LONGGANG District will build four new international schools, with two of them to start accepting students in September, according to the district’s education authorities Monday.

The Easton International Academy and Shenzhen Sandy Quan Bilingual Experimental School plan to open this fall, while the other two international schools, whose official names have not been decided, have already decided on locations.

The Easton International Academy, in cooperation with a K-12 school in the United States, will hire experienced principal and teaching staff from well-known U.S. schools. As many as 80 percent of the teaching staff will be expatriates.

The school said it would invite doctors and professors from Duke University as consultants to give advice on the school’s management and curriculum development.

The Shenzhen Sandy Quan Bilingual Experimental School, funded by Shenzhen Shuren Education Group, will be a private boarding school.

The school covers an area of more than 53,000 square meters and will be able to house 1,728 students from 12 grades in 48 classes.

The school has inked a strategic partnership agreement with a K-12 high school in the United States, Sandy Spring Friends School, in a bid to provide international education to its students. The two schools will collaborate on developing educational philosophies, curricula, teaching faculties, teacher-student communications, overseas study preparation programs as well as an academic credit system.

On the basis of fulfilling the national curriculum, the Shenzhen school will also provide programs such as cross-cultural understanding, trilingual courses for Hong Kong students, study of traditional Chinese culture, life skills and specialty training.

The international class will adopt the AP Curriculum for students who wish to study abroad after graduating from the school.

One of the other two schools in planning, known as Longcheng North International School for now, will be built near Longcheng Park in the downtown area of Longgang. Another school, with the temporary name Bantian North International School, will be in Bantian.

(Zhang Qian)