Both Shanghai Standards (DG/TJ08–2326-2020 & DG/TJ08-9-2023) have raised the seismic performance requirements for important building structures. One category of the building structures is school buildings. Out of the stricter requirements, the one that impacts the structure design most is that the key structural members must stay in elastic stage or not-yielded stage with the medium earthquake input. Before the issuance of those new standards, the key structural members are required to stay in elastic stage or not-yielded stage with the small earthquake input. To meet the requirement, the energy dissipating dampers or the earthquake isolation devices have to be applied. Previous investigations have focused on the low-rise (3–4 story) building and other tall building structures. To demonstrate the performance of structures which has friction dampers installed, an example of a 6-story school building with 35 friction dampers is analysed by nonlinear seismic analysis. The analysis is performed for different cases under small, medium or severe seismic input. It can be seen that the dampers have dissipated earthquake to a significant extent; and the required structural performance, stipulated in both national codes and Shanghai technical standard, is ensured in medium and severe seismic input.