Construction site of the Shanghai Jiading World Foreign Language School. [Photo/WeChat account: jiadingmh]

The Shanghai Jiading World Foreign Language School started the construction of its middle school project on Aug 18.

The middle school project, covering an area of nearly 30,000 square meters, is expected to be completed in August 2018 and is designed to have 40 classes.

The middle school will be part of the foreign language school, which also includes a primary school.

The school is a joint effort of Jiading district and JuneYao Group, a Shanghai-based conglomerate, in hope of helping balance local educational resources, improving the quality of local education, and satisfying local people's needs for education.

If the new school is a success, the district government will allow JuneYao to start a kindergarten and a high school to form a complete pre-college education system with the name Shanghai World Foreign Language School.

Founded in 1991, JuneYao Group is involved in the education, food and high technology sectors, and is also the parent company of JuneYao Airlines.

JuneYao took over the private Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School in 2005. It is a college-preparatory school that offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In 2013, the company set up the first World Foreign Language School outside Shanghai, in Gongshu district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

According to local officials, the establishment of the foreign language school will improve the overall educational level of Jiading and attract more talent to work and settle in the district.

The school will start operation in September. Since its new campus is not completed, it will for the time being borrow a set of classrooms on the Jiading campus of a local high school affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.