Yesterday I was in Shanghai for the celebrations of the 95th anniversary of Datong High School.  While there, I had the honour of making two significant speeches.  The first was at the assembly of students, alumni, government officials and distinguished visitors where, in front of a battery of television cameras, I was privileged to congratulate the school on behalf of all the foreign visitors.  The second was during an afternoon symposium on education, during which I explained the history, philosophy and practice of the United World College movement to an impressive and humbling gathering of senior educational officials, administrators, government officials and many Chinese principals who had used the occasion of Datong High School’s celebration to gather and discuss new trends in global educational philosophy and educational management.

It seems only yesterday that I first met with senior staff from Datong High School to discuss establishing a sister school relationship with the school where I was Principal at the time, St Paul’s Grammar School in Sydney, Australia.  That was on the evening of 19th December 1991, when I met with Principal Chen Desheng and three of his colleagues in my room at the Peace Hotel.  It was back in the days when establishing links with foreign schools was a brave, pioneering act in China, so I was deeply impressed when Principal Chen Desheng invited me to visit Datong High School the next day so that, to use his words which he spoke in always excellent English, “to cement the relationship so that I could achieve my dream”.

To be honest, I think my dream and the dream of the leaders of Datong High School were the same – we shared a common hope to build bridges of deep understanding between students from different cultures so that the future of our world could be brighter for young people everywhere.  Nowadays, such links are almost commonplace - in 1991, it was ground-breaking, and in the case of China, radical!

Shanghai has changed a lot since 1991, and as you see in the photo below, the buildings of Datong High School have changed even more!  But what has not changed, except to grow even stronger, is the vision of schools in China to provide an excellent

education that equips young people for a better and more globally aware future, and Datong High School is a true leader in this task.  Under the wise, forward-looking and energetic leadership of a group of outstanding principals that I have been privileged to call my close friends, my colleagues Chen Desheng, Wang Shihu, Zhang Haoliang and now Yang Minghua, Datong High School has become famous in China and overseas for its international outlook, high standards and exemplary educational quality.  Evidence of the success of Datong High School’s efforts to open its doors and reach out to the rest of the world was shown this weekend by the presence of foreign principals from France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Japan – as the pioneer of establishing these links, I probably should not count myself as a foreign principal any more now that I live in Hong Kong, which is part of China once again!

I have known Datong High School for just 16 years, which is only a small part of its

illustrious 95-year history.  During that time, I have visited classes and performances, slept in the teachers’ dormitory, eaten in the canteen, brought groups of students there(groups that, on one occasion, included my own son and daughter), attended morning flag raising ceremonies, exchanged ideas about education with several principals and, in short, I have grown to respect this school very deeply as one of China’s outstanding and forward-looking educational institutions.

I like to think that the international contacts I helped to establish may have, in some small way, helped to shape the many wonderful students who have graduated over the years, not only from Datong High School and the various overseas schools with which it has now established links, but also in the hundreds of other Chinese and overseas schools that have followed the lead we established at Datong.  After this weekend’s visit to Shanghai, I am very confident that the pioneering educational links that began with my visit in 1991 will continue to bear fruit in encouraging international understanding, social awareness, high standards and a global outlook among students, not only in China, but also in the many countries that have established educational links with China since 1991.

Happy 95th birthday to Datong High School, and long live international understanding between young people of all countries of the world!