Individuation is at the core of the education system of Dipont Huayao Collegiate School (hereinafter "the HC School" or "HC").

The personalized education system means that every scholar's interests and strength can be explored, guided and stimulated here, which could help them achieve their academic and life goals in the future.

Entering its third year, how has the student-centered education philosophy that accomplishes every student been implemented in this school?

Facing a rich curriculum as such, scholars will not be lost in the numerous choices, because behind them stand a group of teachers, tutors, parents, college counselors and other professional staff of the School. Each student’s timetable is the result of many rounds of consultation between scholars and teachers.

On the basis of meeting basic graduation requirements, scholars can follow their passion in Math, Science and Technology, History, Language, Arts and other areas, and learn to choose and give up in the selection process, so that the valuable sparks of interests will eventually help accomplish a unique human being in the future.

In this process, scholars learn to discover themselves, build confidence, find happiness, and achieve growth. Let's follow three HC scholars with different personalities to see how they benefit from the personalized learning:

✦ Michael, G10, returned from a prestigious private school in the United States and joined HC two years ago.

✦ Vivian, G11, a founding student, transferred to HC from a local public junior high school.

✦ Holly, G11, transferred from an IB School to HC to learn the American curriculum.

Let's listen to their stories.

Two years ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, Michael, who was studying at an American middle school, gave up the chance to progress to high school in America and decided to return to China to finish his high school education because he was worried that he could not see his family for a long time.

In fact, after a year of study, Michael found that the transition was really smooth, largely in line with his expectations of "an American education at my doorstep."

In American junior high schools, students learn mainly through a fixed timetable. However, at HC, the "one timetable per student" arrangement, which was introduced from American high schools, allows scholars to flexibly formulate their own timetable according to their own interests and abilities. The HC School offers a number of programs: Honors CP, College Preparatory ECP, Advanced Placement AP, etc. which could be taken by scholars of different levels, and sets aside "window periods" for students to make adjustments as needed.

By choosing courses according to his own interests and needs, Michael has become more pro-active in his studies.

For scholars like Michael, the guidance school tutors provide in choosing courses is more about the "big picture". 

As Principal Jeff once said to him,

Michael was deeply impressed by this remark.

After transferring from junior high school in the U.S. to the HC School, Michael says that what he likes most is the learning atmosphere here. "One timetable per student" gives scholars a lot of choices and encourages them to try and learn new things, which is very helpful to stimulate their thinking abilities. As most of Michael’s main courses are Sciences, for both electives and Life Block, he chose liberal-arts courses, such as speech and debate, C language programming and so on. Covering both liberal arts and science is the balance he achieved through experimenting and deep thinking.

Vivian once studied at a public school. In her first year at HC, she chose Drama as her Life Block extended course. Her performance at the casting of the school show Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was well-recognized by the drama teacher who gave her the first leading role in her life -- Willy Wonka.

This small achievement made Vivian very emotional. When studying at the public school, Vivian was not favored by teachers because her academic performance was mediocre and as an out-going girl, she often laughed around with fellow students. Public school teachers only preferred quiet students with good grades and perfect manners.

After joining HC, Vivian felt strongly the school's support and encouragement for each student's personality. She said with sincerity，

This kind of "seeing" not only helped her explore her interests, but also boosted her academic performance. Vivian was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the advanced English course when she was making course selection and she wanted to take the intermediate level instead. But when she communicated with her tutor, she got the following advice: “Actually you should go for the advanced class first, and try your best to keep up with it. It’ll be great if you can keep up, but if you can't, we will make adjustments accordingly."

The tutor's words gave Vivian confidence. What happened next proved that if you try hard to reach the next level, you would achieve a lot more than just maintaining your current level.

For Vivian, who comes from a public junior high school, the experience of customizing her timetable was both novel and exhilarating. Choosing your own courses means choosing the courses that you are interested in, which are also in line with one’s academic field at university.

In her opinion, the personalized education implemented by HC is a great help for scholars’ future education and career development. Scholars can study according to their abilities and interests, and teachers' methodology is also very different from that of public schools’. Now, she finally feels the joy of active learning.

Outside the classroom, Life Block gives scholars a chance to do exercises, relieve pressure and relax. Vivian loves playing badminton. Monday and Wednesday are her happiest days in school, because she signed up for Life Block and would play badminton on these two days. Playing hard and sweating on the court is a way for her to relieve the pressure of hard work in the classroom. She also enjoys the relaxation through art electives: the combination of work and rest is the ideal way for her to learn. Here, she finally found her own stage.

Holly, who just transferred to HC this year from an IB course center, is very independent and has a clear plan for her future. When transitioning from the IB system to HC’s AP system, the course credits were the first challenge.

Holly decided early on that she wanted to pursue Health Science for further studies and as her future career path, so she inclined to take courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology. In her interview with HC’s college counselor, she clearly expressed her course selection plan and assessment her own ability. The clear future plan she made for herself was well recognized by the college counselor. At present, Holly has filled her self-study classes with courses that she wants to take or are related to Health Science, with a very clear goal in mind.

When choosing courses, she chose AP Biology based on her major. Due to conflicts in course time, she chose not to study Chemistry for the time being, but filled her self-study time with AP English Literature, and replaced the original English Literature course with AP Psychology. In this way, she successfully arranged three AP courses for herself. After following this timetable s for a while, she found that AP English literature course wasn’t the right choice for her as it required a lot time for intensive reading. At the same time, she also wanted to choose AP courses related to her major by adjusting the level of the Chinese course.

Compared with the IB system, where she had to write daily essays and weekly reports, Holly reckons that the AP system enables a "happier" education. This kind of "happiness" is not simply relaxation, but a more targeted kind of learning guided by keen interests and clear goals. She also likes the more straightforward way of teaching. For example, the math course she takes starts with the teacher directly diving into the key learning objective of the day by presenting an example problem. In this way, she is able to absorb the knowledge delivered by teachers more effectively, which is different from her previous school. In her opinion, HC's classroom is more flexible and efficient.

Holly also enjoyed Life Block where she gets the opportunity to participate in her favorite drama performance, which was not expected by her, as she thought before the term starts that she wouldn’t be able to have extended activities after school due to heavy coursework. As a science lover, she is also thinking about starting a new club to share science knowledge on social media in an interesting and quick way that the public would like to follow.  

Her idea is fully supported by Mr. Hoek who print posters and recommended a club tutor for her. Now with the help of Mr. Hoek, Holly's club is coming into shape. Here, she feels closer to her goal.