Qualified and experienced teaching staff are the backbone of the successful programs we offer here at YCIS Chongqing. The professional recruiting team of the Yew Chung Education Foundation works year-round to enlist and place the best teachers at its campuses across the world. More than half of our teachers have over five years of experience, a fifth hold master’s degrees or higher, and a sixth have additional certifications, including International Baccalaureate and Cambridge International Examinations qualifications.

This year, our team of teachers has grown even more, and we have welcomed 20 new staff from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Korea, each bringing not only expertise in their respective fields, but also a passion for education, dedication to the YCIS philosophy, and a commitment to preparing our international students for the challenges they will face in the future.

Emma Louise Scott

Head of Primary

We are delighted to have Mrs. Emma Scott, who is from UK, join YCIS Chongqing with her more than 10 years of professional experience in Primary teaching, curriculum development, and pedagogical leadership. She has established and maintained an on-going project with IB Standards and Practices. She shared her international education core values with us:

“International education empowers students to become sophisticated critical and creative thinkers – essential skills for our dynamic world. That is one area students can benefit most from international schools.

When students of different nationalities and cultures come together, they become exposed to alternate ideas, values and beliefs. Our skilled teachers at YCIS ensure our students have a safe learning environment that allows them to interact and connect with their global world, with increasing confidence.

It is an exciting time for curricular development at YCIS Chongqing and I look forward to working with our team of outstanding educators to drive us into a new chapter of international Primary education.”

Gary Reed

Physics IB teacher

As a science teacher since 1998, UK native Mr. Gary Reed has 19 years teaching experience, and recently shared his unique insights and philosophy of teaching:

“I think my role is to unlock students’ imagination, engage them in the study process, and guide them through the challenges and difficulties they might encounter during their studies.

Teaching IB Science in an international school that has 28 nationalities is quite challenging, however, I think Science is a new ‘language’ for everyone, I will apply the ‘Traffic Light System’ [a technique to monitor the level of student understanding of lesson content] to better understand students’ needs and to encourage them to communicate with me about any potential difficulties so that I can better support them.”

Samantha Smith & Jim Irvine

ECE Co-teachers

YCIS kindergarten classrooms are always overflowing with love and care, and this year, we embrace Samantha and Jim, a couple from Australia, who are excited to take our ECE Program to next stage! As professional early childhood educators, they spoke recently about their educational philosophies:

“The emotional, social and physical development of children at the ECE stage of development, the milestones the child might reach by three to four years play a big part in their future lives. Play is critical to the healthy growth and development of children, and teachers actually lead the children make transition from play to learn. We ask questions of the children, providing learning opportunities while they are practicing various skills in their own unique ways. Children still think they are playing, they feel like they initiated the playing, but we know they are learning under our watch.

Linda Lorenz

EAL teacher

Bringing with her 19 years of teaching experience and 15 years of EAL teaching in the United States, Turkey, and China, Ms. Linda Lorenz is prepared to foster a new environment of enthusiasm at YCIS Chongqing. She believes student interest should be prioritized in the classroom and we look forward to seeing how she will stimulate interest in our students to learn a new language!

“There are many strategies that work with EAL students. Some of my favorites are building rituals/routines and community within the group. Other strategies include:

• Sharing objectives and providing feedback

• Using nonlinguistic representations

• Advanced Organizers

• Cooperative Learning

Keep in mind that these strategies are good for all students.”

Brian Kim

IB Korean Language and Literacy

Mr.Brian Kim has worked at international schools for 15 years as a Korean Language and Literature teacher, along with 8 years of IB program teaching experience. After all these years of observing and researching, he has successfully developed and applied his value of caring, international-minded and proactive in his professional teaching.

“I know how it feels to live overseas and I understand exactly what our international students would go through in a new living and study environment. When students feel be cared and included, they are willing to involve and develop confidence in their study!

My dream is to help my students to be Lifelong learners and I enjoy celebrating the achievements in their lives!

We can’t wait to have our students back on campus, and we look forward to another great year in YCIS Chongqing!