“Music is a gift of human civilization and the armour of our spirit.” Throughout the many days of holding Shanghai together and fighting the pandemic from home, although teachers and students could not meet offline, they communicated vibrantly online, breaking down the barriers of space and distance. The Nightingale Choir from our Primary School performed a ‘cloud’ ensemble together with our school orchestra. We gathered in the music, collected our strength, and used music to convey love and confidence.
Singing “my motherland and I cannot be separated for a moment”, the students’ performance of “My Motherland and I” offered sincerest blessings to the motherland and our special city of Shanghai. The singers thanked everyone for their efforts and persistence.
The entire event lasted for three weeks, and more than 60 students participated in the ‘cloud’ ensemble recording. Under the careful guidance of Ms. Erika and Ms. Mia, the “Little Nightingales” sang sonorously and powerfully, conveying warmth and love with their young voices. The students in the percussion band used bowls from their kitchens as ‘triangles’ to beat the rhythm. Although the string and wind orchestra members did not have the opportunity to tune together offline, under the careful guidance of Mr. Cai, Mr. Lin, and Ms. Anna, even without professional recording equipment, they still overcame many difficulties, practiced earnestly, and recorded attentively. Every melodious note and singing in the video were the perfect answer to the children’s hard work.
After enjoying the Nightingale Choir’s ‘cloud’ chorus and the orchestra’s ‘cloud’ performance, let us now explore other school teams in SUIS Qinpu’s Primary School! Our Academic Clubs include the: AI programming team, mathematical thinking team, and English development team. These clubs provide a platform for children who have the capacity to study subjects in depth, and teachers provide professional guidance for team members who wish to participate in various competitions. Several team members have successively competed in different competitions and, for example, have won awards in the Shanghai Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition, World Robot Competition, Algorithm Programming Competition, American Computer Science Thinking Assessment, Kangaroo Mathematics, American Mathematics League, Australian Mathematics Competition, small TOEFL English and others.
Under the guidance of PE teachers, our swimming, ice hockey, basketball, football and table tennis teams have improved a lot. Our young athletes proudly represented the school, participating in the “YFL” Super League, District Football Tournament, SSSA Basketball League, Education Commission Competition, Shanghai Ice Hockey Association Cup and other events, repeatedly winning trophies for the school. Through the daily training and the competitions, students improved their teamwork ability and cultivated the important quality of perseverance. Although many events had to be put on hold due to the pandemic, we are ready to welcome the arrival of various events in the future.
Adding ‘icing to the cake’, the “Children’s Painting” art school team, dance team and convergence media team were also very active over the past few months. Under the guidance of their teachers, students experienced a more colourful campus life.
We miss the time when we trained and performed together face-to-face. Let us all look forward to our reunion soon!
