Preface

 

Hangzhou Guotai Education Group was founded in 1993 by Ms. Zhang Xiaoying, a Taiwanese and piano educationist, representative of The Peoples Congress of Hangzhou, and standing member of Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Jianggan District. Based on the Private Hangzhou Guotai Foreign Languages and Art School, Guotai has grown to a big-scaled educational institution with 6 campus, 79 classes, 3900 plus faculty members and students, and providing full-time courses and boarding. But in the very beginning, the school only had 3 students. Guotai education covers kindergarten, pre-school education, elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and continuing education. The graduates receive the same certificates (being issued elementary school diploma, junior high school diploma, and senior high school diploma) as that to the students of Chinese public schools. Every school of the Group gives much emphasis to English and art and provides equal and balanced education for children of different nationalities, backgrounds and personalities in different ages.

 

I. The Principal

 

A principal is the soul of a school who represents the school.

   

The Chairwoman and Principle of Guotai is a graceful and capable lady. She is aristocratic but also very kind. No doubt a very charming woman. She works hard night and day, no weekends or holidays, taking care of her students and faculty members for sixteen years.

 

The childhood of Principal Zhang was harsh though she was born to an intellectual and well-being family in Taiwan. Her great-grandfather and grandfather were both high-rank civil officials in China’s Qing Dynasty. A good friend of her father took her to Mainland China. Unfortunately, her adoptive father was persecuted, labeled as a “historical counter-revolutionist”, forced to leave his job, imprisoned for over 10 years and eventually became a madman when he was out of prison. During that terrible time, she not only lost the care and warm from her own parents and her family but also the shelter provided by her adoptive parents. She suffered the harshness of the world at a too young age.

 

She was forced to leave her home when she was below 7 years old by her mad adoptive father and became homeless. A kind teacher allowed her to stay in a 300m² reading room when she was despaired. In the storming night, the books accompanied her. She was longing for being cared and warmed by her family. The experience of that time gave her the idea of founding a school.

 

She was very grateful to the teacher for allowing her to stay. The affection from the teacher turned out to become the infinite affection of Ms. Zhang later.

 

When she studied in university, Ms. Zhang had this dream to found a boarding school full of love and warmth. The school should be as warm as a home. In order to realize her dream and convey the love, she began to prepare for the school in the spring of 1993.

 

II. The Establishment of Guotai

 

1. Making unremitting efforts in her life

To found a school, one should have the money, place, equipment and faculty. Ms. Zhang painstakingly visited many places for choosing an ideal location. She went as far as to Hainan and Guangdong in South China. Unfortunately, she fell down and diagnosed comminuted fracture in her left leg. Her joint was fixed with steel and suspended. The doctor told her that she should not take a side-glance or turn her head. She was ordered to lie in bed for one year before walking with crutches. Otherwise, she might lose her leg. Nevertheless, Principal Zhang believed her fate was in her own hands.

 

She would not give up her dream, which was just about to come true. She took a lot of pains, putting a notebook on a board and writing the feasibility report on establishing the school. The very beginning of Hangzhou Guotai Foreign Languages and Art School started in a hospital bed of No.2 Zhejiang Hospital. The name Guotai was from a Chinese proverb meaning “the country is prosperous and the people are at peace”, which expressed her love for the country and the people.

 

In the summer of 1993, in order to get the feasibility report approved, she began to learn walking after six month in bed. She wanted to conquer the illness with her iron will but she failed. Her weak body and muscles could not support her and she fell down again. Her right joint was fractured. During the hot summer days, she was carried on the back of her daughter or housekeeper to get her feasibility report approved. During that time, she fainted and was hospitalized for many times because of her weakness. The government officials sympathized for her and were moved and provided support for her. Unfortunately, at the same time, another private school was criticized by various news media of Hangzhou. The approval procedures became more complicated and harder for Guotai. Despite of so many difficulties, Ms. Zhang received “License for School” on October 16, 1993, a day she would never forget, after six strict examinations.

 

She felt so rewarding despite the suffering and hardship. She was accompanied by her daughter, sitting beside the West Lake for the whole night on the day she received the license. They cried that night for happiness.

 

However, the difficulties of running a school were beyond her imagination. There were many unexpected time-consuming matters. There were no big deals but required patience and strong will. The success of the school is a miracle, a miracle with a lot of pains and pressures.

 

III. The Growth of Guotai School

 

1. The school that couldn’t enroll new students in

The school, rented, was just finished construction, and the hygiene condition was very bad. To save money, Principal Zhang worked as a cleaner and bricklayer with her husband and daughter when she was still on a wheelchair. During October 20 and November 20 1993, she invested tens of thousands of yuan for advertising but got no response. Her family moaned: “If you invested such a large amount of money in a real business, there would have good profit. But now you have yet received any student.” The only worker in charge of academic affairs and the two workers in the canteen left the school. Principal Zhang chose heading forward as she had had never given up her dream. She determined the school would open even though it only had one student.

 

One day, when she went to Mr. Zhu Deyuan, a calligraphist of Hangzhou, for the school plate. Mr. Zhu was touched by her strong will, moral standing, affection and the school name. He instantly decided to send his 6-year-old smart grandson to Guotai for pre-school education. The first student of Guotai, Wenwen, used to be a spoiled child, grew up under the care of the Principal. Now, he has graduated from the senior high school of Guotai and entered a major university.

 

2. Loving students more than loving herself

One month passed, two months, six months and for a whole semester, the school only received three students. The school did not hire a cook. Principal Zhang put the electronic rice cooker beside her desk, cooking for workers, students and herself and handling business at the same time. She was like mother of the three children. The 4-year-old twins from Hong Kong used to relieve oneself on her. Even at a snowy night, she would cook for children when they wanted to have dumplings. In winter, she made wadded jackets for children with Pu Qingrong, principal in charge of moral education. In summer, she helped children shower. She persisted in doing laundry and cooking for children even when she was just finished a major operation and could not stand upright. The students’ families were moved by her, and more relatives and friends of the students’ families sent their children to the school.

 

In 1995, the situation of the school was getting improved. But an irresponsible action of a school doctor caused trouble. Ms. Zhang advised him change a job because he was not suitable for being a doctor of an elementary school. The advice was from goodwill but the doctor cursed and attacked her. He also made up rumor on news agencies and wrote a libel to state, provincial and municipal governments. He made up this rumor that Guotai was foundhepatocellular jaundice and ten plus students were hospitalized everyday. Parents rushed to transfer their children to other schools, media rushed in for news and the government interfered for investigation and examination. Thirty-two students were transferred out of the only 68 students. The Principal was under unbelievable pressures from society, students’ parents, students, teachers and her family members. Eventually, she passed out at her office and came round after five days of intensive treatment.

 

When Guotai was in such hardship, the government of Jianggan District, the Education Bureau of Jianggan District and United Front Work Department of Jianggan District provided helps and supported Guotai step out of difficulties.

 

At 2 am of a snowy night in the winter of 1996, the Principal fell down from stairs when she was going around dorms for examination. Her left leg, used to be fixed with steel, wounded seriously. It took her 36 minutes to climb to her room. Her hard work- making wadded jackets for students, preparing meals for sick children and feeding them patiently were remembered by students, who are now grade-threes in the senior high school. They always say: “Principal Zhang is our lovely, respectable and unforgettable mom.”

 

3. Treating staff members as her sisters and brothers

Since she is a representative of The Peoples Congress of Hangzhou, a standing member of Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Jianggan District and a director of Commerce and Industry Association, she is very busy. In order to spend more time with students and take care of them, she used to have only one meal a day and sleep for only three hours a night. She loves all the staff members of Guotai. She eats simple meals and lives in a simple room, but all the rooms for the staff are equipped with air conditioners, color TVs and water heaters. She has made donations to the needy staff members for many times, offered supports to the teachers to buy houses, admitted hundreds of needy students to her school without charging any tuition and living expense…. Zhang Hao, who was the vice chairman of our school labor union, resigned his job to seek personal development opportunities. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed in his advanced stage of liver cancer after leaving the school for less than 11 months. Seventeen days later (in July, 2003) he died, who was only forty years old. Actually he had nothing to do with Guotai then, but our principal not only gave him a large amount money for medical expense, held a grand memorial meeting for him with all her family members, but also announced that she would bring up his two children who were less than 8 years old, and arranged work for his wife. A simple sayings of our principal’s, “Guotai is everyone’s home”, shows her humane and cordial administration idea, her kindness and broad-minded. As a result, lots of capable teachers have gathered at our school for her fame.

 

Sometimes, students’ parents could be very offensive for some misunderstandings but the Principal chose to tolerate. In her mind, such humiliation was nothing because she always thinks of building a good school and fostering good students. Her great affection supported her to survive through difficulties. The faculty, workers and students have learned from her virtues and she teaches them to devote themselves to the country, the school, their parents, and be confident for themselves. Guotai will make great progress following the school tenet.

 

Led by Principal Zhang, Guotai Foreign Languages and Art School has succeeded after having experienced many difficulties. It has developed to Guotai Education Group which has 3900 plus faculty members and students providing kindergarten, pre-school education, elementary school, junior high school and senior high school education.

 

IV. Brief Information on Educational Departments of Guotai Education Group

 

1.       Location

 

Guotai’s educational departments are located in Jianggan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Hangzhou is the political, economic and cultural center of Zhejiang. It has a long history and is a world-famous historical city. The five campuses of Guotai- the kindergarten, pre-school education, elementary school, junior high school and senior high school are all located in central Hangzhou. The campuses face the Qiantang River in the east, near theWest Lake and the downtown. It neighbors the new municipal government building, Hangzhou Grand Theater, Telecommunication Building and FinancialCenter. The environment is good and traffic convenient.

 

2.       Facilities

 

Every educational departments of the Group has its own teaching facilities, spacious grounds for activities, standardized multi-media classrooms, computer rooms, reading rooms, painting rooms, dancing rooms, piano rooms, electronic keyboard rooms and modern life facilities. The students’ dorms, faculty apartments and offices are all equipped with air conditioners.

 

3.       Textbooks

 

The Chinese and Mathematics textbooks for elementary school students are edited by Beijing Normal University, which are complied with the new textbook standards and promoted by the Ministry of Education. The textbooks are highly creative. English textbook is Cambridge English for Children (starting from kindergarten). The textbooks for junior high school and senior high school students are the same as those used by the key schools ofHangzhou.

 

4.       Achievements in Education

 

The academic work of the Group are undertaken by experts in education, including Hong Guangyu, an elementary math education expert and former deputy director of the Education Bureau of Jianggan District; Feng Nianzhun, leader of Physics Department; Wu Wenjin and Yu Baolong, former Senior Math teachers of Caihe High School; and a group of experts from the education industry of Hangzhou and a group of committed young and middle-aged teachers. Every year, Guotai has elementary school graduates being admitted by Hangzhou Foreign Language School upon examination and many junior high school graduates being chosen by the top key senior high schools of Hangzhou, including Hangzhou No.2 School, Hangzhou High School, Xuejun High School and key high schools out of Zhejiang Province. In addition, many of the high school graduates of Guotai have been admitted by Zhejiang University,Shanghai Jiaotong University, Beijing International Studies University, Beijing University of Technology, Nanjing University, China Academy of Art, Shanghai Conservatory Of Music and Xi’an Conservatory Of Music.

 

5.       English Education

 

Guotai is well known for its focus on English education. All educational departments (senior high school, junior high school, elementary school and kindergarten) have hired foreign teachers to teach speaking English. Every student is able to talk with foreign teachers at any time. Every educational department of the Group has been approved as State Bilingual Education Base and has gained great achievements. For over 10 plus years, the schools have won many first awards in national, provincial, municipal and district contests for performing short English drama and English songs. In February 2005, Xu Shengxiang, a junior high school graduate of Guotai then (currently a student of Zhejiang University) and Huang Siqi (currently in Class 1 Grade 6 of Guotai) won Gold Award, the highest award of the third national “Dandelion Cup” English contest. Hu Zhenzhen (has been a student of Guotai since grade I of elementary school), who was a graduate of our junior high school in 2005, was admitted by the affiliated middle school of Singapore Nanyang Technological University due to her competence, especially her good English speaking ability. She will go to Singapore to complete her senior high school free of tuition. Zhen Baixue (Grade Three student), Sheng Jiaying (Grade Five student) of our primary school won the first prize and Lin Zilong (Grade Four student) won the third prize in the National “Yi Jia Xiang Cup” English Speaking Contest in July 2005. In July 2007, Yu Tingting won 3^rd Place of the high school grade-A English song group in the National Youth English Contest.

 

6.       Art Education

 

Art education is one of the characteristics of Guotai. Guotai is one of the music and fine arts level testing bases of Zhejiang. Students are able to take part in various level tests in the school. So far, a number of students have won first awards in the vocal contest, piano contest, violin contest, dancing contest, short drama contest, and painting contest of municipal, provincial or national level. In 1988, the school song of Guotai received 1^st place in the school song contest of Zhejiang. In 2002, Gu Meng got the highest grade in the specialty test for the entry examination of Xi’an Conservatory of Music. In December 2004, Chai Zhenqi received Bronze Award in the 7^th Snow Affection National Teacher and Student Artworks Contest. During 1998 and 2006, several students were admitted by China Academy of Art, various industrial art schools out of Zhejiang, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Xi’an Conservatory of Music.

 

7.       Physical Education

 

Our teachers of physical education have won many first places in various provincial, municipal and district sports events. Our football team has also received many first places and attended games in Korea and Japan on behalf of Hangzhou and won the champions. In 2003, Guotai’s elementary school football team attended the elementary school student football game and won 3^rd place. In 2004, JinYinger, on behalf of Jianggan District Martial Art Society, attended the 2^nd Zhejiang International Traditional Martial Art Conference and won the champion in Nunchaku M6 6-13 Group

 

V. International Visibility

 

For 16 years since the school was founded, the advanced educational concepts, powerful faculty force and scientific educational and boarding management systems have drawn wide attention and won high remarks from various news agencies from home and abroad, from society and students’ parents. Hong Kong’s Takungpao, Wenweipo and Mainland China’s Reference News, Chinese Education, Hangzhou Daily, City Express and news media alike have published many special reports on our school. Since 1999, we have received educational officials from U.S. News Office, Canada, Korea, France, Switzerland, Austria, Singapore and Hong Kong and admitted Children of overseas Chinese and famous entrepreneurs all over the world, including the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Korea, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Romania, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

VI. International Exchange

 

In 1998, Guotai and the renowned Columbia International College of Canada became sister schools and signed an agreement on cooperative education. After pre-university education, the senior high school graduates of Guotai may directly enter into the colleges of Canada and the U.S. In March 2005, Guotai formally tied sister school relationship with Marburg High School Hessisches, Germany and signed an agreement to send teachers and students to each other every year. In June 2005, Guotai tied sister school relationship with a highly reputed private school from Los Angles and signed an agreement on cooperative education. On June 10, 2006, Guotai signed agreement on cooperative education with Oliver University of the U.S. In 2007, Guotai will sign such cooperative agreements with some educational institutions in France and Korea.

 

VII. Financing Needy Students

 

Action is louder than words. It is so when comes to love. In the summer-autumn semester of 1999, to help needy but excellent students realize their dream to attend school, Principal Zhang decided at the board meeting that Guotai would admit some tuition-waived students from remote rural areas and families with layoff parents. These students would attend Grade 1 of senior high school and Guotai would pay all expenditures for them. Though such a policy would cost 1 million yuan for the school and some people could not understand it and even consider it foolish, Principal Zhang just dismissed with a smile. She always says that running a school is not for making money. Education is a great undertaking and should benefit the people. Genuineness, goodness and beauty deeply in the soul is more important than making money. A spirit is noble and admirable when it is free from wealth. So far, many tuition-waived students of Guitai have admitted by China’s key universities such as Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Beijing International StudiesUniversity. Our respectable Principal Zhang offered these needy students opportunities to attend school and a bright future. The students’ gratitude is seen from their eyes, which also shows the hope of Guotai and the country and an affectionate heart for people.

 

VIII. Growth of Guotai

 

Headed by Principal Zhang, Guotai Foreign Language and Art School has ushered in its today’s glory after experiencing all kinds of hardship and difficulties. It has developed, from just a few students and less than ten staff members, into a Guotai Education Group with 3900 faculty and students, integrating kindergarten, pre-schooling course, primary school, junior high school and senior high school.

 

Our society takes cares of Guotai during its growth and has given many high praises and honors, including:

 

(1)                  Appointed experimental school for key research projects in the Ninth-Year Plan by the State Education Commission

(2)                  Appointed experimental base for bilinguistic teaching research project by the Ministry of Education

(3)                  Appointed examination base for Cambridge Teenage English Teaching by Self-Taught Office of Zhejiang Provincial High-Learning Education

(4)                  Appointed Hangzhou-based examination station in Zhejiang examination area by Music Examination Commission of China Musicians’ Association

(5)                  Hangzhou-based examination station for grade examination of nationwide calligraphy and painting

(6)                  Kaixuan Neighborhood Community School Humanity Branch, Jianggan District, Hangzhou City

(7)                  Qianjiang Teenager Part-Time Communist Youth League Branch, Jianggan District, Hangzhou City

(8)                  Advanced Institution for teenager after-school education in 2002

(9)                  School of Traditional Sports for Physical Education, Jianggan District, Hangzhou City

(10)               Group Member of Hangzhou Lumiao Teenager Sports Club

(11)               Up-to-Standard for Students’ Behaviors approved by Jianggan District Education Bureau

(12)               Safe and Model Campus of Jianggan District

(13)               One of the Top 100 Non-Government Schools in China

Zhang Xiaoying, Chairwoman and Principal, has won the following honors:

(1)    World Outstanding People

(2)    One of the first Ten Best Educational Workers in Jianggan District

(3)    Outstanding Educator from Non-Government School

(4)    Standing Director of China Educators’ Association for Non-Government Schools

(5)    Vice-Chairwoman of the World Outstanding Chinese Association

 

 

VIII. A Bright Future

 

The school song composed and lyricized by Principal Zhang sung “schoolmates are like brothers and sisters; teachers are as warm as parents. We get along and make friends; we learn and we grow. This is our big family. We will never forget our happy time.”

 

Accompanied by this touching school song, Guotai, a school full of love, is heading for a brighter future!