CISS Honors Warriors Against Covid-19

On July 3, Canadian International School of Shenyang held a meeting to honor the staff who have made contributions to the prevention and control against COVID-19 in the past few months by presenting a certificate of honor signed by Dr. Francis Pang, chairman of the board and legal representative of CISS.

The COVID-19 outbreak coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year. At that time, more than a dozen foreign teachers and their families returned to Shenyang from other provinces and cities to live in the school. The school is located far away from the city in Qipanshan Mountain. Under the influence of the epidemic, these foreigners felt lonely. Moreover, because of different cultures and languages, they were not familiar with the Chinese government's prevention and control measures, especially the practice of home quarantine, therefore they were kind of anxious and needed some support. Madam Yun A Duan, Executive Director, has decided to set up an anti-epidemic team. Chinese employees were invited voluntarily to join the team and came back to the school to accompany the foreigners for explanation and psychological counseling. meanwhile, did a good job in epidemic prevention and control for the school.

It took courage to go back to school at a time when Chinese families were getting together for the Lunar New Year and the risk of an unpredictable epidemic. During the time of crisis twelve Chinese employees of CISS volunteered to participate and returned to the school on the second day of the first lunar month. Led by the school's Executive Director, Madam Yun A Duan，they came to the foreign teachers and their families.

This temporarily established anti-epidemic team has shown strong fighting capacity. They strictly carried out the “wartime” standard, prepared epidemic prevention supplies, conducted daily disinfection, checked the temperature of all the staff,  ensured the daily necessities of foreign teachers, released news and relevant knowledge to the school staff and the students' parents, and did a great job in epidemic prevention and control. For nearly 4 months, CISS anti-epidemic team has been living inside the school under enclosed management, thus becoming a solid line of defense to stop the spread of the virus to the campus. The action of the anti-epidemic team touched all the foreign teachers, as well as all the students and parents isolated outside the school due to the epidemic and the Hunnan district government. They came to the school at the earliest date to provide timely help for the school. Up to now, there has not been a case of virus infection in CISS. All the teachers, students and staff are in good mental health and enjoy a peaceful family. CISS has also become the only IB World School  in Shenyang that has established a resident anti-epidemic team and the only IB World School in Shenyang with foreign teachers residing in school.

On behalf of the chairman of the board, Dr. Francis Pang, Vice Principal, Dr. Francisco, and all the faculty staff, Madam Yun A Duan, Executive Director，expressed gratitude and admiration for the courage, solidarity and selfless dedication of all the members of the anti-epidemic team during the epidemic. She said, the successful implementation of the anti-epidemic work has enabled foreign teachers to stay in the school with peace of mind and opened online courses for students. IB World School has strict requirements for teaching content and education time. In a responsible attitude to the student, under the circumstance that the school could not open as scheduled normally, in order to ensure that students could complete the teaching content of the IB curriculum, it is decided to adopt video education and online courses, enabling students’ study at home. The online teaching of CISS started from February 5, using a number of live broadcasting platforms for teaching, meanwhile, teachers were encouraged to make their own teaching videos so that students could learn at any time. Due to the limited English proficiency of some students' parents, the excellent team of Chinese teachers actively assisted parents and played a role in promoting the improvement of online courses. In such a special time, the normal teaching work of CISS was not affected, and was even highly praised by students and parents, further enhancing the popularity and reputation among foreigners and foreign-funded institutions which was inseparable from the contribution made by the anti-epidemic team. They not only protected the safety of teachers and students, but also made unity, cooperation and selfless dedication the most valuable spiritual wealth of CISS.