We are so privileged to have this opportunity to participate in the “Better Community Better Life” programme.

Following is the brief account of the preparation we've made and the outcomes we'd like to achieve.

The preparations we've made:

 With Ms. Sun Li, the deputy principal of Longyuan Middle School, as our team leader,

1. We have formed our project team.

To ensure the regular school teaching and learning and avoid any unnecessary inconvenience brought to our teachers and students, we have decided to make full use of the interest and hobby classes on Friday afternoon as our platform for this project. The relevant teachers from different disciplines are mobilized to participate as a support team for this project.

2. We have held the meetings to make a clear division of work and responsibility between the team members. The art teacher is mainly responsible for the final showcase of the artwork and during the process we also have the computer teacher for the necessary technology support, the teacher of the Little Journalist interest class for the information collection as well as some English teachers for the translation work.

3. We have e-mailed our sister schools in Hong Kong and UK to enhance the tri-link partnership and we are looking forward to the deep level exchanges in the future.

4. We have chosen twenty students from different grades and classes for this curriculum project and gained the consensus of their parents.

5. We have got the preliminary plans for this project after the group discussions.

The outcomes we'd like to achieve

1. As for the artwork, our preliminary plan is to make a hand sketched Mural on the canvas to show the features of our community. Our school located in the historic Longhua area which has enjoyed a thousand years of history and cultural heritage. Nowadays great changes have taken place in our community especially in Binjiang the riverside areas along the Huangpu River in Xuhui district. So our artwork will mainly focus on the changes and the featured community activities. First we will organize students to collect the information as much as possible, and then put heads together to work out the picture draft. After that the whole picture can be divided into several parts for students to finish. Finally the canvas boards will be assembled into a complete picture just like a picture puzzle. During this process, all the students are encouraged to participate in and share their ideas and inspiration.

What’s more the calendar is also part of our art work, the students can choose some pictures well-illustrated as the background to showcase our community.

2. For further communication and exchanges, we are intending to make a teaching video of our traditional Chinese shadowboxing. Our school as an Advanced Unit for Community Education has always been open to the community. After school hours, lots of local residents will come to our school to do physical exercises like the Chinese shadowboxing. This is where we get this inspiration. Besides we’d also like to make a video to describe the daily life of a local resident.

Anyway, those are just the preliminary ideas for our project which are not mature enough at the moment. Our school now hosts nearly three quarters of students whose parents are non-native Shanghai residents, who are largely from other provinces and are looking for better job opportunities in Shanghai. Due to their poor family background and lack of educational support at home, many of our students face more difficulties in learning. Although there is a long way to go, we are deeply convinced that it’s the process but not the immediate result that really counts.