Teachers and Students Delegation from the International School of Milan Visits Our School

On April 10, 2025, a 18-member delegation of teachers and students from the International School of Milan (Italy) visited our school for academic exchange. With over 60 years of educational experience, the school is among Italy’s leading IB institutions.

Vice Principal Yuancao Liang warmly received the visiting Italian delegation in the reception room and introduced our school’s long history and rich cultural heritage. Subsequently, under the guidance of Deputy Director Yuefang Yu and Teacher Boshujie Li of the Exchange Center, the Italian teachers and students conducted a campus tour. During the exercise break, the Italian students were instantly attracted by the energetic scene. Watching the Chinese students' energetic movements, many Italian students eagerly joined in, joining the dance. The exercise break concluded amid laughter and cheer from both Chinese and Italian students. When the Italian students reached the exit of the playground, a heartwarming sight greeted them: groups of our students smiled and waved enthusiastically, offering the warmest welcome to their international friends, giving the delegation a genuine sense of our community’s warmth and hospitality.

In the music classroom, Teacher Hongwei Zhou's Peking Opera class captivated them completely. After enjoying the performance of the students from the affiliated high school, Teacher Zhou also taught the Italian students to sing the Peking Opera "The Empty Fort Strategy," giving them a firsthand experience of the unique charm of Peking Opera, a quintessential Chinese cultural treasure.

In the calligraphy class taught by Ms. Meng Li from the International Department, Ms.Li showcased the charm of Chinese calligraphy the charm of Chinese calligraphy to the Italian students. She introduced the basic knowledge of the Four Treasures of the Study (brush, ink, paper and inkstone), the five major Chinese calligraphic scripts (seal script, clerical script, regular script, running script and cursive script), the foundational techniques of calligraphy (the "Eight Principles of Yong"), as well as the significance of Spring Festival couplets. She also led them to personally copy Spring Festival couplets in clerical script, allowing them to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters through ink, brush, paper, and inkstone. Before the class began, Italian students interacted enthusiastically with international students from the international department and introduced themselves to each other. Learning that an Indonesian student was about to have a birthday, everyone sang the birthday song for him together to celebrate his birthday.

Subsequently, the visiting delegation went on to visit the school's distinctive cultural study venues: the "Xingtan Art Gallery" that showcases the educational scenes of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the "Sanwei Bookstore" that recreates the educational atmosphere of feudal society, the "Qian Xuesen Memorial Hall" that presents the educational features of the Republic of China era, and the Science and Technology classroom that highlights modern education features.

At noon, led by student volunteers from the China-US cooperation project class, the visiting delegation went to Liulichang Ancient Culture Street to experience the charm of Beijing's traditional handicrafts and time-honored brand culture up close.

In the afternoon, the Italian students attended classes in the International Program of the High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, experiencing AP courses including Art History, Computer Science Principles, Psychology, Microeconomics, and Physics,  and interacted with Chinese students.

In the AP art history class, Teacher Philip divided three Italian students into different groups and appointed them as group leaders to organize everyone to explore the masterworks from the Italian Renaissance and other classics by Italian painters. In the class, the Italian students introduced the specific collection places of the relevant works in Italy, and vividly shared the shock and emotion they felt when they saw the real objects with their own eyes in Italy. Their accounts made the students feel as if they were right there, standing before those artistic treasures. This kind of cross-border communication and interaction has opened the door for students to a deeper understanding of art, enriching their interpretation of the works.

Italian students are very fond of the AP psychology course. In class, they actively communicated in fluent English with the students of our school. The accompanying Italian teacher was highly impressed by the research methods of developmental psychology explained by Teacher Huateng Zhang, as well as the multiple theories of cognitive and emotional development, and the research designs with the characteristics of developmental psychology such as longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies.

The code examples in Teacher Jie Lian's computer principles class aroused the interest of the Italian students who were attending the class. They actively participated in the class discussion. After class, they exchanged ideas about computer curricula and future academic plans between the two schools.

In the economics class, Italian students and students from our school sat side by side and worked together on market diagrams to analyze the synergy between commodity and labor markets, systematically exploring the impact of changes in consumer behavior on enterprises' employment decisions.

Chinese students asked the Italian students who had entered the AP physics class about the correct pronunciation of "Avogadro" in Italian, and the Italian students demonstrated "Avogadro" with pure pronunciation, earning enthusiastic applause from the class. This interaction instantly broke the language barrier and sparked a warm spark.

In the gymnasium, Teacher Yu Kang taught the Italian teachers and students the traditional Chinese fitness treasure - Baduanjin. At the beginning of the class, Teacher Kang vividly recounted the long history of Baduanjin and its outstanding benefits in strengthening the body, opening a window for the students to understand traditional Chinese culture. Guided by Teacher Kang, the Italian teachers and students immersed themselves in the practice of Baduanjin, coordinating the movements with breathing to soothing music for an immersive experience. After the practice was over, the student representative was amazed and said that the seemingly slow movements made the body sweat slightly, feeling comfortable and wonderful all over. To conclude, Teacher Kang kindly presented the Italian teachers and students with illustrated Baduanjin manuals and warmly invited them to set foot on this charming land of China again in the future.

In Teacher Ling Fang's chemistry class, the Italian teachers and students made hand cream by themselves. Under Teacher Fang's guidance, the teachers and students used purified water, sweet almond oil, humectants, emulsifiers, and natural essential oils as raw materials. Through precise proportioning, stirring, and emulsification, they observed the changes in the blending of water and oil and successfully made hand cream through rigorous operation, experiencing the magical and extensive uses of chemistry in daily life. Italian teachers and students have all expressed that such classes are both interesting and practical. They not only sparked students' strong interest in the subject of chemistry but also made them deeply feel the charm of chemistry.

This one-day exchange served as a bridge that brought students from both countries closer together and sparked meaningful cross-cultural connections, further strengthening the friendship between Chinese and Italian teachers and students.