The world is changing rapidly, with new research, new industries and new events emerging all the time.
Therefore, aside from the study of essential subjects, our school also places special emphasis on quality education, which includes providing our students with opportunities to participate in domestic and international competitions and to nurture their inner qualities. Such activities play a key role in students’ academic development, their holistic education, the expansion of their international horizons, and of enhancing awareness of their heritage.
It is well-known that interview officers at the world’s top universities have comprehensive and very rigorous selection criteria for students. Aside from their excellent academic results, they also look at a student’s interests, career aspirations, skills, individual personality, experiences, and even their worldviews. Therefore, in addition to their daily academic studies, our school regularly provides opportunities for students to take part in highly coveted events and competitions at home and abroad. While participating in these, students can learn teamwork skills, critical thinking abilities and sense of purpose. They can also cultivate their interests in pursuing knowledge and uncover their untapped potential. In preparing for a competition, teachers guide students in a range of competition skills, such as providing positive guidance on competitor awareness, cultivating ideas of healthy competition, risk-taking, resilience, and self-confidence building.
From early years, primary to secondary school, MCC emphasizes the importance of tailoring education to the specific needs of each student, based on their aptitude and ability. This often includes activities that our customized to the different learning stages of students. We encourage every student to proactively take part in competitions, including the recently concluded Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers, Future City 2021–2022, the United States Academic Pentathlon (USAP), and also international competitions in commerce, economics, mathematics, and sciences, Model United Nations, World Scholar’s Cup, and The Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
Take our Grade 6 students for an example. Last term, under the guidance and training of homeroom teacher Mr Well Fu, working with other subject teachers, and primary parent scholars, many Grade 6 students took part in the “Future City” global STEAM project which they won the second prize in the lower secondary category and a national popularity award. In this round, over 1,000 students and teachers from 120 teams across 26 provinces, districts, and cities took part in the competition. Only 8 schools from Sichuan progressed to the national finals, and the popularity award was given to the top three teams in the country based on national popularity rankings.
After a short break, these Grade 6 students quickly leapt into the United States Academic Pentathlon. As planned, from 30 April to 2 May, the students will go to Changsha to take part in the national live showcase and Q&A where various awards will be presented.
Recently, another 21 MCC students including primary and secondary, participated in the Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers. At the end of the competition, Lily Lei and Flora Chen from Grade 6 won the third prize and a merit award respectively.
In April, MCC’s primary students also attended Math Kangaroo Competition.
Students from secondary school are taking part in an even richer variety of competitions and quality education development programmes. Currently, there are over 16 international competitions for secondary students, such as the British Biology Olympiad, British Physics Olympiad, USA Biology Olympiad, ASDAN Critical Thinking Qualification, International Academic Competitions, and World Youth Economic Forum, and The Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers.
For example, our student Kaden Cao, who received conditional offer letters to both Imperial College London and University College London this year won bronze awards at the British Biology Olympiad and the British Physics Olympiad. Prior to this, he submitted some of his research on applying gene editing in cancer treatment to the international journal Lecture Notes in Medicine and Life Sciences, published by Clausius Scientific Press, and these were successfully published in the journal.
In the languages and literature area, recently, the Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers announced the latest results, Blair Wan and Elina Li in secondary school were awarded second prize and the merit award respectively.
At MCC, in fact, we have many more students like these. For example, at the UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge, our students received silver award and bronze awards while at the 2021 Math Kangaroo Thinking Challenge (China Division), our students received the gold award, bronze award, and the mathematics skills award. In the 2021 International Academic Competitions, Owen Zhao was the only participant from southwestern China to qualify for the international competition. In the 2020 ETS Critical Thinking Qualification, Candy Cao received the top prize of ‘Outstanding’. She is now reading Law at SOAS University of London, where she will further develop her critical thinking skills. In the process of taking part in these competitions and events, our students achieve both a sense of self-accomplishment and also develop numerous personal qualities and abilities.
