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CISK breaks ground on boarding school in Kunshan
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In a large, empty plot of land close to the Bacheng exit of Suzhou’s Raocheng Expressway, ground was broken on October 18 for a new campus of an international school that opened last year. Upon completion of the boarding school campus, which will be part of the Canada International School Kunshan (CISK), expats living in Suzhou and neighboring cities will find yet another reason to stay.
At the end of 2012, the first international school in Kunshan opened. CISK is a school affiliated with St John’s Kilmarnock School (SJK), a prestigious International Baccalaureate school in Ontario, Canada. The city is just over half-an-hour ride from Suzhou on the way to central Shanghai.
CISK provides students with an Ontario based JK-8 program, currently from Grade 1-8, but extending to Grade 12 in the near future.
Among the many congratulatory speeches from the local government to the envoy of the mayor of Waterloo, Ontario, where SJK is located, Theodozia Daisy Fedyna, the principal of CISK, made her address stand out by involving three cute international students.
The three non-native-speaking kids sent out their own goodwill to CISK in their mother tongues. That was an appropriate introduction for Fedyna’s speech, which followed. “There are many languages you need to travel the world. Have you prepared your kids enough for such a diversified future?” she asked.
Having seen a lot of the world, Fedyna speaks English and Russian, and is also fluent in Polish and French. Providing kids with a global perspective is one of the major missions of CISK, which is exactly what the well-off parents in this area are looking for.
In the principal’s eyes, education is not just about mathematics, physics, language and art, it should be equally about playing, studying and sharing with others, about exchanging ideas with people and respecting the differences that exist. “It’s difficult to imagine one of our kids lining up for the slide could become a world leader in the future, but it’s the humble beginning we all have.”
Wearing a festive Chinese traditional-style gown in red, Fedyna has apparently brought her international attitude to her new home, Kunshan. With easy accesses to a bunch of highways, and subways connecting the city to Suzhou and Shanghai in the years to come, Fedyna thinks her school offers the international as well as local parents working in this entire area another choice to prepare their kids globally.
“I find Kunshan a very welcoming and kind place. I feel safer here when walking in the streets than in Ontario. Also, I’m fascinated by the culture here,” she said. “However, it might be helpful to have a tourist’s guide to Kunshan — perhaps a little yellow-book directory that lists hair stylists, tailors, etc. We also hope to see proper English signs at the train station and perhaps one ticket kiosk specifically for foreigners to make travel easier.”
With the arrival of CISK’s creative international staff and students in Kunshan, the city may find easier solutions for its English speakers.
Fedyna also gave out her suggestions to potential new residents of Kunshan: “Get out and walk and explore the city from something other than a car or bus.” She plans to buy a moped to get closer to everything local, and to facilitate her frequent trips to Shanghai, with the subway network going into town. “The more education choices people can have, the more good employees will be considering staying and starting a life here. I think Kunshan government must have a good awareness of it,” Fedyna said.
The launch of CISK definitely has intensified the competition among international schools in the Yangtze River Delta area, given that multinational expats will view it very favorably.
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