Two Olympics, One Dream!

On February 1st, an Olympic Dream deep learning day was held at Finham Park School. The two Hanban teachers, Miss Du Xiaojie and Mrs Liu Yang led two workshops for about 120 students from Year 8 and 9. Each workshop was repeated three times to accommodate three different groups.

Miss Du Xiaojie led a workshop about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The students were challenged by a quiz on the Beijing Olympics but also learned a lot from it. She also showed students the photos she took during the games, as well as sharing stories of her visit to the Olympic Park and the events she watched. The highlight was when David Moorcroft visted her workshop.

David Moorcroft is a former middle-distance and long-distance runner from Coventry, and former world record holder for 5,000 metres. His athletic career spanned the late-1970s and 1980s, and he has taken part in three Olympics. Both Miss Du and the students were amazed and inspired to know he had been commentating on track and field in Beijing four years ago. He told the students the 2008 Beijing Olympics were absolutely fantastic and he encouraged the students to get involved in the 2012 London Olympics as much as they can.

Mrs Liu Yang demonstrated a series of Tai Chi Fan movements in the sixth form common room drawing together the essence of Chinese traditional martial arts, Tai Chi and Peking Opera dance. This routine was created to support the Beijing Olympics. Lots of students said the first thing they know about China is Kung Fu, so they were so excited to learn Tai Chi Fan. When they successfully opened the fans, there were cheers of joy and surprise. The students also said that they would love to learn more of this. 

Finham visiting Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham

On January 30^th, the two Hanban teachers and six of their Year 9 students, who are taking Mandarin GCSE course, from The Schools Network (SSAT) Confucius Classroom Finham Park School, were warmly invited to join the Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival celebration in Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham. There they met teachers and students from The Kingsley School and Myton School, both from the Midlands area.

The celebration was held in the hall in Robin Hood Primary School. The first performance was from Myton School. Mrs Helen Lewis, the Mandarin teacher, and her students did a tongue twister on numbers, which caused much laughter. Then a group of girls sang two lovely songs, “two tigers” and “little monkeys”, accompanied by their teacher Mrs Jo Harper. Their singing and dancing brought so much fun to the audience, which was made up of about seventy primary students and their teachers, that some of them even sang along with them. 

The two Hanban teachers from Finham Park School brought their performance as well. Firstly, Miss Du Xiaojie, together with her students performed “Greetings to you (Gongxi Gongxi Ni)”, a traditional CNY song. Secondly, Mrs Liu Yang amazed the audience by performing the Tai’chi Fan. It was fabulous to see all the audience gasping whenever the fan was opened. Lastly, a group of over thirty primary students of Mrs Simone Haughey from Robin Hood Primary School sang a beautiful song in Mandarin.

After the show, Mrs Simone Haughey showed some fantastic photos and videos taken during their two school trips to their sister school, the Second Experimental Primary School in Beijing. The students said they have even more motivation to learn Mandarin and interest to visit China after seeing these. The celebration was ended by all the participants singing Happy New Year together.