In celebration of the Year of the Pig, we are featuring a series of blogposts on our website to highlight the Chinese New Year celebrations of Confucius Classroom and Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) schools. For the third post in the series, we feature two schools’ celebrations, Benenden School and Gumley House School.
Benenden School
The Mandarin team at Benenden School told us about how they celebrated the Year of the Pig.
Here at Benenden School, Chinese New Year celebration is in full swing. It started on a Tuesday afternoon; two of our Mandarin teachers went out to John Wallis Academy as part of our outreach programme and delivered three Chinese New Year workshops for their Critical Languages Day. It was very well received and generated a lot of interested in the language. That evening, a dragon dance group was invited to perform in the canteen as students were enjoying their five star quality Chinese food. And students went home with red pocket prizes after guessing Lateran riddles correctly. Two days later, the school ran a Chinese New Year Prospective Parents and Students open morning with Mandarin students’ presentation. And we also invited the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Silk and Bamboo Music Ensemble to give a lunch time concert. The current ensemble comprises players on string instruments (traditionally with strings made of silk) and bamboo instruments such as the flute (dizi) and mouth organ (sheng). A great start to the year of the pig!
Gumley House School FCJ
The Gumely House School Chinese New Year assembly was held on 5th February. Fantastic performances like handkerchief dancing and Chinese songs were given by the Year 7 Chinese students – see the video below of the handkerchief dance.
The students also introduced the traditional customs of Chinese New Year. All the Year 7 and Year 8 students participated in a lantern decorating competition which they did in a very creative and Chinese way. All the students received a hong bao and the school cafeteria was also decorated and prepared a special menu for Chinese New Year.
We would like to thank Benenden School and Gumley House School for sharing their events with us.
Keep your eyes pealed for the next Chinese New Year blogposts coming this week!
Previous posts in the CNY series include St Catherine’s College and Oundle School/Sir Roger Manwood’s School.
