Harrogate Grammar School China Day

The annual ‘China Day’ for year 7 students at Harrogate Grammar School marks the end of another successful year of Mandarin education at our Confucius Classroom.

The Harrogate Grammar School (HGS) Big Picture Day (formerly Super Learning Day) has become a highly anticipated event in the school calendar for Year 7 students, who enjoy a day of China-themed activities before leaving school for the summer.

The programme for the day aims to open their eyes to a completely different culture and show them what they can learn if they choose to take Mandarin classes when they come back in Year 8.

300 students took part in activities including:

• Chinese painting
• Language classes
• Making dumplings
• Learning a Chinese song with actions
• Kung fu (taught by wingchun.online)
• Calligraphy

All the activities included an element of language learning, and students made amazing progress throughout the day. They were even reading Chinese characters in one of the language sessions!

View pictures from the day on our Flickr and Facebook pages. You can see all the HGS ‘Big Picture Day’ photos on their website.

What is a Confucius Classroom?

As a Confucius Classroom linked with our Business Confucius Institute, HGS is our local hub for the learning of Mandarin language and culture for both students and adults.

The 2016-2017 academic year was our best yet for Chinese at HGS

Adrian Stipetic, Faculty Leader for Modern Foreign Language

In addition to the Year 7 ‘China Day’ there is an annual Chinese New Year celebration, which took place this year on 2 February. Throughout the year Mandarin lessons are available to students from HGS and other local schools, as well as adults from the surrounding area. Students have the opportunity to sit the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) exam, and as students progress further they will work towards the Mandarin GCSE.

In addition to these activities supported by the Business Confucius Institute, HGS also has a China Exchange Programme that was established in 2014.  Sixth form students have the opportunity to go to Hangzhou and experience China for themselves.

The view from HGS

Adrian Stipetic, the Faculty Leader for Modern Foreign Language, said: “The 2016-2017 academic year was our best yet for Chinese at HGS. In the classroom, our students have progressed enormously and for the first time we've entered students for external exams and all who entered passed their YCT level one and level two tests. Our two annual showpiece cultural events (the Chinese New Year celebration and the Year 7 "Big Picture Day") were also bigger and better than ever. Huge thanks for the ongoing support of the Business Confucius Institute.”