Chester goes to China
Chester went to China when headmistress of The Queen’s School, Mrs Catherine Buckley, was part of a delegation of headteachers from across the European Union invited to visit schools in the People’s Republic.
Joining colleagues from other Confucius Classrooms in the UK and delegates from schools in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Mrs Buckley took books about Chester and engraved glassware to present to their Chinese hosts.
The visit began in Beijing where the delegation were able to see Tiananmen Square, explore the historic Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing and walk along part of the Great Wall before flying to Zhengzhou in Henan province.
There, in cities close to China’s Yellow River, the delegation began a series of visits to secondary schools. In each school, pupils played traditional instruments, sang or performed classical dances to welcome the delegation, before giving their Western visitors a tour of the school. The group were able to observe lessons in action and could identify some of the striking differences between East and West, particularly the very long school day worked by Chinese children and classes with 60 or more pupils.
One of the schools which the delegation visited was close to the world famous Shaolin temple, cradle of Zen Buddhism in China and the place where kung fu was born. The school, which trains children first and foremost in martial arts, has over 20,000 pupils and the party was treated to the awe-inspiring sight of six thousand boys simultaneously demonstrating kung fu moves on a huge sports ground.
Mrs Catherine Buckley said:
“There are many differences between schools in the UK and China. I don’t think any pupils in Chester would relish starting their school day at 6.45am or being in classes which are too big to allow interaction between pupils and teacher. But young people, with their hopes and aspirations, are the same the world over. In that sense I felt that our schools had a lot in common.”
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Captions
090505 Delegation.jpg – Alison Jenner, Advisor Swansea LEA, Murray Fowler Wellington College, Catherine Buckley The Queen’s School, Joan Deslandes and Lin Liu, Kingsford Community College.
Press Contact:
Mrs Jane Taylor, The Queen’s School, City Walls Road, Chester, CH1 2NN
Tel: 01244 312078 Fax: 01244 321507
Email: jtaylor@queens.cheshire.sch.uk
The Queen’s School, Chester, Cheshire is one of the country’s leading independent schools offering the highest standard of education for girls from ages 4 – 18.
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