Let’s Wrap Up the Year with our Hongqiao and ECE PAFA Teams
Before we let everyone out for the summer, we have a few wise words from our dedicated Parents and Friends Association (PAFA) at the SCIS Hongqiao and Early Childhood Education (ECE) campuses. Please read below for a touching farewell to our community of Dragons.
From the Hongqiao PAFA Team:
What a year! This is our second full academic year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Parents and Friends Association (PAFA) started the year strong with its popular Parent Social. As the year progressed, PAFA has adapted and improved its off-campus events and programs for the SCIS community with the vital leadership and support of the Events Team.
The most successful PAFA initiative has been the Parent led clubs. This year saw an increase in the number of parent clubs. Some weekly meetings. The clubs were created around common interests, provided social spaces, and made new lasting connections among parents. Even during the current lockdown some clubs have kept active on WeChat and Zoom sharing their interests and promoting a sense of community. As demonstrated by the success of clubs such as the International Cooking Club, Dad Football club, the English/Chinese Conversation Clubs, the Picture Book Club, the Wine Club, and the Mahjong Club, we are confident that common interests are the best way to bring our diverse community together. On the foundation of what the current clubs have built, we hope to see more parents come forward and lead the creation of new clubs in the 2022-2023 school year.
The school representatives have had a busy year passing on news updates from the school. Their dedication and hard work were most evident when the school was going through multiple PCR testing in March. The Upper School Representatives organized a successful Parent Night. It was an opportunity to meet the parents of our children's friends and classmates, which can be difficult. The Upper School representatives also organized and edited a cute appreciation video from students and families for the Teacher Appreciation Week. The Lower School Representatives went above and beyond this year by organizing the first ever kids' art cards as a fundraiser. They also sourced a number of sponsors for a fun community raffle.
Shanghai is in the midst of a lockdown as this is being written. The PAFA Board is still functioning and is looking forward to the next school year. It has been busy brainstorming better and more creative ways to continue to promote a feeling of community especially during these difficult times.
From the ECE PAFA Team:
“BING! BANG! BOOM! ZOOM~!”
That’s how this school year went by in our minds.
This school year we began by having a strong team of 5 ECE representatives: Emma, Fiona, Debbie, Harley, and Lucky. Each of us were able to manage and communicate with each grade in the ECE. We were so fortunate to have been able to kick off the school year with one of our most loved PAFA events in ECE, Halloween Bash: “Boo @ the Zoo!.” The ECE community responded super well, and all had a BLAST!
With continuing covid protocols, many of our loved events and coffee morning were limited and needed to be planned off campus. The ECE team would like to give a special shout out to our ECE administration and leadership team for working in correspondence with us in the event planning and supporting us by showing up as volunteers! Principals and teachers always attended and led our coffee mornings well prepared and informative. Also, special thanks to GENEVA for hosting our community during our multiple early coffee mornings.
Unfortunately, the rest of our “BING” and “BANG” went… “BOOM!.” Our long traditional event of ECE Art auction and our Cultural Craft Fair were not able to be conducted due to the sudden LOCKDOWN. The ECE PAFA team would like to give their sincere appreciation to ALL our sponsors who have entrusted us with their sponsored goods and donations even with so many unpredictable circumstances. Until this moment, the PAFA team is still unsure whether we can go back to campus, and the ECE art auction may be postponed until further notice.
“ZOOM!,” we are already near the end of our school year. To all our ECE room parent community, thank you for your continuous support and positivity, for always being the voice for the PAFA team in helping us pass on information, and for helping your class community solve their problems firsthand! We hope to join again soon on campus and to build an even stronger community (especially during a difficult time like this). When we do join back together… be on the lookout for more actions with our ECE Community! “Ka-POW”!
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