Teach at Studio Education in China

About Studio Education

Studio Education is an independent learning centre founded in 2013 in Shanghai, by James Jobbins, an Oxford-educated British schoolteacher. With multiple locations across Shanghai, Studio Education is a foreign-owned and foreign-managed company, delivering a custom-designed curriculum which supports students in appreciating and responding to literature, creative writing, critical thinking and drama / public speaking.

Studio is both a means to an end and an end in itself. It serves to support and to prepare students in their efforts to pursue a wide-ranging exploratory education, and it provides – and hails – education for its own sake. Studio’s courses nurture the skills and attributes necessary for successful admission into the world’s best middle schools, high schools and universities – and they go so much further than that, revelling in inspiring great thinking and creativity in intellectual pursuits.

The name “Studio” reflects a symbiosis of study and creativity – learning at Studio is infused with, and inseparable from, the creative temperament of conceiving, exploring, trying and applying new ideas. Studio’s programmes incorporate and go beyond memorisation, understanding and the application of functional skills; they develop the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis. These are the essential elements of a flourishing intellect and of creativity.

Our Philosophy

We educate students to become kind-hearted and open-minded human beings of integrity, tolerance and self-discipline who are committed to independent thinking, creative expression and a life lived for the common good. The heart and soul of Studio Education is a combined partnership with families and community to provide purposeful, rigorous education that balances intellectual and creative development with moral integrity. At Studio Education, all students sit at round tables, in small groups of eight students or fewer, where each student’s face can be seen, where each student’s voice can be heard and where every student can think critically, inquire, discuss, imagine, solve problems and create.

We strive to teach our students to learn to think logically, independently, confidently and imaginatively. We explore the historical context of the subject matter while, at the same time, studying the implications of the actions of our predecessors and contemporaries on the human experience and on the human condition. Honourable character arises from a kind heart and an open mind; leaps of imagination and innovation are propelled by a critical understanding of the past and present, and by a new vision for the future. Studio Education embraces all three, boldly asserting an educator’s duty to focus on learning for the purpose of each student’s transformation into a purposeful, moral human being.

Our Students

Our students range from 3 to 16 years old, with core programmes from 3-13, with the majority of students from 7-10 years old. They are English speaking, and most study at bilingual and international schools in Shanghai. Our students hope to study, live and/or travel abroad in the future. Our families come to us for rigorous lessons which exceed the level of challenge and depth of instruction which their children receive in their regular full-time schools.  

Our Teachers

Studio's faculty consists of a range of educators, from those who trained as schoolteachers in their home country to practising writers, artists and academics. Their collegiality comes from a belief in the importance of intellectual and creative pursuits and an ability to transmit that belief to children and their families.

We are building our school around serious, inspiring, intelligent teachers, whose intellectual energy and ability are an inspiration to us all.

Studio’s ethos of rigour and intellectual exploration, and our unremitting focus on education, make it possible for us to attract and retain the best teachers in the world. All of our teachers are highly intelligent, disciplined, enthusiastic about what they teach, and serious about children making significant intellectual, creative, and academic progress.