YCIS Chongqing has long maintained a close-knit community feel, even as our enrolment numbers grow and our programs expand. We are proud of the opportunities we create to interact and learn with and from each other, be that cross-culturally or cross-aged. But we are always striving to improve in these areas – it’s what makes our campus such a special place.

With this in mind, this year we have reinvigorated our House system. We have introduced four new Houses, named after Chinese elements – Green Earth, Red Fire, Blue Water and Grey Wind. The aim for our House system is to foster a genuine connection and sense of belonging to a smaller, cross-age group within our whole school community. We hope to achieve this by holding more regular House events throughout the year, and this has begun with 4 House ‘assemblies’ over the past few weeks.

Each of the assemblies was themed to help our Houses get to know each other, build House spirit and understanding and provide opportunities for students to interact with new friends from different year levels. Activities we completed included designing a handprint House banner, organizing ourselves into the shape of our Houses Chinese character for an aerial photograph, getting to know a House buddy with a handshake and a buddy read, and voting for our House values. The House values we determined are:

Water - FUN, FAMILY, KINDNESS, HEALTH; Earth - HONESTY, GROWTH, ORIGINALITY, CHALLENGE; Wind - FREEDOM, LOVE, ADVENTURE, OPEN-MINDEDNESS; Fire - CREATIVITY, RESPONSIBILITY, FRIENDSHIP, RESPECT

Even though we have only been in our new Houses for just over a month, it has been clear the impact these assemblies have had on our students and whole school community. Our Secondary students have been active and responsible leaders, and the Primary students have grown and learnt and had so much fun working with the older students.

We are looking forward to the upcoming House events on Founder’s Day and then continue with our positive start to the new House system with ongoing activities throughout the year.