Hall of Honour: HSH pupils achieve excellent results in Chinese Writing Competitions

What specific preparations did you and the pupils make before the competition?  

Ms. Huang: Our pupils have been fully engaged in our carefully designed,thorough extracurricular debating courses.We strive to encourage pupils to explore the intrinsic logic behind linguistic expression and dive into the art of Socratic questioning. In our daily classes, we integrated the text content with inquiry-based tasks that foster curiosity and the desire to explore. 

We value every pupil's right to speak and remind them that “believing everything in books is worse than having no books at all” and that “my love for truth is greater than my love for my teacher”. This encourages them to boldly challenge authority and raise doubts. Meanwhile, we guide them to thoroughly search for evidence and proof and practice their logical and critical thinking skills during the process of questioning and verification. 

This approach has created an atmosphere of equal and open communication where pupils are more willing to express themselves, listen attentively to others' perspectives and engage in different modes of thinking. 

Ms. Sun: One thing we always emphasise when attending academic competitions is that we never participate simply for the sake of it. Our primary objective is to enhance pupils' comprehensive abilities, such as critical thinking and writing skills. As Ms. Huang noted, our immersive learning environment empowers pupils with confidence, enabling them to calmly confront unexpected situations by proficiently using these skills.  

It is worth mentioning that these abilities are cultivated through our curriculum, allowing pupils to apply their classroom learning to competition scenarios. The flexibility gained through our pedagogy has aided our pupils in various extracurricular competitions. 

Although many exceptional schools actively participated in the competition, our performance was outstanding. Six of our pupils received individual awards, and our team won ‘Best Outstanding Team.’ This fully demonstrates the effectiveness of our pedagogy and highlights our significant achievements in cultivating pupils’ abilities.  

How do you assess the competitiveness of other schools? Is there a specific school you pay close attention to? 

Ms. Sun: We do not focus on any one particular school; instead, we strive to become the best version of ourselves. It is now proven that we are not to be underestimated. 

What distinguishes the Zongheng Cup Chinese Debating Writing Competition from other competitions? 

Ms. Sun: As the pupils mentioned, debate competitions in the past have mainly focused on verbal expression, whereas this competition requires participants to think logically and clearly while also articulating their thoughts in written form. Therefore, this competition evaluates the pupils not only on their language proficiency but also on their logical and writing skills - aspects that we have consistently emphasised and developed through our daily teaching practices. 

Ms. Huang: I would like to ask that Dino, one of our participating pupils, will talk more about how he demonstrated his strong impromptu response skills when he faced an emergency during the final round. We cultivate our pupils' ability to respond quickly and effectively by incorporating activities in our daily classes, such as timed impromptu debates and critical thinking exercises. 

How did you feel when you received the award and what did you gain from participating in the competition? 

Rock: I felt excited, exhilarated, and a great sense of achievement. My teachers were very supportive and encouraging. Participating in the competition helped me exercise my logical thinking and response when debating with my teammates. 

Kevin: Calm and composed, I felt like victory was within my grasp. This competition gave me some practical experience, as I was more like a "paper tiger" before it. But now, I can combine the debating skills taught by Ms. Huang with the writing skills taught by Ms.  Sun to win honours for myself, my teachers, and my school. During the preliminary round, my argument score was not very high due to inadequate preparation, but I adjusted my mindset in time before the final round and overcame obstacles to win the prize. 

Dino: I was very surprised when I won the award and never imagined that I could win. My biggest gain was meeting contestants from different cultural backgrounds from all over China. I remember that there was an accident during the final round where my manuscript was accidentally deleted, but I quickly adjusted my mindset and rewrote it. I feel very fortunate to have won the award. 

Kitty: Winning the prize was within my expectations. Unlike other similar competitions, this was a writing-based debate competition, but the thought process was the same. Our teachers taught us how to quickly come up with discussion points and find evidence when writing argumentative essays. This competition was a good opportunity to apply what we learned. 

Henry: I maintained a calm mindset, and this ranking is consistent with my abilities. Participating in this competition helped me develop my logical thinking and better plan my time, as we had to organise our thoughts and gather enough evidence within a short time. 

Jerry: I was very surprised because my Chinese language skills are not very good. This was my first time participating in a Chinese language competition, and I did not expect to win. But I am still very happy, and participating in this competition was very worthwhile. 

What strategies did the teachers use to guide the pupils? 

Ms. Sun: Although we did not deliberately prepare for the competition, the topics in the competition coincided with the themes we discussed when we were preparing for the 10th grade exams. In our daily teaching, we always focus on cultivating pupils' writing and reading abilities, and we provide diverse exercises to broaden their thinking. In addition, we encourage pupils to play different "roles" by reading various materials and books on the website to help them broaden their horizons and increase their knowledge. As a result, whether it is argumentation or refutation, pupils can demonstrate their full rhetorical abilities, which is one of the main reasons for their outstanding performance. 

Did any pupil leave a particularly strong impression on you? 

Ms. Sun: Kevin was the youngest participant in his group, which included pupils from grades 10 to 12. It is worth mentioning that Kevin had just celebrated his birthday on the day of the competition and "coincidentally" entered this group. Despite the age challenge, Kevin still managed to win first place and the Best Rebuttal Award with his outstanding performance, defeating all the older contestants. We are deeply proud of Kevin's excellent performance. 

What do you think is the most important thing in the preparation process? Do you have any advice for other pupils who want to participate?

Ms. Sun: We strongly encourage more pupils to actively participate in this competition. Last year, we had nine pupilts participate, with four of them winning awards. This year, the number of participants has increased to 16, and the number of award winners has reached nine. The growing number of participants fully demonstrates the pupils' love and dedication to the competition. We look forward to more pupils using this platform to showcase their talents and abilities, which is also a powerful affirmation of their abilities.  

Ms. Huang: From a more macro perspective, in this era of rapid development of artificial intelligence, acquiring knowledge has become easy, but unique thinking ability is particularly valuable. This ability is irreplaceable and is also the core literacy that Hangzhou Huili School has always been committed to cultivating and improving. We know that in future competitions, pupils with independent thinking and analytical skills will have more advantages, which is also the focus of our educational work. 

What non-academic gains do pupils usually get from participating in such competitions? 

Ms. Huang: Pupils usually gain a resilient attitude towards pressure, the ability to search for and integrate information, more confident expression, and the habit of thinking. They also become more tolerant and flexible in their perspectives. Considering that Huili pupils will go on to face different voices and viewpoints in the world, the cultivation of these abilities will undoubtedly lay a solid foundation for them and help them better adapt and integrate into a diverse international environment. 

From an educator's perspective, what role does this type of competition play in the entire teaching process? 

Ms. Sun: This competition is undoubtedly an excellent platform to showcase our teaching achievements. The emphasis on thinking ability, quick response ability, and logical thinking in the competition is exactly the goal we relentlessly pursue in our daily teaching. With this platform, both teachers and parents can clearly see that the cultivation of pupils' abilities is not achieved overnight but is gradually accumulated through daily learning and practice, and ultimately demonstrated and realised. This process fully demonstrates the pupils' perseverance and growth on the academic path.