Dear Friends

1. nEws. Dear Friends On the eve of Stepping Stones’ 5th birthday in October 2011, there is plenty to celebrate. Stepping Stones is now registered in Hong Kong, which means that we can fundraise overseas, and we have set up a volunteer team under Shanghai Charity Foundation. The official launch of that relationship will be at our new programme at Yangdong School in Baoshan on 30th September. The Shanghai summer programme was even bigger and more successful than ever, and we have almost finished recruiting and training 160 new volunteers for the new semester, most of whom have already joined a group who are teaching in one of our partner schools or community centres. Since we first started teaching English to migrant children in Shanghai, their teachers have been telling us that we make a big difference to their interest and confidence in English, and we were delighted to be able to prove that through a survey we carried out last year. This year we are very proud to have proved that our volunteers are also making a difference to the children’s English test results. After our fourth successful rural volunteering tour to Henan Province in the summer, we plan more such trips over the coming year, as well as more I Care projects in Shanghai’s migrant schools. A big thank you as ever to all our teaching volunteers, who are doing such a great job in the schools, as well as all the other volunteers and donors who support our work in numerous different ways. Have a great October holiday. Corinne Hua Founding Director Stepping Stones Rural volunteering in Henan In August, Stepping Stones took its fourth group of volunteers to rural Henan province to teach English to children in a rural primary school. This weekend trip was a great experience for volunteers and children alike. Read more about our rural weekend programs >> Stepping Stones Shanghai Calendar 2012 Stepping Stones is selling Shanghai Calendars again! Order for yourself or buy this popular calendar as a gift or souvenir for your friends. Each calendar you purchase allows Stepping Stones to provide free weekly English classes to 2 migrant children for an entire year. Order Calendars here >> Impact Survey 2011 Following on from last year’s successful impact survey, we carried out a follow-up survey in Spring 2011 in Wenbo School, focused on assessing what impact Stepping Stones volunteers are having on the students’ English test scores. We are delighted to report that the average test score improved by 9% in classes with a Stepping Stones volunteer compared with an average 0% improvement in the classes without a Stepping Stones volunteer. In March 2011 (before volunteers were introduced into the school), 88% of students said they would like to have a foreign English teacher. In June 2011, 95% of the students who had a volunteer teaching them English over the previous term said they liked their oral English class, and 98% of the other students said they would like to have an oral English teacher. The full report will be available on our website soon. Stepping Stones T-Shirt Sale Buy a Stepping Stones t-shirt and help us to raise funds for our organization! The t-shirts are a great way to represent your experience with Stepping Stones and volunteering in Shanghai Limited quantity so order soon here>> Get Involved! We are recruiting a Calendar sales team to attend community, school and market events around Shanghai to sell calendars and raise funds Stepping Stones. Contact outreach@steppingstoneschina.net if you would like to be part of the team. Even if you can volunteer only once at your children’s school bazaar or local community event, that would be a great help. If you would like to volunteer to teach, please visit our website’s Volunteer page to learn more about the program and how to register. Visitors from London Business School Nine executives from London Business School Global Business Consortium took part in a volunteering event hosted by Stepping Stones at Dongjiadu Lu No. 2 Primary School in September 2011. After an informative briefing on the migrant school situation by Corinne Hua, the team enjoyed small group meetings with the kids, which gave them a fascinating insight into the children’s lives, and an inspiring interview with the principals and teachers at the school. Summer Program 2011 was a success Stepping Stones is celebrating another successful Summer Program held during July and August 2011 at five schools and communities center through Shanghai. This year Summer Program was largest to date and Stepping Stones would like to thank all of the dedicated volunteers who participated in each program, creating fun and interactive English lessons for the students to enjoy during their summer months. Read more about Summer Program 2011 >> Bank Executives Volunteering Stepping Stones helped Standard Chartered Bank’s Shanghai office to bring more than 50 bank executives from all over the world, plus about 20 local staff, to help out Stepping Stones’ partner New Citizen Life Center in Pudong Sanlin for the afternoon of 26th August 2011. Stepping Stones provided the executives with an interactive lesson plan and exciting teaching materials to teach the children an English class focused on marine animals, following on from the children’s educational trip to the Shanghai aquarium with the local staff in the morning. Executives and local staff alike participated in the event enthusiastically. Staff Changes After two years with Stepping Stones, we are sad to say goodbye to Betty Zhang, who has moved on to a new job in the corporate sector. We wish her all the best in her new job. A big thank you to Wai Kuan and Evon Cheng, who have volunteered to take over the Finance and I.T. roles respectively. Welcome Wai Kuan and Evon Cheng to the Stepping Stones Management team! Stepping Stones in numbers Year established: 2006 Number of volunteers teaching each week: 250 Number of students receiving free oral English classes each week: 6,000 Number of teaching sites: 15 migrant schools andcommunity centres Stepping Stones enquiry@steppingstoneschina.net www. steppingstonescnina.net Tel: +86 (21) 32090516 Room 927, Asionics Technology Center, No. 6 Lane 1279 Zhong Shan Road West, Shanghai 200051 Standard wording in Dreammail for subscribe / unsubscribe