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Introduction
| Overview
| Becoming an LC
| CILT support
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CILT-SLC case study |
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Neatherd High School, Norfolk |
Cross-curricular links |
A Norfolk and Shanghai partnership
It all began back in 2003 with a formal partnership which over the past few years has turned into friendship and collaboration between a number of Norfolk schools and partner schools in the Xuhui district of Shanghai.
Since 2003 many curriculum projects have been established and both teachers and students from both Norfolk and China have had the opportunity to experience each others culture and education.
Neatherd High School in the heart of Norfolk was re-designated as a Language College in 2006. As part of the new bid and with county support we wanted to develop our pupils understanding of Chinese culture.
In May 2007, two staff were given the opportunity to teach English in our designated partner school, Nan Yang Middle School. Their brief upon their return was to encourage links and collaboration between the two schools.
They spent two weeks with staff and pupils at the school in Shanghai exchanging ideas on teaching and learning. They observed and evaluated English, Geography and Maths lessons and gave ‘lectures’ to pupils showing them a virtual tour of our school which they had prepared before they left. The English department in Nanyang School was keen to develop their teaching away from the traditional rote-learning method they are accustomed to.
On their return, a joint curriculum project was established between both art departments and we are currently bidding for British Council funding to support this and enable a pupil exchange next year.
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Grade 8 art lesson |
Grade 8 geography lesson |
In July 2007, four teachers from Shanghai visited Norfolk. Two of these teachers spent the last week of term with our cluster: Neatherd High School, Fred Nicholson Special School and Scarning Primary School. During these four days Cheng Tingting and Sun Li observed and taught lessons in all three schools and ran a workshop for the staff after school one day. The workshop was well attended by teachers from all three schools. They learnt various arts and crafts which are typical and traditional in China.
Two whole days were spent at Neatherd High School, where the teachers met with the Language College Director, the International Coordinator and the Deputy Head. They were given a tour of the school by a Neatherd pupil from China and they participated in various lessons. During an MFL lesson they taught a Year 7 class some Mandarin, including a little calligraphy.
On the second day, as one of the staff was an operatic expert, they ran a fascinating workshop in a music lesson. Pupils learnt the traditions and significance of the opera and by the end were all able to sing a whole song in Chinese! The afternoon was filled with a carousel art lesson, attended by various members of staff. The four Chinese teachers showed us how to make masks (for the opera), to tie Chinese knots, to make pictures by paper-cutting and to write some words in calligraphy. The visiting teachers said they had had the best week of all with us and were delighted with their experience of Norfolk and school life here in England.
More recently, to further promote our Chinese Partner school link in all curriculum areas, we have promoted and celebrated the Chinese New Year. The day was planned by the school’s Global Action Group led by Louise Carey, one of the members of staff who visited Shanghai last summer.
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China Day at Neatherd High School |
China Day display at Neatherd High School |
The day involved all curriculum areas who dedicated a part of their lesson to promoting China. Examples included: Chinese poetry in an English lesson, an introduction to the Terracotta Army in History, an introduction to the geography of China, cooking a Chinese dish in food technology, looking at differences between Chinese and English music and in Science pupils made bricks and built a mini wall of China. A quiz about China was made available for every form tutor to complete with their Form.
The canteen even got involved and put on a special Chinese menu and pupils were encouraged to eat with chopsticks which were provided by a local Chinese restaurant. Pupils attended in non-uniform wearing orange, yellow and red clothes and the money raised from this went to the World Wildlife Fund for the protection of pandas.
We have run a Chinese club after school for both pupils and adults for the past two years and hope in the future to embed this into our curriculum.
We are always interested to hear from any other schools who have embarked upon this kind of project and are happy to share our ideas further.
Read their China blog - http://shanghai.neatherd.org/
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Flag ceremony at Nan Yang Middle School |
Sara French, Assistant Head Teacher i/c Language College, Neatherd High School, Norfolk, June 2008
