A new senior high school will open in Guangming District in September next year to help meet the high demand for senior high school seats in Shenzhen. The school, jointly built by the Guangming District government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Shenzhen University of Science and Technology, which is also located in Guangming, aims to provide an innovative science-focused secondary education to students. The campus under construction is to the south of Science Park in Guangming with a building area of 82,000 square meters. It will be equipped with a standard playground, an indoor swimming pool, basketball courts and badminton courts, a black box theater, a maker space, a classroom with VR equipment and other facilities. The school will also include a science museum, an art museum and other venues. When completed, it will have 42 classes for 10th to 12th graders. In November 2018, the CAS signed an agreement to jointly build a university in Guangming, which is the fourth domestic university attached to the academy. Working to build an international-level university that focuses both on teaching and research, the university will make subjects in science, engineering, biomedicine and business management its features and focus. The new senior high school being built follows a similar guideline and will take advantage of its vicinity to CAS Shenzhen’s university and utilize resources from the university. Providing cross-subject courses and advanced placement programs that will better help students adapt to their future study in universities, the school will also give more advanced-level courses to the top-tier students who may grow to be scientists. In the first round of recruitment for its staff, 27 graduates from top Chinese universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University signed job contracts with the senior high school this month. A systematic training will be provided to these young recruits before they can start working next September. The school is also in the process of recruiting experienced teachers from around China to lead its young teachers. (Debra Li) | 