Wuxi United International School is an international primary school (ages 7 -12) in Jiangsu province, China.  It received its 4Cs school award in May 2018.

Children are not born with thinking ability, so it needs to be guided and simulated.  Mastering the skill of thinking can help children obtain a better understanding of themselves and the world around them and maintain a harmonious relationship with people and things within their world.

In total, 26 teachers have attended P4C Level 1 training, 3 of which got the certificate of P4C Foundation training, another 3 teachers obtained P4C Facilitator Development training.  There are 17 classes in primary school, covering grades 1-5.  Every week, a 40-minute seminar is held by the P4C team (containing 7 teachers including the school principal).  Every teacher needs to finish 8 philosophical exploring processes annually with detailed teaching plans and records.

The school’s 4Cs award evaluation stated that:

WUIS shows a strong commitment with the Principal having allocated regular timetable slots for P4C and allocating time and money to the training and support of the teachers.  The school has established a professional P4C instruction team of 7 specialised P4C teachers, including the school principal.  This team has thought hard and effectively about how to push for deeper thinking within the P4C sessions, showing a sophisticated understanding of the philosophy in P4C – and an excellent set of self-developed teaching resources to support this aim.

The school has a clear strategic rationale for engaging with P4C in that it supports the school’s educational objectives which aim at “mastering the skill of thinking, so that children obtain a better understanding of themselves and the world around them and maintain a harmonious relationship with people and things within their world”.  These objectives align well with the metacognitive benefits of P4C and with 4Cs thinking and values.