Wales and Chongqing Sustainable Schools Partnership

Examples of work carried out at Cathays High School Cardiff

The partnership started with an initial visit to Qiujing High School, Chongqing in May 2007, followed by a further visit by two members of staff in October 2007.
The following information gives details of the progress made as a result of these visits and illustrates some of the work that is being done at the school. We have yet to participate in the development of any real partnership work with Qiujing High.


· Initially, 6th form students exchanged letters and e-mail addresses with pupils at Qiujing High School in Chongqing. Letters were taken over to China and return letters brought back. The e-mail addresses from the Chinese students didn’t seem to work very well.
· Following on from our second visit to Chongqing the head of English at Cathays formed a partnership with her counterpart in Qiujing High but again the e-mail system failed and contact was scant (our interpreter at the school, a member of the English department, kept in touch but has since left to have a baby).
· Subsequent to an application for HSBC China Now funding we were successful in having the expertise of members of a Chinese Opera Company from London to provide workshops at the school. We built this into our summer time table arrangements (an arrangement for the last half term of the academic year when the year’s time table is collapsed and substituted by a time table that encompasses a wide range of activities and programmes ). During this time there is an opportunity for departments to give students experiences that involve activities that they would not normally be able to undertake during the normal time table arrangements. In the summer term of 2008 all year 9 students had a day of Chinese cultural activities in groups of about 20. They experienced 5 one hour workshops during the day that included Chinese Opera, Chinese Opera face painting, calligraphy, block printing, martial arts, ribbon dance and animation. A similar day was also arranged in the same week for all year 8 students (without the opera company). Their workshops included calligraphy, printing, animation, ribbon dance, martial arts, table tennis, tai chi and drama. Both days proved successful but did entail considerable planning and organization.
· Following on from the second visit to Chongqing, the Head of English offered to arrange a visit to China for KS4 students in June 2009 and 32 students and 4 staff will take part in the visit. During this time they will visit Qiujing High School.
· We have started to form a working relationship with the Confucius Institute at the University College Cardiff and discussions have already taken place regarding Mandarin teaching at Cathays High and making the school a ‘centre of excellence’ for this.
· Following on from discussions with Prof. Siyu Fu and in preparation for our students’ visit to China as well as further developing our Community Languages Programme at Cathays High (which already includes Arabic, Urdu, Bengali and the opportunity for our students to also sit GCSE and A Level in Czech, Polish, Somali and other ‘mother languages’), we will be starting Mandarin lessons at the school in March with the intention of inviting other schools to send students to join this activity and also parents and staff (it will be offered as part of the Out of School Hours programme).
· Recently, at the invitation of the University’s Confucius Institute, Year 7 pupils took part in Chinese New Year workshops at the National Museum of Wales.
· The visit by the Deputy Head teacher of Qiujing High School to Cardiff as part of a delegation in October 2009 further developed our links with the school. He brought letters with him from students of the school and, this time, the e-mail addresses provided by students seem to work.
Our students are now maintaining regular contact with a
‘partner student’ at the school.
· Students are going to be asked to prepared video diaries to be taken to Qiujing school on the next visit (in March) and hopefully the students there will reciprocate. It is intended to set up video conferencing arrangements between the two schools during the next visit.
· Several departments in the school bring Chinese as well as other cultural experiences into their teaching; some examples include:
§ GEOGRAPHY – Population topic in Years 8 and at KS4 (+ Water/Food topics at KS4) use China as an example. Particular reference is made to the Three Gorges Project which links specifically with Chongqing using material brought back from the province and an excellent programme produced by S4C on the Yangtze River and the dam.
§ ART – Years 8 and 10 use artifacts from China for still-life drawing. For GCSE and A level projects students are encouraged to research into and study cultures other than European.
§ MATHS – topics including Time Zones, Bearings (of one country from another), Negative Numbers (using temperature, sea level in various countries), and Statistics (used to study charts, tables and graphs – including the Olympics)
§ TEXTILES – Year 10 students have a free choice as a design project at the start of their GCSE course based on Cultural Celebrations and the final coursework focuses on designing and making garments encompassing different cultures.
§ SCIENCE – Space topic in Year 10 looks at China, Russia and USA contributions to Space Exploration.

I need to point out that Cathays High is a multi-cultural school, therefore we already include a wide range of cultures in our curriculum that are relevant to our school population. We also have a very successful sustainable partnership with a school in Lesotho.

China web links
General Introduction
Confucius Institute, Lampeter University http://www.lamp.ac.uk/confucius/resources.html


BBC pages http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1287798.stm
New page (still evolving): http://www.bbc.co.uk/topics/china
World Class page http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldclass/teachers/index.shtml

Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China Huge page and links, e.g.:
Chongqing page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chongqing
UNESCO World Heritage site, Dazu Rock carvings, Chongqing: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/912
CIA Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
Chinese School http://open2.net/chineseschool/ AJ has a DVD of BBC4’s Chinese School
China Now! http://www.chinanow.org.uk/ Lots of resources including http://www.chinanow.org.uk/PrimaryEducation.html & http://www.chinanow.org.uk/SecondaryEducation.html

http://www.chinaculture.org/index.html

Thinkquest introduction to China http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/

Language

Introduction: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/index.shtml
Language practice/games: http://www.digitaldialects.com/Chinese.htm

Writing
Chinese characters http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm#characters
Chinese names http://lost-theory.org/ocrat/chargif/surnames.html
Zhong wen site with interesting language articles http://www.zhongwen.com/

Literature
Mulan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Mulan includes text of ballad in English and Chinese
film http://www.movies-on-demand.tv/movie/766-Mulan_1998.html
See also the novel Woman Warrior Maxine Hog Kingston

Mathematics
Numerals
http://www.mandarintools.com/numbers.html
Tangrams
http://www.chinaculture.org/chineseway/2008-11/11/content_316586.htm Currency – pics of yuan



Science
Inventions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_inventions

Tea Camellia sinensis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

Exhibitions
Bristol January-April 2009: http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/national_tours/china_journey_to_the_east.aspx
BM KS3 &KS4 http://www.britishmuseum.org/learning/schools_and_teachers/secondary/china.aspx

History
Timeline http://www.chinapage.com/main2.html
East Asia History Source book - Huge resource for culture and history http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/eastasiasbook.html
The Han Synthesis: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20041014.shtml
British Museum : http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/menu.html
http://www.earlyimperialchina.co.uk/room.html
http://www.ancientcivilizations.co.uk/ Compare China, Egypt, India etc.
Emperors
Sun Yat Sen / Sun Yixian Early revolutionary leader, UK connection: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen
Revolution


Geography
Maps
Map of China: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/china_admin_91.jpg
Clothing/seasons: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/china_clothing.jpg

Exploration
http://www.1421.tv/ controversial theory about Chinese exploration: Gavin Menzies 1421: The Year China Discovered the World

Art
Classic Chinese Art - V&A: http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/life_china/index.html
New York: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/chinese/html_pages/index.htm
http://www.silverdragonart.co.uk/catalogue.htm#entry
Modern Art from China http://www.newchineseart.com/
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/new_art_from-china.htm
http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/Chinese%20Art%20Teachers%20guide.pdf Download
Fu Baoshi artist who taught at Chongqing


Crafts
Chinese New year crafts:
http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/chinese_new_year.html
make a lantern http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lantern/
Paper cut examples http://www.isaacnet.com/culture/papercut.htm

European traditions of Chinoiserie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoiserie

Willow pattern crockery
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/british_galleries/bg_styles/Style05c/objects/object4_1.html
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ceramics/audio/willow/index.html
http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/magazine/issue32/iss32p5.html
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc_-_ks2_-_english_-_reading_-_the_willow_pattern_story

Music

http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/
http://www.chinesemusic.co.uk/ http://www.cssa.org.uk/music/

Culture
Festivals New Year, Lantern Festival, Qing Ming, Dragon Boat, Qi Ji Xie, Valentine's Day, Moon Festival, Double Ninth Festival http://www.china.org.cn/features/festivals/node_1078131.htm
Find the date of festivals http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CFestivals.htm
Short stories for children http://holidays.mrdonn.org/chinesefestivals.html
CNY customs http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/taboos.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/events/chinesenewyear/
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_new_year.htm

Explanation of Feng Shui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Shui
The I Ching / Yi Jing http://pacificcoast.net/~wh/Index.html

Religion
Kǒng Fūzǐ / Confucius http://www.confucius.org/main01.htm#e http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
World’s longest family tree: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/16/content_7616027.htm


Food http://www.bbc.co.uk/chinesefoodmadeeasy/

Health Traditional Chinese Medicine: http://tcm.health-info.org/
Qi Gong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong

Sport
Shaolin Kungfu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_Kungfu
Tai Chi Chuan http://www.taichichuan.co.uk/information/introduction_to_taichi.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi
Beijing Olympic Games http://en.beijing2008.cn/

News /media
China Government web site http://english.gov.cn/
China Portal: http://www.china.org.cn/
http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/ctenglish.htm
http://www.rmhb.com.cn/chpic/htdocs/English/index.htm
http://www.radio86.co.uk/

Games:
Chinese Historical and Cultural Project Traditional games http://www.chcp.org/games.html

mahjongg, (highly addictive) http://lechinois.com/game/mahjong02en.html
zodiac signs,
dragon puzzle,
Fortune cookie
http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/chinese/games.htm


Books
My favourite Introduction:
Kenneth Wilkinson 2004 World Cultures:China Teach Yourself ISBN 0-340-81143-9 £9.99
Available from Swansea Library:
Wolfram Eberhard 1986 A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols Routledge ISBN 0-415-00228-1

Dorling Kindersley China £18.99
Lonely Planet China 18.99
Country Insights China 12.99 Hodder Wayland 0750 24819X
China Heinemann £11.99 0-431-01417-5
A River Journey The Yangtse Hodder Wayland 07502-4037-7
Map Periplus 1:8 million China £4.99 0-7946-0342-4

China -Primary Schools competition

Competition for schools to register by 07 December, submit entries by Friday 12 December 08. See http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/default.aspx?page=325 for preliminary information and link to
http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/pdf/ChinaPrimaryComp_08.pdf

Sharing our Thoughts on Sustaining school links

The blog has been set up to act as a forum for the working group on Sustaining Partnerships between schools in Wales and Chongqing. It will work if members use it to share documents, images and thoughts about our task.