China” experiences.
In addition, we are looking at continuing to improve and strengthen our residential program as we build capacity to recruit more matriculating international students and improve the global nature of the program for all students.
One of the small changes related to our boarding program that we announced to employees this week is that starting with the 25-26 school year, we will call 9th grade the first year of our high school program. While 9th grade will continue to be the final year of compulsory education in China, we will streamline the administrative of the Residential boarding program by limiting our boarding students' care and support to one divisional leadership team. Also, as we consider ourselves among the best boarding schools in the world, we want applicants to 9th grade to be able to compare our program to other great boarding schools, most of which are 4 years beginning in 9th grade. There is little impact on this shift to the curriculum or teaching schedule of our existing 9th grade program, but some small adjustments will be made to things like assemblies and other divisional gatherings. More to come on that in the months to come as we prepare for the 25-26 school year.
Next week I will continue the strategic updates here and share some exciting news about two new classes that will be available in 6th and 9th grade in the 2025-26 school year. They will be pilot courses for a program called Transdisciplinary Studies in Engineering Technology (TSET). I will also share a brief update about the efforts to adjust the primary timetable. Finally, I will summarize the great progress made by the Keystone Professional Educators Program committee which is developing a comprehensive teacher growth and evaluation system, elements of which will begin to be piloted in the second semester. It’s exciting work ensuring that we are living up to our identity as a “New World School”!
Also, as I sign off, as someone who has studied educational technology and social media, I can’t help but ask: Have you seen the adorable phenomenon of Americans flocking to RedNote (小红书)? (Ignore for a moment the policy reasons behind the whole thing.) It is amazing to see people meeting each other online and being exposed for the first time to what people in our community know so well: the world is small, we have more in common than we think, and connections build joy and peace. Here’s to more of that, in whatever form it takes!
Have a great weekend!
Warmly,
Emily
