Dear SIS community,

It's Happening.
There have been rumors circulating about a move to a campus for years, but a deal has finally been sealed. Our Bayside campus which has served us well since 2007, has reached capacity. We need to find a new space that will allow us to continue to deliver innovative, world class programs for our growing secondary classes. This week we are pleased to announce that we have secured a long term lease on a great property in the Net Valley development here in Shekou. While our Primary students will remain at our long term home in Jingshan, our secondary students will be able to move to newly designed and built campus. We plan this move for Chinese New Year 2021. More details are on the attached document, and we will have lots more to share about this exciting expansion over the next months.

As we begin our last week of school for this amazing year we can reflect on a period when the world was really challenged. Economies across the world are still reeling from the pandemic and communities everywhere are looking for recovery. Next year, we know that our staff, students and families will need to recover from all of the uncertainty that this year has wrought.  SIS is committed to maintaining our focus as a Caring Community. We have maintained our staffing levels to ensure that our students access the best care and expertise possible for academics and wellbeing. Our approach will always be to care for the whole child as we inspire them to learn and achieve.
Next year's starting date continues to have uncertainties while we await confirmation of border openings. We have many families and staff who await news anxiously and we are actively seeking ways to fast-track entry for international school communities.
Our priority is to provide our students high quality on-site face-to-face programs. We have a planned starting date of August 10th, however if we are still waiting for borders to reopen closer to that date, we will postpone the start date by a month and adjust holidays and special days through the rest of the year. We would rather open for on-site classes than begin the year on-line. We will provide for families who remain overseas, or are in quarantine with on-line programs through the year as we all work together to get things back to normal. Please stay connected through the website and email. We will provide updates throughout the vacation period as new information comes to hand.

Small steps in returning to normal are celebrated. We have just received approval from the Shenzhen Education authorities to be largely mask-free in the school. This believe this will help students to feel more relaxed and comfortable. Our enhanced cleaning regime remains in place.
Another small step to normality will be the commencement of the summer program operated by 5 Star. The initial program has been strongly subscribed and the hope is that 5 Star will also be able to offer a more traditional summer program later in the vacation period. Again, stay connected through email to keep updated on this topic.

This has been a remarkable year. It is inspiring to walk the corridors and classrooms to see how well our students and staff have adapted to the changes. We do look forward to our last few days together in a year that will live long in the memory.

Best regards

Greg Smith
Head of School

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We take this opportunity to share with you our inaugural alumni publication, The Gecko, celebrating former students, parents, faculty, and staff. Please click here (local) or here (international) to view. We hope you enjoy some stories of amazing people from around the world. What an exciting time to be a Gecko!