By Warren Johnston, Chief Academic Director, Elite K12 Education Group
As a New Zealand-born principal and educator who has lived in China for 24 years and has 42 years of teaching experience, Warren Johnston has many special labels: the founding principal of China’s first “bilingual school” – YK Pao School, the pioneer of bilingual education in China, the Founding Principal of HD Ningbo School, the Chief Academic Director of EliteK12 Education Group, and the current Foreign Head of HT Nanjing Impact Academy(HTNIA). As the No.2 employee of EliteK12 Education Group, Mr. Johnston has accompanied and witnessed the educational exploration and growth of HD Ningbo School and the other four schools under Elitek12 banner over the past 10 years.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of HD Ningbo School, we invited Mr. Johnston to write this article for us. He recalled the events of the first year of HD Ningbo School with a humorous tone and many precious details. Although it was difficult, the spirit of “optimism” permeated the founding team, as well as the courage and action to face difficulties and problems. In Mr. Johnston’s words, that year was “the beginning of the miracle”. “This is the “spirit” of HD Schools – everyone goes the extra mile for the school and for our students. Students and families are at the centre of all we do, and this mindset began in 2014.”
My 10 years at HD/HT Schools:
2013 was the beginning of a miraculous journey for HD Schools. From a meeting in a Starbucks coffee shop in Shanghai where a new form of school was envisioned to five successful schools in Ningbo, Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, and Nanjing. This is the story of the beginning years of the founding of HD Ningbo School.
I had been the Founding Principal of YK Pao School for six years and was looking for new opportunities. I have always enjoyed the energy and vitality of a school in the start-up phase and now that YK Pao School was well established, I felt it was time to move on. A colleague called me and asked if I would like to meet a former colleague of hers who was interested in education. I agreed to meet for coffee in the Starbucks on Jiangsu Rd, Changning, Shanghai. This was the first time I met Tao and began my journey with HD and Elite K12. Tao outlined his interest in education and his desire to start schools with a difference in China. I was struck by Tao’s passion for education and integrity. We discussed our ideas and got to know each other. After a few more meetings I met two other friends of Tao: Jasper Pan and Shi Meng. They would go on to be the founders of HD Ningbo School.
I was hooked on the project and started work officially in August 2013. I was the only employee at the time as everyone else had day jobs, so meetings were on weekends or late at night. We were so new that Tao paid my first salary out of his own pocket.
There are many tasks that need to be done when setting up a new school and we set about doing them. We needed a mission, and vision, curriculum, teaching resources, and International and National teachers to name but a few. But we also needed a school campus where the school could begin. The search took up a lot of time for the three founders. We visited several sites and pitched our school to landlords but to no avail. We were not overly perturbed; we knew we would get somewhere eventually. An office was opened in Changning and many late-night meetings over coffee ensued as we discussed what path the school should take. What would our student profile be? How could we delineate ourselves from other bilingual schools?
In early December I got an excited call from Tao; they had found a school. The next day I paid my first visit to Ningbo. This is Shi Meng’s hometown and she kindly met me at the station and whisked me to Tian Yi Square to sample the local cuisine, especially Tang Yuen the best in the world, she said. The next day I went to the Haishu site with Tao and Shi Meng. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. It was an old, abandoned school, everything was dilapidated, windows broken, rubbish lying around, and a toilet block that stunk to high heaven. Still, the potential was there and so began the next phase of the miracle: getting the school ready in 6 months. This was a huge ask but Tao and Jiayun, Tao’s wife set to it and began getting contractors and renovating the buildings. This was going to be a project where whole families were involved. We had regular meetings and discussions over what classrooms and specialist rooms we would need.
Now a city and campus had been decided we needed families to learn about our vision for a new school. So began a series of parent presentations, the first one was in the Westin Hotel in Ningbo with around 30 families turning up to hear about our school. I think they were taken by the sincerity of the founders and the vision for a new form of bilingual education in Ningbo. The parents were very wary of a new school as they had previously supported other educational organizations that had pulled out of Ningbo after only a couple of years. We had to get them to trust us so Tao’s promise to move to Ningbo and send his boys to our school soon allayed a lot of fears. I still see parents from that first meeting and enjoy reminding them that we kept our promise, HD Ningbo School is still here!
Meanwhile we had taken some space in Moonlake, a historic part of Ningbo. We hired Rachel to begin admissions and we were soon joined by Lise. They began contacting parents who had come to the information evenings and inviting them for interviews and to learn more about our school. Jasper and I spent many days interviewing families, and I had a series of games I played with students while parents talked with Jasper. It was a very valuable exercise as we learned a lot about the Ningbo families and what they desired in a school. I got to know some prospective students which was very valuable when they subsequently came to school. We worked hard in Moon Lake and there was a great spirit as we worked together to recruit students. However, we did have to endure some hardships. There was no toilet in our building, so we had to buy a coffee at Starbucks and use theirs. We drank a lot of coffee over those early months!!
The Executive floor of the Westin also played a big part at this time as this was where we held meetings, met prospective teachers and discussed the next tasks to be achieved.
Slowly but surely more and more families signed up to begin school in September. We wanted to begin to build the school’s ethos and to get to know the families better so a Charity Fair in the Westin was organized. All the families came and took part in the activities. This was the beginning of the HD spirit we have developed over the years.
I was busy recruiting teachers. Initially, this was very difficult as we did not have a school or a city. Once Ningbo was settled upon it was a little easier and I recruited a DP, and International homeroom teachers for primary and kindergarten. It is interesting to note the leap of faith these teachers were making coming halfway around the world to a brand-new school. When I met two teachers from the USA, Candice and Sue, off the train in Ningbo, I could see they were very relieved. They were worried it was a scam and they would be sold into slavery! So, by the summer, I had recruited Jeffrey, from YKPS, Candice, and Sue from the USA, Mark from Shanghai, Michael from Thailand, and Jane from the UK. We also had Rob, an International librarian from the USA.
The International team was set and Mr. Qi, the National headmaster had his team as well. Shi Yun, Lu Xiang, Du Ying, Su Ling, and Hu Shu Ting were to be homeroom teachers with Xu Jin Xui and Wi Jia Hong teaching mathematics. Afra joined as our first music teacher and Regina as a Learning Facilitator. Kindergarten teachers we Ivy Jing and Julie. Many of these National teachers are still at HDNS which is a testament to their dedication to the vision of the school.
Over the summer I moved to Ningbo from Shanghai and continued recruiting and watching the transformation of the old wreck of a building into a modern school. There were several novelties including a tree growing through the atrium and the library. The architects had taken the original buildings and transformed them into a new space for learning. We held an orientation for the staff, learning how to work together and where the “Tight-Three” model of one National Homeroom Teacher, One International Homeroom Teacher, and one Teacher’s Assistant working together in one classroom was born. There is a photo of this time that shows the entire staff and Founders atop a big mound of dirt, which was being used on the playground. There was still much to be completed but the team spirit was there.
Once the buildings were ready we had another problem, the rooms had not been aired and parents were worried about fumes. After a parent meeting, we needed a plan B. Luckily, we found some classrooms we could use in a Children’s Palace not so far from the Haishui campus. The first day of HD Ningbo School was on the grounds of a Children’s Palace with three Grade One’s, a Grade Two, and a Grade Three, around 90 in total. We had the two top floors of the Children’s Palace, 4th, and 5th, which were a bit of a climb. At break times and lunchtimes, the students had to go downstairs, but the hardest was for the PE teachers. Candice was up and down the stairs 10 -15 times a day going down for PE class, coming back up five floors for English, then back down again for PE. She did not need to go to the gym that month.
Once the school campus had ventilated sufficiently, we moved back to the Haishu campus just after the Moon Festival holiday, and by that time, we had a total of 110 students. We were so pleased to be on our own campus and not have too many stairs to climb. The school began to settle into the daily routines that all good schools attain. Each morning I was on gate duty to open the car doors to help the students out safely and to greet them in English. This was important as our students needed to be immersed in English from the time they arrived at school until they went home again. I got to know the different families and their cars, and we had a good system of parents pulling up, I would open the door and the students would get out and go into school. The parents would then pull away. We could get this down to 10 seconds to get students out and the car moving away before another car took its place. I believe it is important for students to know their principal as someone who is helpful and greets them in a warm and friendly manner.
The first HD Ningbo School Annual Dinner was in January 2015. We had three tables, and everyone was given a hong bao personally by the Chairman. Karaoke began early and almost everyone got up to sing. There was a warm spirit of camaraderie as all staff celebrated all they had achieved in the first semester.
HD Ningbo School had always had big ambitions and it soon became obvious that the Haishu campus was too small for us. This became evident when one of our Grade 3 students kicked a ball over the administration building and onto the road. We needed a bigger space for primary and we had ambitions for secondary. This was when Tao gave me my second Christmas present. He took me to an old campus in Yinzhou. It was run down with many broken tiles and rubbish strewn around. As we walked among the buildings, we talked about how good it would be for us to get so much space, a red track, and so many buildings. I thought nothing more of it until after Spring Festival when Tao informed me, that we had acquired the Yinzhou campus. This was good news. Now the miracle machine went into action again to renovate the primary building, joining two buildings together with an atrium. Again, the miracle happened in less than six months, and this time we ensured it was well aired before September. It was fantastic to move into such a big space, there was no fear of balls going over buildings here.