In October 2012, 19 students and 2 members of staff from Hetton School will take part in an educational visit to no.76 Middle School in
Harbin, a city in Heilongjiang Province of north-east China.
The trip will be 11 days long and students
taking part are undertaking a lot of preparation and planning which includes raising
funds as well as developing an understanding of the Chinese language and
culture. Some of the fundraising
activities that the students are undertaking include a sponsored zip-wire, bag
packing, raffles and themed evenings. The
trip is 100% educationally focused and it has been designed with students’
personal development in mind.
Hetton School and no.76 Middle School consider each
other to be partner schools. Both
schools work together to develop students’ academic horizons as well as their social and
cultural ones therefore creating more tolerant and knowledgeable citizens.
The link with no.76 Middle School began in December 2007 when
Hetton School hosted a delegation of government officials from Harbin who were
visiting the City of Sunderland to explore new trade, educational and cultural
links.
Since the link was established, a number of joint
activities have taken place. In 2008,
the school in China established an English Salon where students would learn
about English Culture; they have sent across several DVDs on the work they have
undertaken in the English Salon. At
Hetton School, in 2008, we established a China Club where students learn about
Chinese culture; the pupils from the China Club have sent samples of work to
China. In addition to this Hetton have
ran several summer schools where China has been the theme. To increase pupil’s awareness of China we
have ran a China day, in conjunction with the University of Sunderland and some
of their Chinese students, for 200 pupils in year 7. In 2010, we also invited several feeder
primary schools to a Chinese Lantern Event which coincided with the Chinese New
Year. In September 2010, we also
introduced Mandarin classes, ran by a Chinese member of our community, for our
gifted and talented pupils so that communication between the schools is not
always in English.
In order to
strengthen the link between the two schools, the head teacher, Zhou Yuqing, came to visit us in
Hetton in November 2011. During the
visit it was decided that we should set up an exchange visit that would take
place on a two yearly basis.
The first part of
the exchange will take place in a couple of weeks when 19 pupils, Miss Paget and Mr Knowles will make the long journey to China.
The pupils will spend a considerable amount of time in school and each
pupil will be partnered up with a Chinese pupil, joining in with all aspects of
school life including the lessons and daily gym activities. It is anticipated that the students from
Hetton will experience some cultural shocks when they attend school as they
will be staying there for the whole day which can lead into the evening hours.
Hetton School is expecting to host 20 students
and several members of staff from China in 2013 and we will keep you
posted on this blog about the Chinese students visit to Hetton.
