14/2/2022
The past three weeks saw Nottingham Confucius Institute staff and student volunteers busy delivering Chinese language lessons and cultural workshops for local schools as a major part of its Chinese New Year celebrations, involving over ,1300 school pupils from across six primary and secondary schools.
Here is a brief summary of our activities:
28 Jan - Haydn Primary School
Over 360 year 1 to 6 children had a fun day celebrating Chinese New Year with a variety of workshops delivered online by NCI teachers and a Tai Chi instructor. Pupils particularly enjoyed the Tai Chi taster session (Five Animals Exercises), playing zodiac-related games (pictured top left) and having a go at drawing pandas with brush and ink on rice paper.
24 - 31 Jan – Rushcliffe School
40 year 8 and 9 students enjoyed paper cutting the Chinese character ‘春’ (pronounced ‘chun’, meaning ‘Spring’) and writing Chinese couplets along with the character ‘福’ (‘fu’, meaning ‘blessing’) using Chinese brush and ink on red paper (pictured top middle). Several fantastic pieces of art work made it into the School’s Chinese New Year display (pictured top right).
31 Jan - Nottingham University Academy of Science and Technology (NUAST)
Three student volunteers from Nottingham’s School of Education delivered a wonderful cultural workshop, where a group of 25 year 8 students not only learnt about how Chinese New Year is celebrated in China, but also managed to create brightly coloured paper Tiger lanterns to take home (pictured middle left).
31 Jan - 3 Feb – Long Eaton School
A workshop focussed on Chinese zodiac animals was delivered by our local teacher. At the end of the event, students were able to recite the twelve zodiac animals in order and created a zodiac animal wheel with Chinese pinyin, characters and drawings (pictured in the centre). Students also had a go at Chinese calligraphy and created their first ever couplet to take home.
4 Feb - St Edmund Campion Primary School
Over 400 pupils from foundation year to year 6 enjoyed cultural workshops delivered by two NCI teachers and a Tai Chi instructor. Topics covered included the Chinese zodiac and legends surrounding the Chinese New Year (pictured middle right). Students also had fun attending Tai Chi taster (pictured bottom left) and brush painting sessions (pictured bottom middle).
31 Jan - 10 Feb - Alderman White School
Over 400 year 7 to 9 students enjoyed taking part in a variety of Chinese New Year activities organised by our local teachers. They not only tried Chinese calligraphy, lantern making (pictured bottom right) and paper cutting (window flowers), but also tried their luck at making lucky red envelopes. Students who attended the after school club also had the opportunity to try Chinese dumplings. Yum yum!
Feedback from the events was overwhelmingly positive. Here are just a few examples of what staff and students had to say:
“This was a highly engaging, culturally relevant experience accessible for all children. It allowed children to experience a different culture through a range of thoughtful, well-planned and creative workshops.” commented our school contact at St Edmund Campion Primary, adding “all the teachers were professional in their delivery and encouraged children in their learning… Thank you very much!”
“What an amazing opportunity to work in partnership with the Confucius Institute to provide first hand cultural experiences for our children.”
“It was nice to have to stretch being different animals like bending for the tiger and jumping forward.”
“I enjoyed working with different brushes and ink as I hadn’t done that before.”
Our student volunteers also enjoyed the volunteering experience. “I am very grateful to Nottingham Confucius Institute for this amazing opportunity. I enjoyed introducing Chinese traditions to school pupils. They all looked so curious and eager to find out more,” commented one. “It wasn’t easy to step out of my comfort zone to talk to a big group of children in English, but I really enjoyed it! I would certainly welcome more opportunities to promote Chinese language and culture to children and their families in the near future!” said another.
~ENDS~
Posted on Tuesday 15th February 2022