Shanghai & Hangzhou: School Leadership Workshop for Principals

Morning - arrival in Shanghai
Met and transferred to your hotel. Shanghai is a deliberate choice of venue for a leadership programme: its schools have been studied internationally for two decades, the municipal education commission runs one of the more developed school evaluation systems in the country, and city schools are large, well resourced and used to receiving visitors.

Afternoon - Opening seminar: who decides
A school leader or district officer sets out how authority is actually distributed. The Ministry of Education issues national curriculum standards and the education ministry's plan sets the subject hours; districts then hire, fund and inspect; and the individual school has real discretion over its school-based curriculum, its timetable within limits, and the way it organises teaching. The principal holds responsibility under the school's leadership system, with a party secretary alongside in most public schools and a staff congress that must be consulted on major decisions. The practical question for a visiting head is always the same: what can this school actually change on its own, and what has to be asked for?

Cultural Insight - the 2021 reform and the school day
In July 2021 the government moved to cut homework and to close down for-profit academic tutoring. In schools the effect was most visible in the after-school hours: supervised homework sessions and enrichment activities were brought inside the school and largely funded publicly, so the school day extended and the school's role in a child's week grew. Every head you meet in these two days will have a view on what it cost in teacher time and what it gained in equity.

Evening - Welcome dinner and briefing
Dinner with the group and a briefing on the two school visits, including the protocol for foreign visitor groups in Chinese public schools and the questions each participant should bring to the roundtable.

Meals
Dinner

Accommodation
In Shanghai.

Morning - the campus, read as a manager
You are received by the principal and the leadership team and walked through the school. Read it the way a head reads another head's building: how many classes per year group and how many pupils in each; how classrooms are grouped and where specialist rooms sit; what the laboratories, maker spaces and library actually contain and how they are booked; how the canteen and the after-school service rooms are laid out; and how much of the campus is given to staff working space - a teaching-research room per subject is common, and its size tells you how much professional development happens on site.

Late morning - how a timetable is built
Sit with the academic affairs office while they explain a real timetable. This is where policy becomes arithmetic: national subject hours, the school-based curriculum allowance, after-school services, examination periods, the physical capacity of specialist rooms, and the constraint that no teacher can be in two places. Bring your own timetable problem and work it through with them; it is usually the most productive hour of the day.

Lunch
With the school leadership team.

Afternoon - roundtable on leadership, appraisal and data
The principal and the curriculum lead lead a discussion with your delegation. The ground to cover: how the school development plan is written, resourced and reviewed; how teachers are appraised and how the results feed promotion and pay; how the school uses Shanghai's green-indicator evaluation of student academic quality, which was introduced in 2011 and deliberately measures things beyond test scores, including learning motivation, workload and the school environment; how parents are brought in and how complaints are handled; and how teacher rotation between schools within a district is managed. Each participant then presents one school-improvement question of their own for the group.

Important
School visits depend on the host school's agreement, its calendar and the approval of the local education authority, and are confirmed in writing before the programme is finalised. Public schools are normally closed to visitors during vacations and examination weeks; if a visit cannot be approved, we substitute a district education exchange or an education research institute.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation
In Shanghai.

Morning - to Hangzhou
The high-speed train takes roughly 45 minutes from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou East. Hangzhou is a different kind of city to manage schools in than Shanghai: it grew fast on the digital economy, its population has risen sharply, and its schools have had to find places and teachers for the children of a large migrant workforce while the surrounding province also carries responsibility for rural schools. The comparison with Shanghai is the reason for the second city.

Late morning - school exchange
A Hangzhou school receives you for a focused exchange. Themes are chosen from what the group raised the previous day: how the school-based curriculum is designed and how much freedom individual teachers have inside it; how new teachers are mentored, and what the teaching-research group and open-class cycle look like here; how learning platforms and data are used in classrooms, given Hangzhou's proximity to the companies that build them; and how the school communicates with families. Ask about workload, because it is the question that travels worst between systems.

Lunch
At the school with the leadership team, or nearby.

Afternoon - closing workshop
The final session compares what the group has seen in Shanghai and Hangzhou against its own systems, structured around four headings: curriculum and autonomy, staffing and professional development, funding and equipment, and accountability. Participants present the one change they intend to take home and the one thing that would not survive transplantation. The workshop closes with certificates and a written summary of the programme. If time allows, a short walk on the West Lake shore ends the day on foot rather than in a meeting room.

Evening - Hangzhou
Dinner and an overnight in Hangzhou, so that day four can be spent at leisure rather than in transit.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Hangzhou.

Morning — West Lake Cruise
Begin with a boat cruise on West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Hangzhou's crown jewel. Glide past Leifeng Pagoda and the tree-lined Su Causeway, framed by willows and lotus, while your guide shares the legend of the White Snake. The lake has inspired Chinese poets and painters for a millennium.

Afternoon — Lingyin Temple
Visit Lingyin Temple (“Temple of the Soul's Retreat”), one of China's oldest Buddhist monasteries, founded in the 4th century at the foot of Feilai Peak. Marvel at its grand halls and the 1,700-year-old laughing Buddha, then explore the Feilai Feng Grottoes with their intricate rock-carved Buddhist sculptures.

Evening — West Lake Music Fountain
End the day at the West Lake Music Fountain near Hubin Park, a free choreographed display of water, light, and music. Arrive early for a front-row view of this blend of tradition and modernity.