No.1 Senior High School of Ürümqi

History

The institutional predecessor, known as Bo Da Academy of Sinkiang (simplified Chinese: 新疆博达书院/博大书院; traditional Chinese: 新疆博達書院/博大書院)(lit. Sinkiang Academy of Erudition), of the high school was founded on August 14, 1891 by the then Qing Dynasty, when it was 20 years before the establishment of the Republic of China.

In the early ROC period, many well-educated Chinese intellectuals and political figures, converged on the school to pursue their studies in Xinjiang. The former school president Yu Xiusong (Chinese: 俞秀松) (in office in 1936), came around and taught in the school as the then leader of the CPC Shanghai Leading Group and one of the founding members of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC). In 1938, Li Yunyang (Chinese: 李云扬), one of the CPC members dispatched by the Central Politburo, became president of the school. Other major figures, such as the revolutionary martyr Lin Jilu, along with Shen Yanbing (writer), Zhao Dan (artist), have lectured in the school. These people who had intensive revolutionary backgrounds affected the students deeply in their minds, bringing in Marxist ideology. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, some of them also contrived to enlighten the students and the young generation and propagandized ideological guidance in an effort to help the country. Their efforts contributed to the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang and created a hopeful atmosphere among the youths. By 1953, the State Education Commission labelled the school as the sole key middle school in Xinjiang. However, the Cultural Revolution inflicted heavy losses upon it; almost all stored books in its library totaling approximately 40,000 were rifled during that time. With the resumption of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE, or CEE) in the late 1970s right after the Cultural Revolution, the school had been achieving progressive success in CEE results of the students. In 1982, it was labelled once more in the first list of the country's best-run key schools. Since 1995, the school has permanently ranked at the top places by CEE evaluation. Through the public assessment, it was chosen as a city-level unit of spiritual civilization in the year 1995, and sequentially as the autonomous region-level one in the end of the same year. Over the nearest past four years, the school's rate of matriculation (ROM) to college reached over 99% steadily. The high school consolidated its top rank in Xinjiang high schools exposed by the CEE result.

In 2004, a civil North School of the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi (乌鲁木齐市第一中学北校) was founded by the school authorities and their collaborative company known as Xinjiang Jun Fa Industrial & Investment Co. Ltd (新疆俊发实业投资有限责任公司).

Facilities

The school is currently composed of the Teaching Building (Yifu Building) (逸夫教学楼), Gymnastics-Art Integrated Building (体育艺术综合楼) and the Science Building (科学馆). General programming construction was completed in 2002, and at the same time the school systematically revamped the teaching equipment, experimental apparatus and basic facilities. The GA Integrated Building was built in 2005. It has 34 so-called Special Classrooms, including Telecasting Room, Learning Room, Room of Celestial Phenomena and Computer Rooms. School buildings also contain auditoriums, a studio and Chamber for Academic Report (学术报告厅) used for conferences. In addition, there is a plastic field underground and overground (for basketball and track and field), a basketball gymnasium and rooms for fine arts and music education.

The school administration had been highly concerned about the audiovisual means conducive to multimedia education. In 2007, the school leadership invited tenders. Eventually, it chose Anliang Technology Co., Ltd (安良科技公司) for the operation of the multimedia installment around every corner in the school. All the classrooms were fit with computer systems and projectors. The computers are embedded in the platform desks and are linked to the entire school's networks. Bidirectional closed-circuit television (CCTV) system is available. As every classroom is accessible to Internet, it has proved to be very convenient when such demand exists during some classes. The school has operated its own campus website since 2005, on which it can release campus news and issue circulars to the public.

The Science Building (sometimes referred to as the Experiment Building), built in 1989, is the oldest existing building still in use at present. It contains the school library, laboratories, the biological specimen room and computer rooms. From July to August 2007, the Science Building was extensively renovated, with a budget of 1,760,000 yuan. With a variety of experimental instruments in the Science Building, the school is capable of fulfilling all required experimental curricula in physics, chemistry and biology. It has procured many latest and advanced instruments, such as new-styled microscopes, EMD timers, and multitesters.

Library

The school library is set in the Science Building and has over 90,000 books in store, offering thousands of magazines and newspapers in nearly 520 kinds. The former school library was the oldest high school library in Xinjiang. According to the school chronicles, the library had 5,641 books in 1931, making one of the most famous in the province (Xinjiang was formerly a province during ROC period). In 1966, the number of stored books turned 40,000; however, the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) made an end to it, all its stored books having been looted.

In the late 1970s, the library was reestablished and underwent massive development during the 1980s. The present school library was built in 1989. The library currently occupies 802.12 m² in area, with 195 seats in the reading room, available for 2 classes at the same time. It provides Senior 3 students with a room for individual study (RIS)(自习室). Three librarians are in charge of the library.

General Library Integrated System (GLIS) was adopted and put into service in September 2004. The library opens to all students during school time, and periodically, different classes commence their reading lessons in the library's reading room. Every student in the school has been given a bar-coded card for borrowing books, able to be recognized by computer. The school authorities spent 80,000 yuan annually for the library on the purchase of approximately 2,000 books, 60 kinds of newspapers and copies of magazines in 500 kinds.

Daily maintenance

In order to lighten the burden on students in daily maintenance and to enhance security of the whole campus, the school employed a group of cleaners as well as security guards from Xinjiang Baihuacun Estate Management Company Limited (新疆百花村物业有限公司) in 2004, making it one of the few schools with such high level of criteria. The act is believed to reduce the labor intensity of students, whose de facto sanitary work is thus limited within the classrooms. School cleaners are responsible for the whole school except internal classrooms (public classrooms and auditoria excluded).

School administration

The administrative group (行政组) of the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi is divided into General Office (办公室), Pedagogy Office (教学处), Teaching and Research Office (教研处), Student Office (学生处), General Affairs Office (总务处) and Financial Office (财务室). Each office is normally in the charge of a director (主任) and a vice-director (副主任). The offices are mainly located in the Teaching Building and the Gymnastics-Art Integrated Building.

School leadership

Principal Li Zhigui (李志贵) Vice-PrincipalYan Jingxia (闫锦霞)
Gao Yueqing (高月清) CPC General Branch Secretary Liu Jianjun (刘建军)

Teachers and staff

The No.1 Senior High School, with a group of high-qualified teachers, performs eminently in teaching and schooling to cultivate all-around students. The school has 8 (de facto 4 at present) special-class teachers (特级教师) and 77 high-class teachers (高级教师). Many of them give lessons and coach students in curricula for the College Entrance Exams (CEE) and for the national academic contests. The school has already raised the standard of employment, employing personnel with master's degrees or higher qualifications. English teachers are routinely sent abroad to attend further studies.

Averagely 20 theses by the school teachers are issued on the national publications, and their authors regularly win prizes every year. In addition, it is estimated that around 15 incumbent teachers are affiliated to different local academic associations, which are at the city level and the province level (autonomous region level). Some of these teachers undertake association assignments, or permanently assume office in the associations, such as Urumqi Chemistry Society (乌鲁木齐市化学学会), Xinjiang Physics Society (新疆物理学会), and Xinjiang Education Association (新疆教育学会).

Students

The school mainly enrolls junior middle school graduates of junior high schools in Urumqi, and a few excellent students from the other parts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The top 120 students who passed its self-standardized difficult science-oriented tests will form two Scientific Strong-point Classes (理科特长班). Other students who are not adept at studies but have conspicuous abilities in athletics, basketball or fine arts can be also admissible if they pass the selective tests.

Statistics indicates that the school ranked 6th in 2006, and 2nd in 2008 on a nationwide ranking list by number of the number-one scholars (#1 scholar or No.1 scholar) (Chinese: 状元; pinyin: zhuàngyuán) graduates in the College Entrance Examination (CEE) every year. As of 2008, it had totally developed 10 number-one scholar graduates.

In 2007, 31 students of the 2007 graduates of the No.1 Senior High School are set to be exempted from standardized exams (保送), or to be admitted 10 or 20 scores lower than the standard to different universities, 13 among whom passed the assessments conducted by the universities, known as the Independent Recruitment Tests (IRT) (自主招生考试). In 2008, 53 students of the to-be-graduates acquired the same privileges.

Curricula

The school provides three types of curricula: basic curricula, outreach curricula (electives) and practice curricula, though it is still a constitutionally CEE/contest-centered school similar to most other ordinary and key senior high schools in China. Coaching for contests (竞赛辅导) is commonly carried out in the Scientific Strong-point Classes (SS Classes) (理科特长班), as SS Classes are specially set to major in the academic contests in the first 2 school years.

Basic curricula

Electives

For contests (i.e. High School Academic Contests, Chinese: 高中学科竞赛)

For hobbies (titles of the groups)

Practice

Activities

Student organizations

Endowment

Though a public school, the No.1 Senior High School has received plenty of endowments of mainly educational instruments and others. Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫), a Hong Kong media mogul and philanthropist, donated a building (presently as the main building) in 2001.

It was also endowed with many teaching and experimental instruments, such as desks, chairs, microscopes, vernier calipers, and multitesters from the Official Development Assistance Japan. This was the sequence to the Japan's 3rd Program of Secondary Education Equipment for Minority Areas in the People's Republic of China (第三次少数民族地区中学教育器材装备计划) launched by ODA Japan in 1999; the No.1 Senior High School was one of those to have been endowed, while the equipment was put into service in 2000.

Events

Partnerships

The No.1 Senior High School is base school that provide candidates for the following cooperative colleges or universities:

Sister schools