EXTREMELY high AQI readings this past winter had many international schools in Shanghai urgently looking for ways to ensure they could get the air quality on their campuses to safe and healthy levels and keep them there.

School leaders across Shanghai conferenced with one another, discussing effective ways to counteract the looming air quality challenges; they were focusing on how to keep their school populations safe. Before the air had “cleared,” schools were offering up solutions. Some opted to equip their classrooms with portable clean air systems, while others undertook structural changes to their facilities.

At Concordia International School Shanghai, the discussions on air quality grew to encompass the much bigger topic of how to define the word “safe”—in holistic terms. So what does safety look like at Concordia?

Physically, it means providing a safe and healthy environment, including long-term sustainable solutions ensuring clean air on campus—Concordia invested over three million RMB adding hermetic seals to the doors, changing and upgrading air filters, and installing fixed air filtration systems that reduce and maintain clean air in all classrooms and large gathering areas. According to Head of School Gregg Pinick, “We will continue to do what is necessary to make sure we have a safe, high-quality learning environment going forward.”

Even before the AQI hit its highest reading in Shanghai, the school already had guidelines and procedures to deal with poor air and had openly communicated them to the school community. Those guidelines have been validated in light of December’s bad air scare.

Creating good from bad, Concordia provided an authentic learning opportunity for AP Environmental Science students to analyze the actual air quality readings from around school. They later presented their findings to interested (and impressed) parents from the entire school. High School Science Teacher, Anne Love, comments, “It is rewarding to see my students engaged in the important work of analyzing air quality data and excited to communicate their knowledge to the community.”

Physical safety goes beyond air quality issues to ensure that all members of the community are safe and feel secure while on campus. Plant security on the Concordia campus encompasses a combination of ID cards, closed circuit cameras, 24/7 personnel to maintain a safe, yet inviting environment, and emergency preparedness and campus security procedures.

Concordia is located in the desirable neighborhood of Jinqiao and as the popularity of the area grows, so do the number of students and families coming onto the campus. With their whistles and a smile, guards safely usher happy students on and off campus each school day.

Additionally, two bi-lingual registered nurses care for students during school days and a certified althletic trainer is on campus during altheltic practices and games to handle any sports-related injuries.

The emotional safety and well-being of its students is also an important and intentional consideration at Concordia. All children face certain complex emotions during their school years—it’s a part of growing up. But for students in international schools there are the added challenges of living in a foreign country, in an unfamiliar culture and often having to make new friends and say good-bye to old ones on a fairly regular basis.

“At Concordia we acknowledge and respond to the transition process as everyone can be impacted in various ways by this mobile lifestyle,” says Elementary School Counselor Evie Slatter. Using the International Model for School Counseling, Concordia addresses the issue of international education by providing classroom guidance lessons that deal with the social and emotional impact of moving and living outside of one’s home country.

Another way in which transitioning students find support is through the school’s Ambassador Program in grades 7 to 12. Student ambassadors create a friendly school environment by corresponding via email with new students before they arrive and by helping them get acclimated during those first few hectic weeks at school. “We ask Ambassadors to regularly check in with their buddies throughout the first semester,” says High School Guidance Counselor Jason Holly, “although, more often than not, they have already become fast friends and see each other everyday at lunch.”

The school also encourages faculty to establish meaningful relationships with students so that every student has access to positive adult figures beyond academics. According to Concordia High School Principal Nicholas Kent, one of his goals for high school this year is for every student to be able to identify two teachers with whom they have a positive and meaningful relationship. The concept stems from the idea that children should have access to “positive adult relationships” in addition to their parents. “It takes a village,” adds Kent. At Concordia, that village operates in a Christian context where from the youngest to the oldest, the students engage in spiritual explorations daily with the outcome that everyone is safe when we focus on loving others as we love ourselves. This mandate is practiced in classrooms and hallways and facilitated through education and events, such as the antibullying campaign run in the Middle School.

At the very heart of Concordia, everything comes back to helping students learn and grow. Creating a learning environment that is welcoming, supportive and respectful is not only a benefit for the emotional lives of students but also for their academic lives. “Neuroscience research now shows us that academic performance excels in an environment, where the student feels like they belong, and where a student feels emotionally respected and safe,” says Concordia Middle School Guidance Counselor Amanda Abel.

As students experience education more dynamically in classrooms and interactive settings using online platforms and technology, intellectual safety has also become increasingly important. Technology Coaches in the Elementary, Middle and High school work with teachers to equip them to help students navigate with discernment the vast resources of media available at their fingertips. Additional focus on using social media responsibly while leveraging the power of digital media helps students make healthy choices.

While no resident of Shanghai is likely to be happy about the air quality changes we face at the moment, the sudden escalation of the issue last winter did serve to raise awareness across international school communities in the city. Concordia has addressed the air quality in their facilities, but beyond machines and buildings, the Concordia experience allows parents to have confidence that their students are in safe hands as they learn and develop holistically.

To learn more about holistic safety, visit more.concordiashanghai.org.

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