In 1963, under the guidance of Premier Zhou En Lai, Nanjing Foreign Language School was chartered as one of the first seven foreign language schools in China.For over fifty years,NFLShas insisted oncomprehensivelyimplementing theParty's educational policy, strictlyfollowingbest educational practices,actively keepingup with a rapidly changing world and deeplyrootingits development in the progress of society. Fromits earlybeginnings, NFLShas led the charge in cultivating specialized foreign language talents that have helped to providepositivecontributionstothediplomatic causesof thenewlyfoundedPeople’s Republic of China. Seizing the opportunityfrom China’s ‘opening up’ reform,NFLSwas among the first tointernationalize Chinese education.Catering tostudents’ individualneedsand the ever-changingdemandsof the workplace,NFLShaspioneered innovations to support educational advancement and a modern society’s needs.During its history,faculty members of NFLS havenever abandoned their aspirations and have stayed current in a rapidly evolving world. A series of strategic measures during different periods in time have allowed NFLS to grow and thrive in union with a rapidly flourishingChina.Directly affiliated with the Nanjing Municipal Education Bureau,NFLSis one of only 16 foreign language schools within China with a student-recommendation programmme that allows top students direct entry into a Chinese university.
NFLS boasts two beautiful campuses, East Beijing Road Campus and South New Town Campus. Both sites offer cutting-edge educational facilities and together cover an area of 204621m2, with a construction area of 136506 m2. The newly-opened South New Town Campus alone covers an area of 93000 m2. The school has 350 faculty members, including 337 full-time teachers, 206 of whom hold a master's degree or higher. There are 11 special-grade senior teachers, 12 professor-level senior teachers , 40 city-level academic leaders and 64 with “Outstanding Young Teachers of Nanjing” title. Five foreign languages are currently offered at NFLS: English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. There are 28 classes under the national high school curriculum, 24 classes under the international high school curriculum (IB, A-level and BCA) and 40 classes under the junior high school curriculum. The total enrollment for the 2023-2024 academic year is 4150.
Our Motto: Chinese Soul Global Vision
Our Vision: To provide world-class education while embodying Chinese values
Our Mission: To educate forward-thinking students with a Chinese soul and global vision
Our Philosophy: To provide an environment which facilitates well-rounded and unconstrained development
NFLS provides astudent-basededucation, whichencourageswell-roundedand unconstrainedstudentdevelopment,facilitates the development ofindividual student needsandwhichemphasizesbalanced physical and psychologicalgrowth. This distinctive,nurturingapproachcontributes towell-rounded and ambitious NFLS students. NFLS endeavours to foster excellence inboththe arts and sciences, as well asencourage the development ofsuperbforeign languageskills.With overfiftyyearsof relentlesseffort,NFLS now has over10,000 outstanding alumni;amongthem are foreign diplomats, of which over twenty are national ambassadors and two of which are foreign ministry spokespersons.In addition, thereareseveralglobal governance talents in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization. Furthermore, many alumni are prominent figures in the natural sciences, social sciences, linguistics, literature, and art. Indeed,NFLSalumnican be foundproudlytaking an active part in important activitiesall aroundthe world. Over the years, NFLS graduates have been amongst the top in receiving admittance to universities through the aforementioned student-recommendation programme, in college entrance examination scores and in overseas universityadmissions.NFLS’s all-encompassing structure providestailor-made channels for further education. A personalized curriculum has alsoenabledNFLS studentstostand outin various competitionsaround the world, such as in theInternational Olympiadcompetitions, whereNFLSstudents have wonninegold medals. The Rhodes Scholarship,one of themost prestigious international fellowshipsandoften referred to as the“NobelPrizeforUndergraduate Students” is another example of such success. Ithasbeen awarded to16 studentsfrommainland Chinaof whichthree, so far,areNFLSalumni. Consequently,NFLSstudents’ potentialfor continuousgrowthhas been widely acclaimed by both universities and societies, at home and abroad.
NFLS has built a multi-dimensional curriculum with the goal to achieve well-roundedstudentdevelopmentatits core. Itprovides abroad spacefor teachergrowth,centering oncontinued professional development. It has createda world-orientedcampus culturefeaturing foreign language teaching andformed teacher-student relationships of equality and mutualrespecttowards thevision of a harmonious campus. It has formulated a careerguidance programtailoredto the individuality of students, carried out a variety of student activitiesaiming atphysical and mental well-being andestablishedanopen andinclusiveschool culture. Based on the curricularconcept of “blendingChinese and western cultures andintegratingarts andscience”, the school has designeditscurriculum comprehensivelyin terms ofobjectives, content, implementation and evaluation.
Withthe mission“to educateforward-thinking students with a Chinese soul and global vision”,based on the four core values of “cultural foundation and critical thinking, information literacy and self-directed learning, modern personality and action-taking ability,national identityand global competence”,NFLS has constructed athree-tiercurriculumpyramid featuring foundation courses, development courses and honours courses. In more recent years, Nanjing Foreign Language School has embraced western-style education by offering its students the opportunity to enroll in international programmes offered by the British Columbia Academy (BCA), Cambridge International A-Levels and International Baccalaureate (IB).NFLShas also establishedsister-school relationships with 50topsecondary schools in more than 20 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
In 2019, NFLS was selectedamong the first batch of High-quality Demonstrative High Schools in Jiangsu Province.In 2023, it successfully passed the inspection by Jiangsu Education Department. NFLS will always pursue to goal of “providing world-class education while embodying Chinese values; cultivating innovative talents with global competence”.
Deeply rooting itself in China, NFLS will continue to maintain an adaptive mindset, take other world-famous schools as a benchmark, and actively explore the road to building a modern, high-quality demonstrativehigh school with Chinese characteristics.
