St George’s School for Girls recently jointly hosted, with the City of Edinburgh Confucius Hub, the first collaborative event celebrating the learning of Chinese Language and Culture among the City of Edinburgh Schools.
Approximately fifty school children of S2-S6 age attended the event from local authority and private schools. The contributing schools were Firhill, St Thomas of Aquin’s, Tynecastle, Royal High, Leith Academy, Craigmount, Fettes College and St George’s.
With the teaching of Chinese firmly embedded in the curriculum of participating schools the event provided an opportunity to share ideas and resources to stimulate the learning and teaching of Chinese language and culture. A series of practical workshops run by Chinese teachers was staged throughout the afternoon with pupils taking part in informal Mandarin sessions, Tai Chi, and the Chinese Tea Ceremony. Students were also introduced to Chinese Calligraphy, Chinese Etiquette, and Chinese Music.
‘There is a real enthusiasm for this initiative and I am delighted that by joining forces with Leith Academy’s Confucius Hub we were able to spread the net and have a good cross section of Edinburgh schools attending,’ says Anne Everest, head of St George’s. ‘In order to be successful, today’s students need to be learning in a global context. St George’s International Education programme takes a variety of forms through which we seek to broaden students’ cultural awareness, develop their linguistic proficiency and promote greater self-awareness and independence in order that our girls can take their place in the world as global citizens. This sort of event helps to develop our students’ ability to work collaboratively and deepens cultural awareness; and, from the student’s point of view, learning thus becomes more meaningful.’
St George’s has had a Confucius Classroom since 2008 and all S1 girls have a block of Chinese as part of their carousel of Languages. Chinese is a subject option right through to Advanced Higher level.
The school is recognised with an International School Award for its international perspective and for its outstanding achievement in developing international activities with schools worldwide. This global outlook seeks to benefit the whole school community.
The next collaborative event between St George’s and the City of Edinburgh Confucius Classrooms will be ‘The next step on the Mandarin journey’ on 20 June 2014, aimed at pupils who are thinking about taking Chinese on to further education.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
