Confucius Classrooms
Confucius Classroom at St Paul's CE Primary School
The Institute has helped with the establishment of the first Confucius Classroom in a primary school in the UK in partnership with St Paul's CE Primary School, Withington, Manchester in 2008.
With a partner school in Beijing set up in 2005, Mr Don Berry, former Head Teacher of St Paul's was inspired by his visit to Bai Jiazhuang Primary School in Beijing and he believes that learning the Chinese language can open a new world to his pupils. He approached the Confucius Institute to set up after school clubs for his pupils. Now the teaching of Chinese is extended to half of the Year 3 and Year 4 children.
St Paul's has a full time Chinese language teacher, Jessica Zhang and children of Y1 and 2 learn Chinese as part of the curriculum and an afterschool club is run for the rest of the school.
Confucius Classroom at Gleddings Preparatory School
The second Confucius Classroom was established at The Gleddings Preparatory School in Halifax, West Yorkshire in November 2010.
Children at The Gleddings Preparatory School have been learning about Mandarin and Chinese culture since 2008. The school has been working closely with The Confucius Institute in Manchester.
Mandarin is part of the school curriculum for all Key Stage 2 children. Year 3 to Year 5 children have a thirty minutes lesson each week whilst children in Year 6 learn Mandarin for an hour a week.
The specialist Mandarin teacher, Fiona Chen teaches all of the lessons. Mandarin is taught in an informal style in a relaxed atmosphere. The main aims are for the children to enjoy learning the language and for them to be enthusiastic and gain confidence.
The Mandarin teacher has held short talks on Chinese festivals and other Chinese themed topics. Fun activities such as paper-cutting, lantern making and Chinese folk dancing have been introduced to the children. Live performances of Chinese folk singing, the Chinese musical instruments, pipa and Lion Dance have been organised to help the children develop an appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture.
The Gleddings School plans to introduce Mandarin and Chinese culture to the parents as well as partner schools and the businesses in the sub-region.