Wang Haolan

Holly_cn@163.com

With the red ribbon cut and firecrackers sent into the sky, on November 24 the new Net Valley campus of Shekou International School (SIS) officially opened in the Shekou Net Valley area in Zhaoshang Subdistrict, Nanshan District.

A ceremony was held to mark the opening of the new secondary campus, which was attended by students, faculty members and alumni of SIS, as well as some representatives from the education authority of Nanshan District and the Zhaoshang Subdistrict office.

Greg Smith, head of SIS, led the audience of the ceremony in a virtual tour of the new campus and stated that he has been overwhelmed with pride on seeing a building previously filled with offices, restaurants and coffee shops being turned into a seven-storey campus building which will lead SIS to become a “great school.”

“A school is much more than a building. But a great building is part of a great school. The new campus is a building that allows thinking to be flexible, to be visible and to be inspired, and is also a building that will last into the future and will still be helping students to be creative and collaborative,” said Smith.

He continued, “I do think it is a great building, but what makes me even happier is when I invite my colleagues from other schools or parents to come in and they say, ‘This is a great building! I wish I could go to school here!’ which makes me feel really good.”

John Zhang, who has been working at SIS since June 1996, was invited as one of the longest-serving faculty members of the school to witness the opening of the new campus.

“I have been working at SIS for 26 years and has witnessed all the secondary campuses of the school,” said Zhang. “The first one was located on the top of a small hill in Jingshan Villa, which had only one teaching building, and the second was located at the Coastal Rose Garden Phase II.”

Zhang recalled the times when he studied English himself after work to better communicate with the Australian manager of his office. “At SIS, I have grown up from a young man to a veteran staffer who is about to retire. I hope the school can get better and better just as our city of Shenzhen does,” he said.

Alexandra Uy, who graduated from SIS in 2009 and is currently working as a speech therapist at a clinic in Shenzhen after graduating from the University of Newcastle, Australia, came back to the school to attend the ceremony and to share her stories and experiences with 11th and 12th graders.

“The new campus is so beautiful that some of our alumni even start to get jealous!” joked Uy. “And it is great to see all the students enjoying studying in this place. A lot of good changes have taken place in the school.” Uy’s view was echoed by alumnus Don Harmon. He spent three years studying at SIS from grade six to nine and is now working in the fields of medical care and finance.

“The moment when I set my foot into this place, I was amazed by the performance of our student band,” said Harmon. “The infrastructure and the quality of the learning space have also been greatly improved. I can’t wait to go around and later see more of the new campus.”

According to primary principal Harish Kanabar, who will serve as the new head of school of SIS starting next August, the new campus has enhanced the school’s capacity to provide the students with a caring learning environment that enables them to be innovative and creative.

“I am very excited to be able to take SIS further and to better achieve the mission and vision of the school,” said Kanabar.

Just as Kanabar, Smith is also very optimistic about the future of SIS and is pleased that the school can continue to serve for the development of Shenzhen as well as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.