Shared Activities between Huizhong Beili and CBJS in October 2008
We flew from Birmingham to Beijing via Paris arriving in Beijing on Sunday morning. After a day of settling in we went to school on Monday morning to be welcomed by Mrs Gu the headteacher in her office. We exchanged some gifts and had some refreshments and cups of tea
The weather in Beijing last week was very good with clear blue skies and sunshine. The school doesn't have a hall for assembly. Instead all the children go outside for whole school activities. We were welcomed by the children and then we had the national flag raising ceremony.
All the children have English names as well as their Chinese names. Nina and Linda led the school in singing their school song which we enjoyed listening to.
After the ceremonies all 600 children then played some traditional Chinese games which we joined in with. These activities help to develop the children's physical coordination and they spend some time on activities like these every day.
We were given a tour of the school. We looked at their displays and went into some classrooms to talk to the children. Their displays included the same banner that we have in our school which says that our schools can learn a lot from each other. They also had displayed photographs of some of the Chinese gold medallists from the Beijing Olympics to inspire the children to do well.
During the week we taught lessons and observed lessons and also held joint seminars to discuss teaching methods. Miss Otton is involving the children in circle time and playing games to get them used to sharing ideas and information with each other. Lily who is one of their English teachers helped with some of the translation.
Mrs Blackburn worked with a small group to engage them in English conversation. Mary helped with some of the translation and the children did some activities to go with the big book that Mrs Blackburn shared with the group.
Miss Williams taught a maths lesson to some older pupils. Jolly helped with the translation. The class teacher observed the lesson, which the children enjoyed.
Mr Bird showed this group of children the school badges from each school and asked them to try and take elements from each badge to make a joint badge to be shared by both schools. The children didn't have time to finish the activity but we are hoping that a shared badge will come from the activity in the future.
Our teachers led wake and shake in their school. The teachers and children at Huizhong Beili enjoyed it that much they asked for it to be repeated. They are used to doing morning exercises but not quite like we do it.
We made a banner to link the Beijing Olympics with London 2012. The Chinese people are very proud of their country and their Olympic Games. This activity involving sharing hands is designed to bring the schools closer together. They gave us a second banner so that we can repeat the activity in our school and return it back to them.
As well as teaching lessons to their children we observed some lessons taught by their teachers. While we observed we were able to speak to the children and other teachers about what was happening.
When all the lessons were completed we made time for a joint seminar to discuss the different teaching methods in each school and how the children respond to different styles of teaching. We have found out that we have a lot in common and also that we have a lot we can learn from each other.
As well as learning from each other the teachers from each school are becoming good friends and the spirit and friendships that are being developed and nurtured through our shared activities are bringing great benefits to the children at Huizhong Beili and CBJS. We look forward to developing more activities in the future together.
