To broaden the horizons of education leaders and deepen their understanding on school governance, innovative high-quality education and student cultivation approaches, Xiehe Education Center organized members of the 15th Stars Project to embark on a three-day immersive field study tour in Chongqing from July 1 to July 3, 2026. The delegation consisted of all trainees and working team members of the 15th Stars Project and one leader from SUIS Gubei, totaling 23 people. The group successively visited Chongqing Depu Foreign Language School, Dandelion Education Think Tank, modern cultural memorial halls and world cultural heritage sites. Through on-site visits, thematic workshops, in-depth dialogues, cultural immersion, review and reflecion, the trainees finished a growth-oriented study tour that integrates theory with practice.
Sharing with Partner School and Deepening School-running Experience to Understand Team Building — Visit to Chongqing Depu Foreign Language School
Chongqing Depu Foreign Language School is a partner school of SUIS Qingpu, and the two sides have maintained long-term educational exchanges since 2024. On the afternoon of July 1, the delegation arrived at Depu Foreign Language School as the first stop of the study tour, and officially launched thematic training with a warm reception from the school’s management team.
Accompanied and introduced by Ms Lu Siwei, Director of the School Human Resources Department, the trainees learned about the origin of the school name, and visited the overall campus layout, Zengjiayan Academy, primary and secondary teaching areas, open multi-purpose spaces, maker center and sports ground, gaining an intuitive understanding of the design logic of campus spatial culture and all-scenario student cultivation.
Ms Xia Liqiong, Party Secretary and Principal of Primary and Middle Schools Of Depu, first gave a systematic introduction to the overall school-running profile of Depu Foreign Language School. Afterwards, Principal Xu Lingke delivered a thematic workshop titled Practical School Management: Leading Teams. Centering on three core dimensions including organizational mechanism construction, role positioning of administrators and team leadership, he shared practical experience, unpacked the underlying logic of school operation with real in-school management cases, and provided implementable management ideas for young education administrators.
Principal Xu pointed out that teachers inherently possess management capabilities, yet most suffer from misplaced role awareness Leaders need to build an incentive and restraint system tailored to their teams to guide the team toward organizational goals. He emphasized that school operation should be “demand-driven rather than capacity-driven”, and schools should take the initiative to break through development bottlenecks. The whole workshop stimulated participants’ thinking through interactive Q&A and on-site incentives, with trainees exchanging ideas actively in a heated discussion atmosphere.
Under the overall coordination of the working team, trainees of the 15th Stars Project Program jointly delivered a thematic presentation Eight Features of Xiehe Education. Based on authentic school-running cases from various campuses, they showcased Xiehe Education’s student cultivation characteristics and practical achievements integrating Chinese and Western education philosophies, fully demonstrating their teamwork capacity featuring efficient division of labor, collaborative creation and consensus building. After the sharing session by the Xiehe Stars Project team, they held discussions with the Depu teacher team and further exchanged views on topics such as interdisciplinary teaching and the cultivation of students’ comprehensive qualities.
In the evening, the Depu school hosted a dinner reception. The Xiehe Education Stars Project team and Depu’s principal team sat together for in-depth talks, continuously exchanging insights on school operation, learning from each other and further deepening the friendship between the two schools.
Dialogue with Cutting-edge Think Tank to Discuss Educational Ecology — Visit to Dandelion Education Think Tank
On the morning of July 2, the Stars Project delegation visited Dandelion Education Think Tank and held a special seminar on cutting-edge education with its founder Mr. Li Bin and core managers including Ms Chen Yiyun, Mr Liu Xiaolian, Ms Zou Yushitong and Ms Hu Xiaowen. Mr. Li Bin shared the development history of the think tank, introduced its education media matrix including the magazines of New Principals and Star Teachers, the National Annual Conference on Educational Innovation and a full set of curriculum R&D systems, and elaborated on the think tank’s distinctive manager operation model.
The think tank team introduced a variety of innovative competency-based courses on site, including playful creative classic reading, mixed-age teacher-student debate study tours, and Lego forest modular task courses. Combining the pain points of school operation in their respective campuses, trainees raised questions proactively and consulted in depth on core topics such as teacher echelon training, implementation paths of AI adaptive learning, design logic of task-based competency courses and class hour allocation for different subjects.
The whole exchange covered multiple dimensions including curriculum system, intelligent teaching, talent cultivation and inter-school cooperation, and both sides discussed feasible directions for long-term joint cooperation. The dialogue broke the traditional “teaching-centered” mindset and established a new educational reform concept of “designing learning”, making trainees realize that education and teaching reform requires building a balanced and sound systematic educational ecology and fully stimulating students’ internal motivation for autonomous learning.
Tracing Historical Cultural Origins to Foster Humanistic Education — Cultural Study Tour of Beibei Venues
On the afternoon of July 2, all trainees visited modern cultural venues in Beibei to immerse themselves in reviewing the ideal practices of saving the nation through science, education and industry in modern China. The study tour covered several exhibition halls: the Memorial Hall of Four Rural Construction Masters in Beibei, Lu Zuofu Memorial Hall, the Former Site of Western China Academy of Sciences and the Exhibition Hall of Three Thousand Celebrities Gathering in Beibei.
By reviewing historical documents and physical exhibits in the collection, the trainees gained insight into the sincere ideals of modern intellectuals: enlightening the public through mass education and revitalizing the nation via domestic industry. Nurtured by the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, Mountain City Chongqing bears a distinctive spirit. The unwavering original aspiration of modern pioneers who rooted themselves in western China and devoted themselves to education has freed participants from the confines of classroom teaching, enabled them to perceive the century-spanning social value of education, and laid a profound humanistic foundation for their own work of nurturing students.
Reflection Boosts Growth, Mutual Exchange Builds Synergy — Study Tour Review & Sharing Session
At the end of the review session, the working team summarized the core value of this study tour with three keywords: Original Aspiration, Persistence and Transcendence. Two pieces of summer homework were clarifed: writing in-depth reflection articles on the study tour, and finishing educational reading, producing book review videos and conducting peer assessment online.
A Rewarding Journey to Gather Strength for Long-term Steadfast Progress
The three-day study tour in Chongqing featured a tight schedule and diverse content, delivering a comprehensive learning experience integrating four dimensions: practical school management, cutting-edge educational theories, modern humanistic spirit and science and technology development, and immersion in traditional cultural heritage. All trainees gained abundant insights.
This Chongqing study program was not only an eye-opening learning opportunity to recharge knowledge, but also a soul-stirring ideological baptism. Trainees of the Stars Project will bring back the management experience and curriculum innovation ideas gained from this tour to the frontline of teaching and management in their respective campuses. They will feed what they have learned back into school-running practice, uphold Xiehe Education’s original aspiration of student cultivation, and steadily advance along the growth path of young education leaders.
