As we all know, our sister school HIKSVS is based in Tianjin, China. Due to the school being within such proximity to Beijing, they have also had to deal with the challenging effects that COVID-19 has sprung upon us. Sherrie Lu, our International Project Coordinator gives an update as to how they are dealing with the pandemic:

“Just like the UK, HIKSVS have been overwhelmed with how the community is coming together to enforce the safety measures of self-quarantine. We were in quarantine from the end of January until mid-March. The statistics show that the effectiveness of this quarantine meant that fewer than 200 people have been infected out of our 15 million population here in Tianjin.

While HIKSVS, just like many other schools, are waiting for the guidelines of when we can reopen from the local education department, our staff have been working remotely to deliver online classes, while other key members of staff are working physically on campus on an effectively designed rotation schedule since March.

We have been putting in new health and safety measures at the School, to ensure the reopening runs as safely as possible. These include, but not limited to: A 1.5-metre distancing rule Temperature measurements Disinfection procedures before entering School and during School hours A temporary Reception area at the School gate. This ensures parents and visitors remain off-site unless under special circumstances

The students and staff have been embracing the latest challenges and have been doing well with no reported cases of the illness.