On February 23rd, Chris Waterman, Early Years Chairman of the British International Education Association (BIEA) was invited by Shanghai ABNER International School to its official opening ceremony.

Shanghai ABNER International School is an international school established by the British Thames Education Group. It will deliver a British curriculum with a key focus on developing’ well-rounded individuals’. The school name ABNER hope to provide inspiration for the students and teachers:

A stands for “Academic”, which refers to a strong academic team;
B stands for “Brave”, which refers to cultivating the brave quality of students;
N stands for “Noble”, which means that students have noble character;
E stands for “Excellent”, which refers to outstanding teachers and students;
R stands for “Responsible”, that is, being responsible is a pre-requisite for teachers and students.

Mr Liu Gang, the executive president of ABNER International School, shared the school’s vision and future plans with the guests at the event. Chris who has over 40 years of education expertise delivered a keynote speech on “How to quickly adapt to the British education culture”.

As a staunch supporter of quality education to enable each and every individual to fulfil their potential, Chris believes that students hold the future in their hands. By sharing his life experiences Chris teaches students how to adapt to the British education culture more quickly, and he hopes that his experiences will bring enlightenment to the students at Shanghai ABNER. In his speech, Chris also said that he hopes that international educational exchanges can break down the barriers between individuals, countries and cultures.

At the end of his speech, Chris took to the stage with Mr Liu and the school’s president Jiang Yujie to cut the ribbon for the opening ceremony of Shanghai ABNER International School.

In recent years, the international school sector has seen exponential growth, the number of international schools in China, UAE, Singapore have been growing at double digits. The sector also faces increasing challenges in terms of finding experienced teaching staff and maintaining high standards in the quality of provision.

BIEA is a non-profit educational institution that is committed to integrating UK education resources and setting up a dedicated team to transform services to meet the needs of British education in the overseas education market. It will also adhere to the philosophy of “Bringing the best education to children”, “Bringing the best choices to parents” and “Bringing the best support to teachers”, by providing diverse British international educational programmes that serve the overseas international education market.