During the 2024-2025 academic year, the FOW Committee steadfastly adhered to the five core values of "Kindness, Responsibility, Respect, Courage and Integrity," organising a variety of activities and interactions across three major sectors to deepen community identity and foster excellent home-school communication. This year, FOW participated in and hosted a total of 9 community workshops, 10 school annual events, and 6 Wellington Talks.
For the traditional FOW activity celebrating Teacher's Day, we prepared small potted succulents symbolising vitality and life for every staff member, bringing gratitude and blessings from the community into the campus. In December, the inaugural Wellington Charity Flea Market and Winter Fair saw parents from three campuses participating in various charity sales with love and creativity, raising valuable funds for FOW activities. In February, the Snake Year Spring Festival Fair filled the gym with a rich New Year atmosphere, where everyone enjoyed traditional foods, interactive games and celebrated the approaching New Year together. On this day, FOW's specially customised Snake Year blessing bags were distributed to every pupil and staff member.
May to June each year is the peak period for annual activities on campus. The Multicultural Day, meticulously planned and prepared by community families, allowed the entire school to enjoy a virtual world tour within the campus. The Summer Carnival remains the most popular annual event among the community. Besides continuing the tradition of offering food, drinks, souvenirs and second-hand school uniform sales, FOW will, for the first time, organise parents for choir, dance, interactive games and an annual appreciation awards ceremony, bringing a friendly, harmonious and joyful atmosphere to the stage to share with all families. Following the Carnival, the annual musical will take the stage, and we welcome more parents to join the volunteer team to help perfect the presentation of the annual musical.
Throughout the year, 6 Wellington Talks were held both online and offline, featuring guests from various industries both domestically and internationally, covering hot topics such as life sciences, music, law and AI. These guests shared industry status and professional experiences, further enhancing the pupils' career growth platform.
Community workshops continued to innovate based on existing foundations, organising theme activities around traditional solar terms and Chinese festivals, providing a rich and diverse platform for activities and exchanges for community members. Annual events like the Welcome Coffee Event, volunteer meet-ups, outdoor hiking, various handicraft activities and themed sharing sessions received positive feedback and active support from parents.
This spring, community activities were particularly vibrant. Activities like "Making Friends with Spring" parent-child planting, the 10K parent-child fun run, and bamboo shoot digging engaged hundreds of community families, allowing labour education to be immersed in the beauty of nature. The parent soccer and badminton teams competed in Shanghai Wellington, etc., all witnessing the continuous and enhanced community integration and communication this year.
Throughout this academic year, class representatives maintained regular communication, and the FOW monthly communication meetings served as two key home-school collaboration mechanisms, continuously collecting feedback on community building issues and promoting work such as dietary management. FOW also consistently engaged in in-depth discussions with the school on how to better enhance FOW's influence within the community and more reasonably balance its role as a bridge in home-school communication. In the future, FOW will attend monthly principal meetings, establishing high-quality communication with more parents.
Looking back, we are proud of the hard work put in this year and the affirmation from community families. Funds raised through sports cheering packs, themed merchandise and second-hand school uniforms were 100% dedicated to supporting various community activities and pupil welfare projects. The orderly progress of the three major sectors' work was made possible thanks to the participation and support of both new and veteran committee members, class representatives and parent volunteers. Special thanks to teacher Hillary Zhao, the school's community communication representative, for her proactive support and resolution of various tasks in FOW's work. However, continuously improving the effectiveness of community building and parent participation and establishing an effective home-school communication mechanism, remains an ongoing challenge.
The recruitment for the new FOW Executive Committee will also commence in the next academic year, and we sincerely invite parents to actively sign up and join us.
The FOW Executive Committee will continue to work closely with the school to build an integrated home-school-community development platform. We will further expand resources externally, seek more collaborations in charity and parent mentor programmes, enrich the community's perspective and assist pupils in career planning.
