Birchfields Primary School and

Beijing Primary Day School

A Tale of Two Schools

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How the link started

The link began in 2009-2010 when Mrs Lee-Spencer went on our first visit to The Beijing Primary Day School. She signed an agreement with the Headteacher Miss Eva Haiyan Sang to make sure that we carried on working together in the future.This year we applied for funding for a Joint Curriculum Project with the British Council.

Getting to Beijing

Our flight took us 14 hours. We changed flights at Amsterdam in Holland

on the way. When we got to Beijing it was 5:30am in the

morning, we had been travelling since the day before and were very tired!

On the plane we were offered chicken and noodles for breakfast!

Beijing was very windy when we got off the plane (April is known as the windy month.)

When we arrived at the school on Monday morning we were surprised to

see a big banner welcoming us!

This is Tiffany and Vivian who are both English teachers at the school.

First thoughts

The school has two security guards at the gate. Everywhere we go the school camera man and photographer film us

and take our picture! Everyone is very friendly. All of the teachers and children are very

pleased to see us. The children all want to practice there English on us. In China children’s main 3 subjects are English, Mandarin and Maths and so their English is very good. (they do have other subjects just like us too such as PE, art, music and science.) The teachers who teach Mandarin have very little English.

The teachers can wear jeans and the children only have to wear uniform on a Monday (but they can wear it everyday of they want to!)

The school speaker system is in every classroom and corridor and the Headteacher uses it to communicate with the school.

Flag Ceremony

Speeches

School Days

Everyday Tiffany met us at the hotel and we tried to get a taxi. The traffic is VERY busy.

Teachers only teach for half the day and have about an hour off between lessons to rest or do work.

Our lunch was very interesting each day and so

were the

toilets!

Joint Curriculum Project

The project covered 5 main areas:1. Traditional Celebration 2. Food3. Traditional Stories and Storysacks4. The Arts5. Language and Culture

Traditional Celebration

Birchfields Primary School

Year 1 children learnt the story behind Chinese New Year, both in school and through work sessions with Manchester Museum. They held an assemblies for the whole school on Chinese New Year.

Beijing Primary Day School

We brought a tea set, dollies and cake resources and prepared staff training so that our partner school could hold a British Afternoon Tea Party in their school. We suggested that this was done to celebrate the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine.

Food

Birchfields Primary School

Through their topic of ‘food’, Year 1 learnt about Chinese food. They then held a Chinese Food Event for the whole community.

Beijing Primary Day School

We showed the school staff how to decorate cupcakes and make English tea so that they can now prepare for a British Afternoon Tea Party with their children.

Traditional Stories and Storysacks

Birchfields Primary School

Year 4 and Year 6 children have studied the traditional Chinese story ‘The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid’ which was given to Lai Lee-Spencer on her initial visit. Year 6 children have used ICT and Lowry inspired art to record a version of the story to be included in the storysack we have made and will present to our partner school.

Beijing Primary Day School

We held staff training so that our partner school can make storysacks for their own stories or for stories from the ‘Treasury of British Traditional Stories’ left as gift during the visit last year. We also taught a lesson to the children using a storysack based on a Chinese traditional story, and had prepared two storysacks to leave with the school.

The Arts

Birchfields Primary School

Year 1 and Year 6 children have taken part in Chinese brush painting, paper cutting and paper folding. They have performed Chinese dancing and a Chinese dragon dance.

Beijing Primary Day School

We taught a lesson of Western art in the style of Lowry, our local Manchester artist. The storysack we gave as a gift also contained Lowry artwork Birchfield’s children had prepared to go with the story.

Language and Culture

Birchfields Primary School

Two of our teachers have attended a course on Chinese Culture and Language run by the Confucius Institute at Manchester University. We have developed a ‘China Club’ which is held each week, learning about the history, customs, language and culture of China.

Beijing Primary Day School

On the last day we met to discuss what our Beijing friends will do next.THIS TERM:The school will now hold a traditional British Afternoon Tea Party.They will make a storysack for a traditional British story.

The lessons we watched were:

Science

The lessons we watched were:

Art

The lessons we watched were:

Peking Opera – our school’s specialismSee the videos uploaded.

The last day:We exchanged gifts

Last year Mrs Lee-Spencer gave some Manchester City gifts, and so to make it fair, this year we gave them a Manchester United shirt. We also gave them a Lowry book so that they could have art lessons about him. We gave them all the British Afternoon Tea Party resources and a Royal Wedding Tea Towel. We were given beautiful Chinese scarves and a lucky Chinese cat ornament each. They gave our school a Beijing Opera picture to remind us of them.

And then we were given a fantastic

performance of dancing and music

See the videos uploaded

What happens next?The partnership continues...

Some teachers from The Beijing Primary Day School will visit Birchfields Primary School in July 2011.

We look forward to welcoming them.

China

The Great Wall of China

Chinese Market Food