The Charter School goes to Shanghai
We are really excited about establishing stronger links with our British Council nominated school in Shanghai. 60 of our current year 7s are learning Mandarin as well as a number of year 8 pupils.
EVENT REPORT SHANGHAI VISIT 14-20th NOVEMBER 2009
DAY 5 Wednesday 18th November 2009
When I woke up this morning, the sun was shining and I immediately thought it would be another exciting day in the company of our hosts from LanTian. And I was right!
The morning session started with a very interesting exchange between the two Headteachers, the Head of MFL and myself on the Chinese and the British educational systems. Here again, just like for the ‘Rivers of the World’ project we did list many similarities between both systems and both parties were very keen to understand and appreciate the cultural differences.
Then, our hosts had kindly arranged to drive us to Suzhou, a world cultural heritage site that features the well renowned ‘Humble Administrator’s Garden.
This garden is a maze of traditional Chinese pagodas and focuses on the life at the times of the Old Chinese dynasties. We were lucky enough to be guided by the Headteacher and the Head of MFL who made valuable comments so we could better understand the lifestyle and historical context of the ancient Suzhou.
Later, we visited the new Suzhou museum, built by Pei Ming, a world class architect who also built the ‘pyramid’at the Le Louvre museum in Paris. Another jaw dropping moment looking at national grade-one treasures including paintings, ceramics and calligraphy from the Ming and Quing Dynasties.
To end our visit in Suzhou, our hosts took us to a Buddhist temple featuring more than 500 arhat sculptures and a divinity with 100 hands. Here again, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn about the national treasures of China and to share the enthusiasm of our hosts.
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our hosts and thank them and Mr Shen in particular for allowing our schools to start a long and fruitful collaboration. At the time of the farewell diner, Mr Sheppard repeated how grateful we were for the warm welcome of our hosts. Also he insisted that this was the start of close links between The Charter School and LAN TIAN that would very soon materialize through collaborative projects and further visits.
DAY 4 Tuesday 17th November 2009Today was a very important moment in our visit to SHANGHAI as we were presenting the collaborative projects from THE CHARTER SCHOOL.
Our morning session included Mr Shen Xiao, Headteacher of the Lan Tian Middle school, his deputy head, Mr Sheppard and myself.
We started the conversation reminding our hosts how impressed we had been with the lessons we had observed. Also we highlighted the similarities in terms of lesson planning and also in relation with the teaching and learning.
At this point, Mr Shen Xiao, through the excellent interpretation skills of Mrs Zhao Hong, mentioned they thought our projects were very interesting and they would like to start collaborating with us.
We did remind our Chinese colleagues that there was still room to expand the project on Rivers of the World but the other projects would enable both school communities to involve more students and teachers. Also, we mentioned we could work jointly on one project or choose to have different approaches on one common project.
It was agreed that the use of internet would allow both school communities to facilitate the communication and the transfer of materials and ideas.
Lan Tian middle school also informed us they could use two periods called ‘extensive class’ for the projects to be worked on.
A co-operation agreement between the two schools was then signed by the two Headteachers making official the collaborative development work between our two schools. This was a very intense moment of satisfaction as such agreement will allow our school communities to have a better grasp of the international dimension.
This ended the morning session.
In the afternoon, our hosts kindly offered to take us on a car tour of the EXPO 2010 site with the impressive Chinese pavilion.
Thanks to the company of two student teachers, the afternoon was made more informative as they could answer our questions when we later visited the YuYuan Garden and the Shanghai Museum. The relevance of their comments was particularly impressive when we visited the ‘porcelain’ and ‘calligraphy’ rooms.
It was simply jaw dropping to be able to contemplate the vases, sculptures and other calligraphy rolls dating back up to five thousand years.
A very rewarding day indeed. Thanks Lan Tian Middle school!
The day started with a visit to the Head of the ‘Summer School’, Mr Wu Zhong Ming also in charge of the Rivers of the World project.
Our morning session with Mr Wu mostly focused on the similarities between Shanghai and London and how we could take the ‘Rivers of the world’ project further. Many ideas emerged for both schools to work on.
In the afternoon, we did have the opportunity to meet Lan Tian Middle school’s Headteacher, Mr Shen Xiao and both headteachers exchanged on the nature of their responsibilities.
Later, we did attend two lessons: one year 10 MFL (English) and one year 7 Art.
We were warmly welcomed by the students and thoroughly enjoyed the lessons followed by a quick Q&A session.
To close the afternoon, a group of 15 students presented their work in English on ‘Rivers of the World’ in Shanghai. It was then time for Lan Tian students to ask questions about The Charter school and the curriculum we deliver.
The students were highly enthusiastic and were very pleased with our answers in particular when it came to communicating through art and the use of Internet and social networks. And that brought our day in Lan Tian to a close!
Day 2 Sunday 15th November
We were formally welcomed by our Chinese hosts - the Lan Tian Headteacher and his two Deputy Head Teachers - at a reception dinner.
Both Heads of schools exchanged warm welcoming words and said how pleased their were to be able to develop the link between both schools.
Lan Tian Middle school is comparable in size to The Charter School as some 1200 students are on the roll (year 7- year 10). Students then go to the High School of their choice for further studies. Shanghai is the largest city in China with 20 million people and the students at Lan Tian Middle school do come from the different parts of the city.
Students at Lian Tian start the school day with 45 minutes of physical exercise before they head to other core subject lessons. True to their tradition of International Dimension they have started with us, Lan Tian sealed another collaborative project with a University in Berlin, Germany. As a result, the Modern Foreign Languages department now offers German in addition to English to their students.
Languages are an essential part of this collaborative project between both schools. The Charter School has widened its offer of Mandarin to its students and the language is now taught part of the main curriculum to some KS3 students. In addition, any student at The Charter School can join the Mandarin after school club that was started a year ago.
Last Modified: 10/12/2009
