Chinese New Year Festivities Light Up Harrogate Grammar School!

The Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds was thrilled to support a day of Chinese culture and language exploration at Harrogate Grammar School. Organized by Adrian Stipetic, Head of Languages, the event saw 300 Year 7 students engage in a variety of China-themed activities. These included:

• Kite making
• Chinese painting
• Chinese papercutting
• Hanfu traditional clothing try-on session
• Mandarin taster classes

The day's program was designed to introduce the Year 7 students to a vibrant, different culture, while sparking their interest in Mandarin. The hope was that the experience would inspire some of them to continue their Mandarin studies when they return in Year 8.

As part of the day students also had the chance to watch the incredible Mio perform on the classic Chinese instrument, the Guzheng. He played not only traditional Chinese pieces but students were invited to guess the name of some western tunes he can play — watch the YouTube video here to see if you can also guess them?

Harrogate Grammar School has been a Confucius Classroom since 2015. With the support of the Business Confucius Institute, it offers a range of Mandarin language courses to its students, as well as to students from nearby schools and adults in the local community. Students have the opportunity to take the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) exam, and as they advance, they can work toward the Mandarin GCSE.

The successful day concluded with an evening performance featuring a Lion Dance, Chinese Gymnastics, a Chinese Trivia Quiz and much more. Parents were invited to join their children and had the chance to learn how to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese, as well as sample some authentic Chinese food.

Adrian Stipetic, Head of Languages at Harrogate Grammar School and main organiser of the day said "Raising cultural awareness is a big part of our wider role as a modern foreign languages team and as a school in general. It is so important to be able to open up young people's eyes to the wider world outside their immediate bubble and help them to learn about, appreciate and celebrate different customs and ways of living. This day really achieved all this. Students had such a positive dose of Chinese culture, and they loved learning about it. We are very grateful for the partnership with the Business Confucius Institute, who contributed hugely to offering our students such a fun, varied and enriching day. "