The NCC Education East Asia office held a professional development training session late September 2012 in Kunming. More than 20 teachers from our Chinese and Mongolian Accredited Partner Centres (APCs) took part in the intensive training session. AEUA International High School, one of our Accredited Partners, kindly hosted the event for us.
The training event was held for numerous reasons; many of our APCs had indicated that they felt it was necessary for them to improve students’ learning experiences and to improve teaching and hence pass rates and student destinations. The event was a perfect opportunity for the Regional Director Ms Zhou Fang (Sherry Zhou) to introduce Anthony Allen as the new Academic Quality and Teaching Support Manager for East Asia. The event began with an opening speech from Ms Sherry Zhou, and Anthony shortly took over to begin the session on ‘What is British Education?’ This session included training on active learning and the strategies which should be adopted in the course of teaching. Anthony also explained how to prepare and teach the NCC Education qualifications in English. The training sessions were purposefully run to give the teachers an insight into how teaching should be run in their schools. Anthony encouraged the teachers to discuss and share ideas. The afternoon session was aimed at evaluating student study. The participants were also able to ask Anthony any questions. Later in the afternoon NCC Education arranged a golf exercise for the teachers.
Sherry Zhou hosted the evening meal and entertainment. A raffle was held with three main prizes: a Sony digital photo frame, Toshiba 750G mobile hard disk and new iPad. Ms Yu Ya from Zenith, Ms Tseren from National University of Mongolia and Mr. Liu Ligong from Guangzhou Country Garden School were awarded the third, the second and the first prize. Sherry gave a speech thanking the hosts and all the teachers for their active participation in the first day of training. She thanked AEUA International Academy for hosting the event, and went on to explain more about NCC Education’s values and ethos: “NCC Education’s culture is always to focus on people and teamwork. We care about growth and people’s success. We hope you and your centre grow from this event, and look forward to working more closely with every single one of you in the future.”
The morning of the second day consisted of training on the newly updated IFY programme. This new programme will ensure that students are provided with an even stronger academic structure and progression possibilities. Anthony explained the changes and asked for feedback and questions. All the teachers were very happy with the changes, and the fact that their feedback over the years had been listened to and acted upon. The training ended at 12 o’clock, and the amazing race began! This activity was a great opportunity for the teachers to work as part of a team and solve clues; it also allowed them to enjoy the city of Kunming and the attractions it has to offer. The day closed with an evening meal, where all teachers were able to reflect over the past couple of days, and share any ideas they were going to take back to the school. All teachers agreed that NCC Education had exceeded their expectations with the training event and that they cannot wait for the next!
