Harrogate Grammar School
What is a Confucius Classroom?
Confucius Classrooms are an extension of the Confucius Institute programme. Whereas Confucius Institutes are university-based, Confucius Classrooms are partnerships with local primary and secondary schools with the goal of strengthening the Chinese language and culture programme at the school and in the local area.
Our Confucius Classrooms receive their own allocation of resources from the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation, and we work closely with them providing teaching staff, event support, and general guidance.
Working in partnership with our Confucius Classrooms we can provide more young people throughout the region with access to Chinese language and culture education.
In February 2015 we were proud to officially open our very first Confucius Classroom. Harrogate Grammar School is the home of our school-based Chinese hub. In practice, this means that we support the school in their exploration of everything Chinese. From cultural events to in-class teaching, we are excited to be working with the school on a diverse range of learning and experiential opportunities.
Harrogate Grammar School was one of the first Teaching Schools in the UK, and is a lead members in the Red Kite Teaching School Alliance, a partnership of schools that share skills, experience and talent to help improve learning and achievement in schools across Yorkshire. With a prestigious Modern Foreign Languages Faculty, Harrogate Grammar is proud of the opportunities it offers to students to immerse themselves in other cultures. As a school new to the process of teaching Mandarin Chinese, our involvement gives the school greater confidence . We are delighted that Mandarin is now available as a subject to all pupils in year 8 and above. Those who choose to pursue their Chinese studies as they progress through the school have the opportunity to participate in exchange programmes with partner schools in Hangzhou, eastern China.
We are also able to use Harrogate Grammar School's excellent facilities as a community hub, bringing events such as Chinese dancing and specialist cooking sessions to residents throughout Harrogate, and beyond.
Adrian Stipetic, Modern Foreign Languages faculty leader at Harrogate Grammar School, said:
Gaining Confucius Classroom status has been a real boost, not just to the Modern Foreign Language faculty, but to the whole school in general, as we seek to offer our pupils the best opportunities and encourage them to aspire to compete on a global level.
"We recognise that a knowledge and understanding of Chinese language and culture could be a major advantage in the future lives of our young people so we now give all pupils the opportunity to study it as an extra language if they wish to do so."
"The partnership not only brings us teaching expertise, but also gives us support in running cultural activities and events that raise awareness in Chinese culture and broadens our pupils’ outlooks."
Visit the Mandarin Chinese page on the Harrogate Grammar School website.
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