Connections with the Mainland
Connections with the Mainland
Sunday, 29 November 2009
It’s strange how some weeks tend to develop a theme of their own, regardless of intentions or plans. This week, several of my meetings have happened to focus on our links with Mainland China - our relations with other schools, the recruitment and selection of Mainland students for entry into LPCUWC next year, arrangements with a school in Guangzhou that will host several of our students over the Christmas break this year, and perhaps most exciting of all, a proposal to work with the very highest level of Education officials in Beijing who are interested in establishing a United World College in a large Mainland city.
Among the distinguished visitors this week was Ms Fanny Law (shown at the right of the photo above), who accompanied a senior education official from Ningbo to my office. Although Ms Law had served as Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower until 2006, when she was appointed Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong, it was her first visit to the College - an oversight which she told she was delighted to have now addressed.
Reflecting the importance of our place as the first United World College in China, we have now started flying the national flag, together with the regional flag and the College flag, every day rather than just on special occasions. This change was made at the request of our Students Consultative Committee, a request with which I was delighted to agree. The photo below shows the three flags flying (in this week’s almost totally calm conditions) on the academic building above our front roundabout.