Parent's Review of YK Pao School in Shanghai, China

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

YK Pao School

In what town or city is this school located?

Shanghai

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

Bilingual

What grade levels are represented at this school?

year 1 to 12

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

Bus and Private Cars (Weekly boarding system from year 6)

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

Two campus: primary and secondary. Primary campus contains two buildings with auditorium, open roof playground, a small swimming pool, a small soccer field. Secondary campus contains boarding houses and main school. Blackbox, auditorium, 300m tracks and stadium, a pointless tower, 25m swimming pool, multifunctional room.

Swimming is the main sport and is compulsory till year 9. Other main sports include Volleyball and Soccer. There are also choices such as basketball, ultimate frisbee, athletics, cross country.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

For transition, the school has done quite a lot. It provides a bilingual environment in chinese and english. I would say that a lot of english is used in class, but between friends, students communicate mostly in Chinese.

What I would say is that the huge pressure in the senior school allows you child to really be able to face 'any criticism' in later life. (such as my kid spent 10 hours on her english coursework, and all her teacher said was you haven't put in any effort).

Students are very academically focused, and the parents definitely pushed the students a lot.

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

There is Parents and Teacher association. Parents are one of the core members in the school I would say.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

A lot of parents are with great affluence, and the students there are mostly very spoiled. They held parties in mansion or up at the Bund, and they have very little to non-social concerns and responsibility. Their parents are so rich, they are willing to spend all their money on their single-child. You as a parent will be put under pressure if you don't send your kids to summer school in America, or if you don't send your kids to extra classes outside of school for SAT/ TOEFL preparation. The aim of the school is to send students to top university but not to prepare them for life. Students and teachers would criticized if you aren't getting top grades and you are expect to excel at everything.

If you want your kids to grow up in an environment like this, I will hold my opinion. I wouldn't encourage you to enroll your child into the school, but instead perhaps look into Concordia or Yew Chung in Shanghai.

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