Shanghai Cao Yang No.2 High School
Caoyang No. 2 High School was founded in 1954 and designated as a Shanghai key school in 1979. Former president Jiang Zemin once made the inscription of “Diligent,enterprising, realistic and innovative” during his visit to the school on April 13, 1989.In February, 2005, it became one of the first experimental model high schools in Shanghai. Now the school is being built into an education park and striving to become an experiment and demonstration center for modern basic education. It has won many honors, including National Model School in Classic Sports, Municipal Model of Morality Education and Municipal Flagship School to Implement Codes of Conduct for rimary and Middle School Students. In addition, it is one of the first National Green Schools.
Caoyang No. 2 High School is a full-time senior middle school funded by the government, with 34 classes, 1,500 students and 181 aculty members. It is located in Putuo District, one of the downtown areas in Shanghai, and covers an area of 4.07 hectares with a floor area of 38, 000 square meters. The campus is beautiful and tidy with a range of facilities, including 2 teaching buildings, an office building, a laboratory a building, a library, a computer center, a studio, a gymnasium, a botanic garden, as well as a standard plastic-track stadium and a basketball court and each classroom is equipped with multi-media CAI devices.
The school is committed to providing high-quality education, and producing outstanding talents for the society. It is one of the best performers in the National College Entrance Examination in the district and the city at large. In the past decade, three annual top scorers in the exam have studied here. Every year, there are some students admitted by the top universities in the country, including Peking University, Tsinghua University and the University of Hong Kong, and Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and other famous ones enroll about 150 students. In addition, a pool of talented students has scored great successes in citywide, national and international contests and competitions in chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics.
The Italian Science Program of Caoyang No. 2 High School
The Italian Program of Caoyang No. 2 High School is the first national program that adopts the curriculum of Italian language in a Chinese high school, which enjoys the generous support from the government of Putuo District and Tongji University. Students in this program have access to the free courses and educational resources of Tongji University. They also maintain constant exchange with Italian students studying in Tongji University.
Curriculum
The students learn the whole set of compulsory courses of high school in China, including Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry, biology, computer, history, geography, PE, music and art. They also learn some selective courses, including psychology, environmental protection, lectures on humanities, and prerequisite science courses of Tongji University. Meanwhile, students are required to omplete certain social practices, such as taking internship in factories and social studies. In addition, the students need to attend 10 Italian courses every week and the Italian corner every noon.
Students and Teachers
The program now has 37 students in total, ranging from Senior One to Senior Three. There are two teachers in charge of this program. One of them is Chinese, and the other is Italian.
Italian Cultural Activities
Every term the school organizes a great many Italian cultural activities, and also encourages students to take an active part in various cultural activities organized by the Cultural Office of the Italian Consulate in Shanghai. So far, the Italian Program has organized the Italian Enterprise Day, Italian Film and Drama Appreciation Event,Italian Concert, the cultural exploration of Italians in Shanghai, Italian Gourmet Festival, and Lectures on Italian Culture, etc. All these activities have helped students understand Italian culture and deepen their friendship with Italy. The students are becoming more and more interested in Italian culture and language.
Our Goals
After three years of studying the Italian and Science course in high school, we expect students to attain the following goals,
1. Reach A2 level of Italian and demonstrate outstanding English proficiency.
2. Have solid academic knowledge base and get straight A’s in all subjects of the high school period.
3. Have a keen interest, innovative capacity and good basic skills in engineering. Complete the amount of practice and tasks assigned by Tongji University in high school.
4. Have interest for electronic information technology or machinery and a strong will to further education in such spheres.
5. Be interested in Italian science and technology, manufacturing, and culture, and have the willingness to promote Sino-Italian cultural exchange.
Future Planning
At present, Caoyang No. 2 High School and the University of Pisa, Italy have reached a tentative agreement on cooperation. Our school has been designated by the
University for Foreigners of Siena as a testing center for overseas Italian Certification Exam. During the three-year learning of Italian, students have the opportunity to study Italian for one month in the University for Foreigners of Siena, Italy. We sincerely hope that our students will not only reach A2 level of Italian but also reach B1 in the near future.
At the meantime, by seeking proactive cooperation with Italian universities, especially polytechnics, we can pave a way for our students from the Italian program to go directly to Italian universities for further education. In terms of some universities that require an entrance exam, we plan to set up preparatory courses for students; for those universities that have no entrance exam, we facilitate our students to go straight to university.
All these initiatives can greatly promote the development of our Italian program in China, and meanwhile assist those students who intend to study in Italy in getting an access to Italian universities.
Last but not least, we also hope that we can offer some help to those Shanghai based families with both Chinese and Italian background, , enabling their children to grow up in an environment of Chinese education and also learn Italian. In this way, whether they choose to live in China or Italy in the future, they won’t be hindered by any language barriers. We plan to nitiate a class of Italian language learning, which is comprised of 25 students, in our attached primary and junior middle schools (ranging from Grade One to Grade Nine). This class aims to recruit students from both Chinese families and families with both Chinese and Italian background. Their courses will include both Italian and compulsory curriculum of China. If those students’graduation rates can pass the assessment, they can be admitted into Caoyang No. 2 High School.
