Harrow pupils travelled to Shanghai for the inaugural Prep School Conference, held at Harrow International School Shanghai from 3rd-6th May.
This was a fantastic opportunity for Year 5 to Year 8 pupils across the wider family of three Harrow International Schools to integrate and collaborate during a three-day conference which included a range of activities, projects, and presentations.
The conference aimed to strengthen links between the Harrow family, drawing on our shared history and ethos. Its overarching focus was to promote teamwork, creativity and problem-solving skills in order to help shape a better future world.
The boys and girls from Harrow Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing were divided into teams of six. Based on the theme of this year’s conference, A Whole New World, pupils took on challenges to create new civilisation on the recent discovery of ‘Planet Pax’. Having adopted different media, teams put their leadership skills to the test to develop new theories, models, and systems that would make life on ‘Pax’ a success, which followed by a formal presentation of their weekend’s work.
With their outstanding leadership, teamwork and presentation skills, it was no surprise that Harrow Hong Kong’s pupils were presented with various awards. Many congratulations to Yannis (Year 8, Shackleton) who won the Peoples’ Choice Award, earning the most votes from the audience for his role in the projects. In addition to this, his team, which also included Audrey (Year 5, Tiger), won the prize for the best team in Division A. Very well done to the overall champions, Team 6, which included Charlie (Year 7, Shackleton) and Alex (Year 5, Dragon).
It was a pleasure to see every pupil contributed to the overall top prize at the conference. With Beijing claiming third, and Shanghai in 2nd place, all Hong Kong pupils should be very proud of their combined efforts which highlighted themselves to crown 2018 Conference Champions.
Mr Michael Strickland, Harrow Hong Kong’s Prep School House Master (Shackleton House) and Teacher of History, concluded: ”The trip was certainly a great success, and amongst the team rivalry, there were lovely opportunities for all pupils to socialise during a pool party, pizza eating extravaganza, and a finale supper in the heart of Lujiazui.
“Most significantly, lasting relationships were established between delegates and schools, and this will no doubt be the first of many future conferences in which Harrow pupils can develop their ‘Leadership for a better world’.”