On Saturday January 11^th, the Newton company gathered for our annual gala to celebrate the new year of the rat with our “Newton Festival”. Pictures of the smiling staff welcomed the guests and created a warm and happy atmosphere.

The Shangjun campus started the party off with dances and singing in a memorable performance.

Ms. Zhang Yan, the founder of Newton group, made a New Year's speech. Ms. Yan asked that Newton members take better social responsibility by remember our mission and purpose as educators. She also hopes all the staff can help be more conscientious of global warming and take action to help protect animals and the environment.

Speech by Ms.Yan:

Hello, Everyone. It's a great pleasure to spend a beautiful night with you to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Today, I would like to share with you some of my hopes in the new year.

Looking back to 2019, the hungry polar bear who looked like a dog , the burning Australian wildfire at the end of the year, global warming and the survival of wildlife have attracted great public attention. In the new year, I hope that the Newton kindergartens will continue to work hard to control food waste, classify garbage and reduce the use of plastic and disposable productions.

In 2019, Chinese government has put highest effort ever to limit people to purchase real estate, the price of pork madly increased, and the turnover of tmall's "double 11" exceeded 268.4 billion yuan. The economic development seems can have a rapid and high growth forever. Mahatma Gandhi said: what the earth provides is enough to meet everyone's needs, but not enough to fill everyone's desires. I hope that in today's extremely rich material world, we can still identify our needs and wants.

Shanghai implemented strict garbage classification in 2019. Shanghai Grandma and aunts carry the responsibility to guide people to sort garbage. They ask everyone who wants to throw away garbage :” what kind of garbage are you? “This sentence is widely spread in China and directly strikes people's soul: “ : what kind of garbage am I? “ As we all know, garbage means worthless waste. Human beings are the only life on earth that produce garbage. The garbage produced by human beings pollutes the sea and mountains. The way human live have brought disaster to other life. "what kind of garbage are you?" It's a wake-up call. Have we ever thought that human beings are harmful garbage for the earth and other life?”

What kind of human beings will live together with other life on the earth in the future depends on how us adults guide and influence our children. Education has a long way to go. Most of us here are educators and parents. What kind of earth we leave for our children and what kind of children we leave to the earth are in our words and actions. I hope that our children, future human beings, will live harmoniously with other life on our beautiful blue planet, and will not produce garbage and to be questioned what kind of garbage they are.

Thank you. I hope you will enjoy the drinks and food. Please do not waste food and try your best to reduce the waste.

Finally, let me propose a toast:

No regrets to the past, no fears to the future. Ten thousand years are too long and every second of our lives counts.

Cheers！Happy new year.

The gala started with drinks made by Huixin campus. Mickey Mouse themed cocktails helped to welcome the year of the rat.

With the band’s music the Bayside campus encouraged everyone to dance and it was fun for all.

The lucky draw gave many people fortunes and luck!

The dinner ended with mutual thanks and blessings. Thank you for everyone’s hard work in the past year. I wish Newton a wonderful new year!

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