An adult school offering hobby-based education is gaining momentum in Juyuan subdistrict of Jiading district. According to the school’s statistics, all quotas for the 24 courses in the spring semester were booked up in no time.

Chengxiao (成校) or adult school used to refer to institutes that offered education only to adults. In recent years, it has changed to a community school that welcomes all ages.

Founded in 2008, the adult school in Juyuan subdistrict has won the Shanghai Model School for Seniors’ Education, 2023 Jiading Model Education Institute and China Lifelong Education Brand awards for its Citizens 365 Classroom program and all-ages courses.

How did the school manage to gain popularity and prestige? A visit to the school provides the answer.

The Juyuan School for Adults begins classes at 9am every day and offers courses such as music performance, singing, calligraphy, painting and dance.

Every week before class, Shang Yuzhan, supervisor of the smartphone learning course for seniors, kindly reminds her fellow students: “We are holding our class in room 308. See you later.”

Shang, 64, has been taking the smartphone learning course for four years. At first, she couldn’t use WeChat to create a message box, but now she can use it to shop online, exchange or get a refund for goods, and book tickets for attractions, flights and hotels.

“The adult school invites me into the digital age,” Shang said.

In 2012, Shang, who had just retired, moved to Shanghai to be with her daughter. She didn’t understand the local dialect and had no social contacts, and was on the verge of becoming depressed.

Worried about her mother, Shang’s daughter inquired about the courses offered by Juyuan Adult School. They eventually settled on smartphone learning – a life skills course, along with computer skills, choir lessons and other courses.

Having mastered social and shopping skills using her smartphone, Shang now loves traveling. She contacts her former classmates and together they travel to the Qaidam Basin, Kunlun Mountain and the area around Lake Hohxil.

Recently she planned a trip to Yunnan Province.

“I compared myself with photos of myself about 10 years ago. I am happier and like a flower blooming at sunset,” Shang said.

When it gets dark, the school turns into a refuge for employees. They play the ukulele, dance to rhythmic music, make coffee and do gymnastics exercises to escape the fatigue.

Xu Mengya, a piano student, recently moved to Shanghai. Although she has a lot to do and has to take care of her family, she still makes time for herself.

On the days when she has piano lessons, she rushes to pick up her son from elementary school and they go to Juyuan Adult School together. Xu goes to the third floor to take piano lessons and her son reads in the library on the first floor. She cherishes each of her 48 lessons and has not missed a single one.

“It’s like repeating my childhood. My parents couldn’t afford music lessons back then and now I’m treating myself,” said Xu.

“Traditional art classes in social institutions are expensive. And here the price is affordable thanks to government subsidies,” she added.

Xu can even look forward to her retirement: “When I’m old, I don’t have to worry about being bored. I’ll be spoiled for choice.”

Juyuan Subdistrict is the “youngest” administrative district in Jiading District, and its adult school also happens to be the newest.

As the youngest, it dares to venture out.

“In the early years, the age of the students and the limited choice of subjects were more of an obstacle to the growth of our school,” said Jin Xing, head of the Juyuan Adult School. “Although we had posted job advertisements in every residential building, few people applied.”

The school then conducted surveys and seminars to learn more about the needs of people of different age groups and developed its “Citizens 365 Class” brand to meet the needs of all age groups.

Classes are now divided into courses for parents and their children aged 0-3, courses for teenagers, trendy courses for young and middle-aged people, and courses for a happy retirement for middle-aged and older people.

In addition, the timetables are tailored to the daily routine of different age groups.

“The parent-child classes are held in the morning. The classes for teenagers are usually offered on weekends or during winter and summer vacations,” Jin said. “For employees, the classes are held on weekends and in the early evening. The seniors usually have their classes during the day.”

The school makes full use of its 1,000 square meter classrooms. Take Room 310, for example. The classroom is used for recitation, calligraphy, TCM health, home management and camp classes, as well as Yueju opera and watercolor painting for children – all in one week.

In addition, new teaching units are constantly being designed to meet the ever-changing needs of residents and the development of society.

The school became a huge success in 2018 when an unprecedented number of people lined up for enrollment. To make things easier for students, it introduced telephone enrollment and currently enrollment is offered online.

In 2022, the school started a new round of development – the “15-minute community study ring”, which consists of a community school, four branch schools, 24 village learning sites and several learning sites of social institutes.

In addition, the company cooperated with vocational schools to offer baking and video editing courses, with boxing studios to offer trial lessons, and with science and technology institutes to create platforms for teenagers.

Scientists, experts, craftsmen, local celebrities and warm-hearted citizens of Juyuan join as part-time teachers.

This year, the school invited Mo Hongyuan, a recognized inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in the field of bonsai and horticulture from Jiading District, to hold a balcony gardening course in Chenjiashan Lotus Park. This course is specially designed for office workers who want to find inner peace through plant care.