Wu-Ling Senior High School
The Taoyuan Municipal Wu-Ling Senior High School is a secondary school in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, providing education ranging from 9th to 12th grade. The school was founded in 1955 as a program for high schools in the Taipei city to evacuate to in case of possible wars and airstrikes. Given the dramatic sub urbanization and increases in both population and economical power of Taoyuan, the school has thus gained its independence in 1959.
Wuling is the high school with the highest entrance score in Taoyuan since 1959. Nation-wise, Wuling is the 6th most common Alma mater for National Taiwan University freshmen in 2017. In general, a large portion of graduates go on to attend universities both national and worldwide every year.
National Wu-ling Senior high school has held a student yearly exchange programme with Ozenne High School, Toulouse, France since 2009.
History
The school was in February 1955 as a part of the evacuation plan for major high schools in Taipei, in response to the possible strikes during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. The school, at that time which was named after the Chiedung River nearby, was founded to be a rural campus of Cheng Kung High School. In 1959, the school went independent and renamed Provincial Wu-Ling High School; the name Wuling was a tribute to the Chinese writer Tao Yuanming's famous essay The Peach Blossom Spring, according to school historian's' research. In the 1970 Extension of Mandatory Education and the separation of senior and junior high schools, the junior high school department was cancelled, the remaining 9-12 grades renamed Provincial Wu-Ling Senior High School.As Taoyuan had promoted to a municipal city in 2015, the school was renamed Municipal Wu-Ling Senior High School in 2018.accordingly.
School Life
Following the convention of all Taiwanese senior high schools and the 2012 Reformation, Wuling enrolls its student through multiple standardized tests. For most students, the only way in to the school is through the CAP test, holding around late May each year. For students with special gifts in science, mathematics, the Science Class has its own entrance test every March or April. And for musical talented kids, the entrance test for Musial Talented class, standardized for schools in northern Taiwan, is hosted in April or May each year. Other kinds of entrance exams, like Tezhao, had been around in 2012 but since then never hosted again.Students in Wuling usually start school in 7:30 and end school at 5 o'clock. The period between 7:30 and 8:30 is called Zhaozhixi, students are expected to arrive the school at 7:30 and studying or self-learning until 8:00. Although technically, there is no punishment for not arriving at the zhaozhixi and rate of "tardy" has always been significant. The period between 4 and 5 pm is named Fudaoke, or the "helping programs." Ideally, the helping program is limited to the students who are behind his/her classmates, and by law no new lectures should be taught. most students choose to take it for more and better academic performances, also hoping not to fall behind when lectures are illegally given in such periods. Foreign exchanges students are exempted from attending Zahozhixi and Fudaoke.
Students are only free to take courses at their free wills at a certain extents. Conveniently, the students are sorted into "classes," pupils in the same class take every single course together and have a set, uniformed schedule. There are 21 classes in every grade, about 30 to 50 students in each of them, classes with students less than 30 are rare but possible. In Wuling, similar to that of France, classes are further sorted into 3 streams with different educational focuses in grade 11 and 12. It is interesting that although the legal tender of the streams was demolished by the Ministry of Education in 2002, in the eyes of encouraging school to adopt the free-at-will course selecting system in the US, Wuling still practices it. The educational experiment of free course taking systems was eventually set off in 2016, under the name of Xuanxio. As of 2018, Xuanxio only makes up 2 lecture hours every week, comparing to the 40 total classing hours.
For most people, the classes in which they are placed, are decided by a computer random number generator. For the selected minorities, they can choose the class themselves after qualifying yet another series of standardized tests, either the national-level tests mentioned before, or by the school-wide "Gifted Student Qualification Tests," or sometimes, by the GPA of their academic performance.
Students are expected to buy the uniforms when entering the school and have neat uniforms on them when entering the campus. The dressing codes are constantly debated regarding this topic, both between the school governing body and students, and between the school and the society in general. As for Feb 2018, there is no punishments for not buying or wearing uniforms whatsoever, both by the law and by the school internal dressing code.
Special Education
Wuling has a renowned reputation for high testing scores throughout the nation. Currently, Wuling has the city's largest special education enrolling population. These are the special education programs that are offered in the school, ranked by founding date.Mathematical and Scientific Talented Class
The Mathematical and Scientific Talented Class, was started as the first special education program in 1988; the homerooms of STEM class is 101, 201 and 301. STEM is a class that offers advanced Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology placement.Musical Talented Class
The MTC was founded in 1991. The homerooms of the MTCs are 121, 221 and 321, all of which are in the Meiyu Building. Pupils in the MTCs could take courses such as Chorus, Acoustics, Orchestra and Music Theory.Language Gifted Classes
The LGC was founded in 2004. The homerooms of the LGCs are 120, 220, 320. Pupils of LGC could take a second foreign language courses, French or Japanese or Korean or Spanish.Science Class
The Science class is a programme for talented students directly sponsored by the Ministry of Education, pupils in the Science Class will complete the three-year high school curriculum in just two years. At the end of the eleventh grade, pupils will take an examination which decides if they could take courses in National Central University. The homerooms of the Science Classes are 103, 203 and 303.Uniforms
Formal Uniform
- Male：
- * Summer: Yellow short-sleeved shirt and olive green trousers.
- * Winter: Yellow long-sleeved shirt and olive green trousers.
- Female：
- * Summer: Kiwi green short-sleeved blouse and olive green short pleated skirt。
- * Winter: Kiwi green long-sleeved blouse and olive green trousers.
Sportswear Uniform
- Summer: Yellow short-sleeved T-shirt, blue-yellow fluorescent trousers.
- Winter: Yellow long-sleeved sweater, blue-yellow fluorescent trousers and jacket.