Advanced Educational Development with Flying Colors

--------A Brief Introduction on Nanjing No. 13 Middle School 

Nanjing No.13 Middle School is located in the central area of Nanjing, an ancient capital of six dynasties and a modern metropolitan. It has an easy access to the surrounding scenic spots, government offices and higher learning institutions, including Xuanwu Lake, Gulou urban square, Beijing observatory, Tai Cheng city wall, Jiming Temple, municipal government and Southeast University. Evaluated as one of the first ten beautiful campuses in Nanjing, it has exceedingly lived to its name with elegant, tree-lined surroundings, first-class teaching facilities and equipment. It is a place where people can experience abundant cultural heritages and people-oriented atmosphere and an ideal environment for teaching and learning.

 Founded in 1955 and composed of junior and senior middle school, it was the first high school built by the government since Nanjing was liberated in 1949. In 1959, it was selected as one of the six key schools in Nanjing. A year later, in 1960, it was designated as a provincial key school by Jiangsu Education Department in its efforts to build key schools of high quality. In 1996, the school was nominated a third time as a key middle school in Jiangsu province. In 2000, the school was entitled National Model Middle School by Jiangsu Education Department with its assessment ranking first in the province, and in 2004, it was turned to be a Four-Star school.

School focuses on the principle of "student-oriented teaching and enhancement of life quality of students and faculty" in school administration and takes it as an ultimate mission and responsibility to cultivate talented students, inherit excellent cultural traditions, advocate science and humanistic spirit, maintain development with high quality and broad horizon. Consequently, the school has formed the motto "Learn widely, inquire earnestly " and the school spirit "Achieve the goal with solid effort".

Due to its efforts and excellent work, the school has won many honors over the years, including national model school in moral education, national model school in implementation of health regulations, China model school in experimental sports education, national model school with fine sports traditions, Jiansu model school of green campus and Nanjing model school of education development.

The brilliant achievements should be attributed to the dedicated faculty who are famed for their belief that teachers should be responsible, diligent and dedicated. Currently, the senior high school has a faculty of 175 teachers and staff, including 6 teachers of highest classification, 5 professor-level teachers and 74 senior teachers. Meanwhile, one teacher received "Tao Xingzhi Award", 13 are municipal-level leading teachers in their discipline, 18 are municipal-level model teachers, 24 are members of municipal-level research team; 27 are district-level leading teachers in their discipline,  41 are district-level model teachers; 97 teachers have a master's degree , 2 teachers a PhD degree,  72 teachers have overseas study experience and more than 20 teachers have won first prize at national, municipal and provincial level teaching competitions. At present, there are 39 classes devoted to college education and 7 classes oriented for further study overseas, and 14 full-time foreign teachers. The teachers have firmly established such beliefs as "Meeting a problem is an opportunity for research" and "Teaching is all through the procedure of teaching". They also adhere to such concepts as teaching while researching, and applying theory to practice. All the teaching faculty have been qualified with expertise both in theory and practice, with unique and preeminent style of teaching.

The exact core counting for the value of our school spirit presents itself as "cultivate individuality inherently and synchronously contribute to the society externally". In accordance with it, the school puts priority on the healthy growth and progress of the students as its value orientation. Therefore, the school is comprehensively distinctive with unique features and advantages, especially in school administration and curriculum implementation, promising the environment where students are bound to achieve their academic goals spontaneously, positively and harmoniously.

Management is focused on the combination of strict requirements and positive service, which makes it more efficient, on the combination of imparting knowledge and inspiring potential, which makes the education more scientific, on the combination of current utility and long-term interests, which enables students to grow with more independence. The management offers a comprehensive guide for students to take responsibility and leadership bravely, and in this way, students may acquire “elite consciousness as well as sense of caring for the populace”, establish the awareness of being excellent, develop good habits, cultivate excellent quality and form decent manners.

The teaching characteristic of our school lies in the basic goal of cultivating students with solid knowledge foundation and diversified practical capabilities. We combine advanced experience at home and abroad and actively explore the regularities and patterns to cultivate excellent students. We carry out comprehensive course reform and adhere to the principles of fine management and effective teaching. In practice, we promote students’ abilities from the aspects of learning motivation, method, quantity, value and significance, which finally increases knowledge input in class. In this way, we push ahead all-round school construction with diversification and characteristics.

The characteristic of our curriculum is the design of “big tree curriculum” system. In implementation of the system, all the teachers pursue the faith of bringing happiness to students in their growth. The system consists of eight aspects. First, the development of curriculum base represented by the subject of Chinese which is in the leading rank in Jiangsu province and has reached the national level. Second, the subject specialty of "better at humanity with a broad vision" represented by the subjects of English, politics, history and geography. Third, the approach of “rational thinking” in math teaching. Fourth, teaching of physics, chemistry and biology are aimed at developing students’ science inquiry and practical innovation. Fifth, music and art courses are means to improve students’ artistic accomplishment. Sixth, the development of students’ new technological literacy represented by the subject of information technology and the practice of the general technology. Seventh, our physical education class adheres to the concept of "Do exercise with health awareness" and is in the leading position in the province. Eight, by organizing various social practice activities, we enrich the students' learning life, expand their cognitive vision, and steel their willpower. By changing their study habits and affecting their school life, our teaching thus has influence on their daily life and brings disciplinary care and growth to each student.

Bearing in mind the educational spirit of “treating every student with indiscriminate love”, our school has gained a notable reputation by cultivating a large number of talents. Besides, our school attaches great importance to optimize students’ humanistic accomplishment and comprehensive quality in order to promote the harmonious development of their individuality and learning ability. With the fully implemented “effective teaching” and stably improved educational quality, students in our school show distinct mental outlook of “comprehensive quality, outstanding personality and prominent humanity”. In the last 10 years, our school’s university enrolment rate stands firmly in the first phalanx, which has won our school many honors, like “Comprehensive award for developmental evaluation of school performance”, “Award for good teaching quality”, “Award for comprehensive management”, etc. Every year more than 300 students win above-provincial-level awards in the Olympiad of different subjects, English competition, robot competition, writing competition, club activities, and Model United Nations. What’s more, quite a few of our graduates got full score for their compositions in the national college entrance exams, such as Wu Jing’s “Sad Children”, Jiang Xijie’s “The Death of Chi Tu”, Lin Ziqing’s “Exuviate”, Jiang Liaochen’s “Garden·Life”, together with a group of young writers represented by Liu Dongyang, one of the ten excellent youth in Nanjing, and Zhang Shu and Cao Wenjun, and a national youth writing club---Big Tang Dynasty Literature club. On the campus, one can feel a permeating learning atmosphere and “Reading under the big tree” program has become the landmark of reading activities in Nanjing.

When the experience sharing session of the National Basic Education Curriculum Reform was held in Nanjing, our school served as one of the two high school venues; in the first provincial evaluation of basic education’s teaching achievements, our school was one of the twenty-nine special award winners; in the construction of Jiangsu’s basic education curriculum base, our school became one of the first thirty-one provincial experimental school bases; as chairman school of track and field events in Jiangsu, our school has taken part in the national middle school sports meet many times on behalf of Jiangsu province, ranking first in the number of gold medals and total score in track and field events; in the group sports dance championship, our school has won the champion for seven times in succession. In their inspection tour of our school, officials from ministry of education gave high appraisal of our achievements, praising our far-sighted vision and down-to-earth attitude.

Recent years have also witnessed our great achievements in international cooperation. In 2005, our school co-founded Nanjing China-Canada Bond International School with Bond International College. This program provides opportunities for students to study international courses and obtain Double Diploma from local and overseas schools, which makes further study abroad available and convenient for them. To cultivate talents with patriotism as well as international perspective and to build quality education brand, Nanjing No.13 High School has established friendly relations with prestigious schools in America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Each year, more than 100 students study overseas as exchange students, which offers a great chance for them to adapt to the unfamiliar and explore the unknowns.

Nanjing No. 13 High School Education Group is composed of No. 13 Senior High School, Bond International School, Xuanwu Senior High School, Ke Lihua Middle School, Nanjing No. 13 Middle School Hongshan Campus, Nanjing No. 13 Middle School Suojin Campus and Zidong Experimental School, with a faculty and student enrollment of over 10,000. With the school philosophy of “resources sharing, characteristics demonstrating, mutual improvement and common development” and the shared vision of “seeking quality development, taking the lead in reform and innovation, playing an exemplary role in quality education and contributing to the growth of both teachers and students”, Nanjing No. 13 High School Education Group has been devoting to “promoting itself as an excellent education group in the city of Nanjing” by seizing “historical opportunities” with rationality and solving “practical problems” with wisdom. During the period of social transition and education reformation, it is imperative for the school to take initiative and act accordingly. To foster new competitive strengths, “make a difference” in education development and strive to promote itself as national first-class brand school with high students expectation, parents satisfaction, faculty happiness and social recognition, positive reform was, is and will always be the top priority of Nanjing No. 13 High School Education Group.