忙不忙？

Well, if anyone were to ask me that question I would definitely reply: 很忙！

Wow.  What a busy term this has been.  And how quickly it’s flown!  It’s been full of language lessons, cultural lessons, crafts and lots of questions from students really interested in China and its culture.

One of our great successes this term is the launch of our Facebook page, so please ‘like’ us and keep up to date with things going on in and out of the Academy: Djanogly City Academy – Confucius Classroom.

In the next month we are expecting the return of our two Hanban teachers, Xiaoxiao Liang and Rui Zhu, who will be supporting me internally as well as with some outreach work.  And in three days time we’re off to China on the Hanban/IOE CI Autumn Camp.  I shall be joining Mr Scott in taking 9 students to Beijing and Shanghai (See the cover photo), along with 490 other students and teachers!  It’s going to be fun if tiring!  I will be sending through updates via Twitter, Weibo, Keek and our Facebook so please keep an eye out on our activities!

Please hold…

I hope this post finds you all well. The new school year has started here and man is it busy! Sadly my timetable currently doesn’t support much work in the Confucius Classroom and I’m no longer allowed to blog in real-class time (which is a shame since I have finally got the Classroom a smartphone for such occasions). So I just wanted people to know that I am still here putting ideas in to practice and getting creative with Chinese language and culture but don’t have as much time as I would like to dedicate to blogging and letting you know about everything going on! Because we have had and do have a lot going on! But I will do my best.

In the mean time please continue to browse and contact me about any of the activities we do and if you would like to visit our school.

Take care and hope to have time to tell you about our Classroom soon!

Special Delivery

Well, it’s taken a while, but our Chinese New Year cards are ready to start posting them off!  Thankfully the cards had been designed to be sent at any time during the Dragon Year, wishing the recipient health, happiness and prosperity.

Our first two recipients are very special and letters of well wishes were sent along with newsletters and a card to both Queen Elizabeth II and David Cameron, the Prime Minister.  Very exciting!  A particularly special message was sent to the Queen for her Diamond Jubliee – as a Sinologist it is extremely significant that such a special anniversary is taking place during the Dragon Year; there could be no more auspcious a year than this.

To thank Christine for her support I asked her to do the (franking) honours!

Christine with our very special letters!

The winning design was created by Azreen Nazri and the cards will be sent out to VIPs in England and further afield, as well as those Spoke Schools who have supported us over the years.

Competition winners

Please put your hands together for the winner of our Chinese New Year Card Competition, Azreen Nazri (Y8), and our runner-up, Clare Bensley (Y13), for their wonderful designs and hard work.  Congratulations!  Well done!!!  恭喜恭喜！

 

The winning design!

 

Azreen Nazri with her prize - a scroll with the word for 'good fortune' 福

 

Our runner-up design!

 

Clare Bensley with her prize - a fan with the 10 'dos and don'ts' of Confucianism.

 

  

 

Time for Tea

When we heard that afternoon tea for prospective Y7 students was going to be taking place, the Confucius Classroom  thought what better way to introduce new students to the diverse nature of our Academy and its language department than givng them a taste of Chinese tea?  Oolong tea, to be precise. 

So, thanks to Xiaoxiao and Rui, a gorgeous porcelain Chinese tea set was bought and nibbles provided; the stage was set! 

I had anticipated me needing to cajole people in to sampling the smoky delights of Oolong tea or trying the seasame biscuits, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that our new students were adventurous and up for trying something totally different.  With the expert grace of Rui and Xiaoxiao, students and parents (and staff!!) were treated to a Chinese twist on an otherwise very English afternoon tea!

A very Chinese tea party!

Rui serving a parent some Oolong tea

Xiaoxiao serving new students

Mr Dicks is poured his cup of tea

Chinese New Year Card Competition

I was ultra organised in December and ran a through-school Chinese New Year card competition, asking students to create a card design for the Dragon year.  We had some marvellous entries with some really well thought out designs:

But there could only be one runner up: Clare Bensley (Y13)

 

And one winner: Azreen Nazri (Y8)

 

Prizes will be awarded (when they arrive from overseas) to the winner and runner up for their fantastic efforts, as I think you’ll agree, they created some brilliant designs.  Congratulations Azreen and Clare!

Chinese New Year – Welcoming in the Dragon!

It has been ages since I have updated anything properly on here, I’ve been trying to get a smart phone for the Classroom so I can do some real-time blogging instead of post-event blogging which would be more interesting and convenient.  Hey ho. 

Chinese New Year is THE most important festival for the Chinese and is the time when families spend time together and celebrate big time!  As such we had a very busy time at Chinese New Year with celebrations in and out of school.  We held workshops and lessons and competitions (lots of competitions) for students to take part it.  The first thing we had to do though was to get the school ready for welcoming in the Spring Festival!

Before shot: The entrance to the Communications department

And after! A lot better, don't you think?

Good luck 福 fu decorate entrance doors and classrooms...

The front doors...

Even the principal's office!

The lower school library doesn't even escape!

We had a lot of fun decorating the school at both sites.  Consequently, one of the competitions I ran was to ask classes to take responsibility for their classrooms and get them ready for the New Year.  Sadly not as many classes as I’d hoped joined in but those who did made noble efforts; hopefully we’ll have more take part next year!

Mr Best's Year 8 class get involved

To help as many students as possible enjoy the festivities Xiaoxiao and Rui did workshops with those classes who came forward and resources were made available for everyone else to use as they saw fit.  There was a definite dragon theme!

Rui leading workshops on dragon making!

Students getting stuck in!

I love people who are camera shy

~ From all of us at the Confucius Classroom, we wish you all a very prosperous Dragon year! ~

龙年大吉！龙腾虎跃！

Christmas pandas!

As part of our in-school Christmas celebrations and to celebrate the arrival of Tiantian and Yang Guang to Edinburgh zoo (they are pandas, not children, fear not!) our Hanban teacher Rui Zhu led workshops on origami pandas with KS3 and KS4 groups.  The origami is a little tricky (I had a go, so I know!) but the students really got stuck in and came up with some very creative designs!

Rui begins her Y7 origami workshop with Charlotte Oldfield's wonderful class

 

 

Rui with our Y10 GCSE class

 

 

The students get creative!

 

 

Ryan with his origami panda!

 

 

Dominic with his handy work!

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Fair

On Wednesday 14th December 2011, myself, the Confucius Classroom’s two Hanban teachers, Xiaoxiao and Rui, Barry Holliday and a group of extremely enthusiastic Y10 and Y11 students made their way to Djanogly Northgate’s Christmas Fair.  This was the first time that we had supported at a school Fair and it was an honour to support a new member to the Djanogly Learning Trusts’s family! 

It was a wonderful experience for all involved.  The students enjoyed introducing China and Chinese culture to Djanogly Northgate’s primary students.  Students led activities on Chinese numbers (complete with a Sudoku Challenge!), chopstick challenges, getting dressed up in traditional Chinese outfits whilst the Hanban teachers helped give students Chinese names.  The afternoon passed quickly and was enjoyed by many many people; a lovely start to our Christmas activities!

Ready for action!

 

Students give the Chopstick Challenge a go under the watchful eye of Eric and Thomas!

 

 

Xiaoxiao prepares a Chinese name for a student

 

 

 

 

Rui explains the meaning of a girl's Chinese name.

 

 

 

Gurpreet helps a student with their Chinese numbers for the Sudoku Challenge.

 

 

Djanogly Northgate's students enjoy getting dressed up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'What was that you said? You're camera shy? Oh well!'

 

Happy Dragon Year! 新年快乐！龙年大吉！龙腾虎跃！

Wishing all of you around the world health, happiness, good fortune and prosperity for this very auspicious and joyful Dragon year!

Please stay tuned for more updates of our actitivites from last year as well as everything we’ve got going on tomorrow and in the forthcoming weeks!  We have A LOT going on!