As we begin our 2021-22 academic year all the staff here at Malvern College Chengdu are looking forward to a very successful and exciting year ahead in our wonderful new campus.

Dear students:

I would like to welcome all of you, both old and new, onto the campus for the new academic year. There have been a lot of changes over the summer break, which I think will make MCC an even better place in which to grow and learn. You will see lots of new faces amongst our student body and the teaching team. This gives you the opportunity to make new friends and to benefit from a more diverse curriculum.

The school, acting on your feedback, has worked hard to improve the CCA (Co-curriculum Activities) programme and to offer more structured activities during House Night and at weekends.

As Head of school, my goal is to make MCC a warm, welcoming and fun environment, but also a school where high standards of conduct and academic achievement are encouraged. You are all unique individuals, and our job is to identify and nurture your talents.

I look forward to getting to know you all over the next few months.

Best wishes

Dr. Jill Cowie

Head of School

At Malvern College Chengdu we offer a personalized, student-centred teaching approach that allows every student to develop at his/her own pace so as to give full focus to the potential of each student. To this end, we have established an academic teaching team of the highest quality. Through strict screening, we have recruited only the best educators and passionate ‘changers’, people with commitment and professional competence who will devote themselves to delivering our first-class curriculum and innovative teaching practices. In this way, we are able to nurture every child to become a future-oriented international talent with a healthy personality and a strong sense of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetic sense, and an excellent work ethic.

Under our existing Chinese-Western integrated teaching model, the Chinese National Curriculum Committee, led by Jennifer Pun Fan, the Director of Education (Chinese) for Malvern College International (Asia) and the Founding Head of Malvern College Chengdu, will continue to promote this innovative integrated education model. The Committee ensures that at both primary and middle school levels our teaching teams integrate core Chinese-Western education practices and deliver outstanding academic curriculum development and practice.

For those parents who may not be familiar with our Chinese-Western integrated teaching team and their contributions to our holistic education, we’d like to introduce them below:

 

 

Dr Jill Cowie

Head of School

Dr Jill Cowie

Dr. Jill Cowie holds a BSc (Hons) and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh, an M.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Aberdeen, and a PGCE from the University of Leeds. She is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has received Chartered Chemist (CChem) certification. Dr. Cowie explains “I have been devoted to education research and teacher training throughout my entire career and that has never stopped, not even for one day”. After assuming her role at Malvern College Chengdu, she commented that “As a principal, I hope to work together with our team members to create a warm and friendly school where every student will be cared for, supported, and recognised. This is our commitment to the healthy development of our students.” From our continuous curriculum development and our diversified range of extracurricular activities to the moral education team’s supervision of the school development and our efficient home-school communication, all our activities share one goal, that is, to nurture our students into international talents with a Chinese heart.

 

 

 

Jennifer Pun Fan

Jennifer Pun Fan, graduated from the South China Normal University and continued her studies at the Education University of Hong Kong. She won an Outstanding Achievement Award and obtained the Hong Kong Registered Teacher Certificate. Ms. Pun attained her Master of Education, with a major in Chinese Language and Literature Education, as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in School Leadership and Management, in Hong Kong. She was also a Territory-wide System Assessment Examiner and Reviewer for Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. As an expert working in the education field for many years, she has developed extensive experience and unique insights. Her passion for education and devotion to intensive research is really admirable. Ms. Pun won the principal award “Sun” – “Most Famous Principal with Educational Spirit” in the TENCENT International Schools Award Ceremony, 2018 and she completed courses at Peking University’s International School Operation and Management Seminar. The International Education Curriculum Handbook for Primary Schools was written in 2019, and Ms. Pun was awarded a Registration Certificate by the National Copyright Administration of China. In the same year, she won the “Most Popular Principal in China” award. She has more than 20 years’ experience in education, including over 10 years spent in highly reputable bilingual immersion schools in the Independent Schools Foundation Academy of Hong Kong and Keystone Academy of Beijing. As a highly experienced educator, she has made outstanding contributions to school management, teacher training, and curriculum development in Chinese language and culture, science and information technology, project-based learning, and cross-disciplinary inquiry etc.

Jennifer Pun Fan

Director of Education (Chinese) for Malvern College International (Asia) , Head of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee, Founding Head of Malvern College Chengdu

 

Simon Zhang

Deputy head of Chinese National Curriculum, Core Member of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee

Simon Zhang

Simon Zhang holds a Master of Education, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has rich academic management experience in the integration of the Chinese National Curriculum and the International Curriculum. Simon formally took office at Malvern College Chengdu in August this year. With more than 10 years teaching management experience gained in both international and local schools in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, he believes that the overall development of students should go hand-in-hand with their personal development. To this end, teaching methods such as inquiry-based teaching and heuristics must be combined with the holistic education’s ‘model thinking’ to cultivate outstanding students.

 

Sunny Shang

Sunny Shang graduated from teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at the Beijing Language and Culture University. She then completed a master’s degree in Education from Indiana Wesleyan University in the United States and also holds an AP Chinese teacher certificate. In 2019, Sunny left Tianjin International School where she had worked for 18 years, to join Malvern College Chengdu, which was still under construction at the time. Sunny states that “An educator needs to provide students with a learning environment where they feel safe and to satisfy students’ potential needs for love and respect while imparting knowledge and skills.” She believes that in education, it is vital for teachers to understand their students and to provide teaching content based on their needs so that teachers can really drive the development of students and potentially, even change their lives.

Sunny Shang

Head of Primary, Core Member of The Chinese National Curriculum Committee

 

Joseph Lubojanski

Head of English

Joseph Lubojanski

As a British teacher, Mr. Joseph graduated from the University of Nottingham with a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Management. He received a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of the West of England, and also gained a PGCE from the University of Nottingham. He is currently studying for an MBA at York Business School. Before joining Malvern College Chengdu as Head of the English Department in the Primary School, Mr. Joseph served as the academic director of an international college in Chongqing, where he was responsible for supervising students’ course study, university application improvement, mock exams, writing essays, as well as teacher training and home-school communication. Prior to taking that position, he had served as a senior English teacher at Yew Wah International Education for three years. In his eight-year English teaching career Joseph has worked to ensure that every child acquires all-around development in their learning. He is an extremely passionate and dedicated educator who believes that a good education manager should not only be a top-performer teacher but also lead the team for continuous improvement in teaching ability. Mr. Joseph has mastered Chinese very well, speaking Chinese in daily communication, and even conducting simple reading and writing in Chinese. This skill has played an important role in our home-school communication.

 

Dada Yin

Mr. Yin holds bachelor’s degrees in Education from Beijing Institute of Education, and in Computer Science and Technology from China Agricultural University. As a core member of the “Wing Course” research team under the nationally renowned mathematician Ma Xinlan, Dada Yin was a certified Beijing municipal-level “backbone” mathematics teacher and a subject leader in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Mr. Yin once participated in the Beijing Classroom Teaching Competition on behalf of Chaoyang District where he won the first prize and he has also achieved excellent results in many classroom teaching competitions, instructional design competitions, and lecture competitions held in Chaoyang District and Beijing. With more than 20 years’ experience in primary school mathematics teaching, he believes that mathematics not only plays a basic role in science and economics, but also contributes to the learning of all disciplines such as humanities, art, and sociology. Students’ thinking in primary grades one and two uses concrete images so, teaching, should adopt languages that are as simple as possible and establish model thinking to get students better prepared for future learning. Under the guidance of this model thinking, students in the middle and higher grades can autonomously build models in their minds to simplify things when encountering complicated mathematical relationships.

 

With his wealth of teaching management experience, Mr. Yin has been responsible for all the moral education work in the primary school since last year.

Dada Yin

Assistant Head of Primary (Pastoral), Mathematics Superintendent, Core Member of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee

 

Jillian Gabriel

English Teacher

Jillian Gabriel

Ms. Jillian was born in the UK and studied in Canada and she believes that growing up in a bilingual environment has greatly benefitted her English teaching. Prior to joining Malvern College Chengdu, Ms Jillian was a teacher of English and Information Science for grade two students at HD Ningbo School. She holds registered teacher certifications in British Columbia, Canada and in the UK and also has a Degree in Education (primary school) from the University of Victoria in Canada, and a Master of Education from the University of Exeter. Before moving to China, she worked as a teacher in well-known local primary schools in Amman, UAE, and Ontario, Canada. During her seven years teaching around the world, Ms. Jillian has accumulated extensive experience teaching English as a second language. She always makes personalised teaching plans based on the different academic backgrounds of her students and believes that the potential of each student is unique and therefore it is not possible to use the same standard to evaluate them all. She can effectively integrate local teaching goals with the teaching methods of international high-quality courses and can efficiently cultivate students’ critical thinking and communication to allow them to apply what they have learned

 

Zak Shi

With a master’s degree in Education, majoring in physical education, education management, and leadership, Zak Shi graduated from the Education University of Hong Kong. He also gained a bachelor’s degree in Education from Beijing Sport University where he majored in traditional ethnic sports. Zak is a registered teacher of the Hong Kong government and has practiced martial arts for 26 years since he was a child. He has held the titles of National Master-level Athlete, National-level Martial Arts Champion, Grade-one National Referee in Wushu Routines, and Level VI of Chinese Martial Arts. In 2019, he left Beijing Dingshi School and became a founding member of Malvern College Chengdu. He once worked at Hong Kong Ling Liang Church MH Lau Secondary School as the deputy director of physical education and during his teaching in Hong Kong, Mr. Shi won many accolades: including the Hong Kong Institute of Education Outstanding National Martial Arts Athlete Scholarship in 2010; in 2011 he was named “Top Ten Potential Inspiring Teachers” by Ling Liang Church MH Lau Secondary School, and in 2015, in the “School Like Recognition Program”, Mr. Shi Yan stood out from 103 teachers and became one of the 10 most “Liked” teachers in Hong Kong. Mr. Shi is currently using his rich arts and sports teaching management experience to help reform our holistic quality education and to take the teaching quality of Malvern College Chengdu to a new level.

Zak Shi

Assistant Head of Primary (Arts and P.E.), Core Member of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee

 

Amber Liu

Assistant Head of Primary (Academic), Core Member of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee

Amber Liu

Ms. Amber Liu received a bachelor’s degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) from Shanxi Normal University and a master’s degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University, the latter of which ranks ‘First’ in the US primary education majors. Before joining Malvern College Chengdu, she worked at Farwell Elementary School, Walter Hill Elementary School, and Michigan State University. Her strength lies in interdisciplinary teaching and in encouraging students to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. She has previously set up and participated in several Chinese projects in the United States, one of which was awarded the Best Foreign Language Teaching Program of the Year by the Michigan Department of Education. During her four years working in the Greenville School District, she was ranked first on many occasions. As a highly experienced teacher, Ms. Liu chose Malvern College Chengdu for her first job when she returned to China in 2019 and brings to the school her many years of experience accumulated overseas. In an interview, Ms. Liu commented “I firmly believe that ‘it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish’. Cultivating students’ learning and thinking skills is far more important than just instilling knowledge.” Ms. Liu has been guided in her teaching practice by the words of John Dewey, a famous educator, who once said: “If we teach today as we were taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” This academic year, Ms. Liu will not only continue her roles as class teacher for grade one, and curriculum director of our ‘Exploring the World’ programme but has been promoted to assume a new role as Assistant Principal in charge of academics, where she will help the school management team bring the primary school’s academic curriculum to a new height.

 

Bella Liu

Ms. Liu once worked at Paotongshu Primary School, one of the five ‘Golden Flowers’ of Chengdu, where she taught mathematics in two classes and also served as the class teacher. Before joining Paotongshu Primary School, Ms. Liu worked as a mathematics teacher at No.3 Experimental Primary School in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, an advanced entity in the education system of Hebei Province and a famous school in Tangshan City. In 2011, she was acknowledged as one of the “Top Ten Young Teachers in Laoting County, Tangshan City” and after receiving an invitation from Chengdu D&J Bilingual Elementary School, an international school in Wenjiang District, Ms. Liu became their mathematics teacher and deputy dean of academic affairs. She once participated in the “Study Class for Key Teachers of Academic Credentials and Teaching Plans” in Wenjiang District and was awarded the title of ‘Excellent Teacher’. With a natural and free teaching style, Ms. Liu uses vivid and lively teaching language, is accomplished in thinking and summarizing, and passionate about education and teaching. Having taught on the front line for more than 10 years, Ms. Liu greatly appreciates that teaching and education are closely linked. She believes that great learning makes a teacher and moral integrity makes a role-model. During her teaching career, she has always put her students first and ensured they benefit from her solid teaching skills.

Bella Liu

Head of Mathematics, Core Member of the Chinese National Curriculum Committee

 

Jacques Slabbert

Science and P.E. Teacher

Jacques Slabbert

Before joining Malvern College Chengdu, Mr. Jacques worked at another international school in Chengdu where his lively and interesting teaching style made him one of the most popular teachers in the school. He is especially good at teaching physical education. “I think I’m very talented in sports as I’m good at rugby, cricket, tennis, football, and track and field sports, and I once taught rugby and cricket at Grey College, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in South Africa”, says Mr. Jacques proudly.

 

 

In reading this introduction of our primary school teachers, we hope that you will see how proud we are of the many uniquely talented teachers we have at Malvern College Chengdu. Their unique skills and true heart for education make them a very valuable asset to our school.