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, NFLS has insisted on comprehensively implementing the Party's educational policy, strictly following best educational practices, actively keeping up with a rapidly changing world and deeply rooting its development in the progress of society. Fromits early beginnings, NFLS has led the charge in cultivating specialized foreign language talents that have helped to provide positive contributions to the diplomatic causesof the newlyfounded People’s Republic of China. Seizing the opportunity from China’s ‘opening up’ reform, NFLSwas among the first tointernationalize Chinese education.Catering to students’ individualneeds and the ever-changingdemands of the workplace, NFLShas pioneered innovations to support educational advancement and a modern society’s needs. During its history, faculty members of NFLS have never 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 flourishing China. Directly affiliated with the Nanjing Municipal Education Bureau,NFLS is 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 a student-based education, which encourages well-roundedand unconstrained student development, facilitates the development of individual student needs and which emphasizesbalanced physical and psychological growth. This distinctive, nurturing approach contributes to well-rounded and ambitious NFLS students. NFLS endeavours to foster excellence inboth the arts and sciences, as well asencourage the development of superb foreign languageskills. With overfifty yearsof relentlesseffort, NFLS now has over 10,000 outstanding alumni; among them are foreign diplomats, of which over twenty are national ambassadors and two of which are foreign ministry spokespersons.In addition, there are several global 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, NFLS alumnican be found proudly taking an active part in important activitiesall around the 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 university admissions. NFLS’s all-encompassing structure provides tailor-made channels for further education. A personalized curriculum has also enabled NFLS students to stand out in various competitions around the world, such as in theInternational Olympiadcompetitions, where NFLS students have won nine gold medals. The Rhodes Scholarship,one of the most prestigious international fellowshipsand often referred to as the“Nobel Prize for Undergraduate Students” is another example of such success. It hasbeen awarded to 16 students frommainland China of which three, so far,areNFLS alumni. Consequently, NFLS students’ potential for continuousgrowth has 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-roundedstudent developmentat its core. It provides a broad space for teacher growth,centering on continued professional development. It has created a world-oriented campus culture featuring foreign language teaching and formed teacher-student relationships of equality and mutual respecttowards the vision of a harmonious campus. It has formulated a career guidance program tailored to the individuality of students, carried out a variety of student activities aiming at physical and mental well-being and established anopen and inclusive school culture. Based on the curricular concept of “blending Chinese and western cultures and integrating arts and science”, the school has designed its curriculum comprehensively in terms of objectives, content, implementation and evaluation.
Withthe mission“to educate forward-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 identity and global competence”, NFLS has constructed athree-tier curriculum pyramid 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). NFLS has also established sister-school relationships with 50 top secondary 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 selected among 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 demonstrative high school with Chinese characteristics.
