Introduction

Yan’an Junior School, at 601 West Yan’an Rd, was originally named by Mr Deng Xiaoping as Yan’an Middle School. In August 1998 ,Yan’an Middle School moved to a new location to become a boarding school, while the junior department remained was renamed East Yan’an Middle School, and was again renamed Yan’an Junior School in March 2003. The school has 14,466 square meters of land, 15,320 square meters of building space, and 3500 square meters of greenery. It has sufficient teaching facilities of all kinds. There is an indoor basketball court, a 200-meter rubber racetrack, a gymnastics room for students to exercise in, a multi-functional audio-visual classroom that can hold 330 students, a rotating observatory, an electronic library and a school website.

From 6th to 9th grade the school now has 34 classes with nearly 1500 students. There are 138 teachers, including 28 advanced teachers, 1 extra-advanced teacher, 2 excellent human talents 2 advanced academic leaders in the district, 5 regular academic leaders in the district, 3 Master graduates and 7 who have completed the Master courses. This high qualified team of educators forms the foundation of human talents for the school’s sustainable development . In teachers’ ethics tests and civilized group forming activities, the school has had several advanced groups at district, city, and national level. Among these, the math department has won top 100 in teachers’ ethics, and top 500 in the laborers’ quality project.

The school has actively reformed teaching methods, and the administrative center has been moved down to grade level, with the characteristics of “structured education, quick results, and effective activities.” Under the goal of complete development and generation of special talent, a school curriculum system of “low pressure, high efficiency, various types, different levels, and normalization” has been formed which can fully develop the intelligence of students with time for extracurricular study. Prizes are constantly earned for the school in various contests. The school not only keeps the traditional strength in math, environment, traditional music and girls’ basketball team but also forms new distinguishing features of academic education in physics, chemistry and information technology which reflects the goal of “high quality, creation of specialties, and striving for excellence”. Under the guidance of the new three-year plan of “fully improving the education environment, completely raising the teaching standards”, the school has actively undertaken the reform with the principle of “Second Curriculum Reform”, and has increased cooperation with schools in the country and abroad, and simultaneously developing scientific thoughts and creativity. Focused on graduation reform, the school has performed studies on personality differences and adaptation to the environment. Among these, “Research on Adaptation in Curricular Education in Junior High” and three other research programs have reached city level, and the two completed programs have won 2nd and 3rd prize for education and scientific research in the district.

“Honestly operating, diligently educating” has been the educational tradition of “Yan’an people” for generations. While undertaking quality education, the school has kept in mind the maxim of “Se credite, se confirmate”, develops constantly, and has earned honors such as Shanghai Experimental Quality Education School, Shanghai Students’ Conduct Model School (bronze medal), Shanghai Science Education Specialty School, National Green School, National Experimental EPD Education Project School, Shanghai Psychological Counseling Association Experimental Base, Shanghai Curriculum Reform Experimental Base, National Creativity Education Experimental Base and Shanghai Civilized Unit. This has helped our school become one with “Special in math, strong in science, combination of humanities, and harmonic development.”