As I sit in my hotel room writing the final ‘blog’ of the trip, I feel absolutely privileged to have been able to come to China and to see teaching and learning in Shenzhen, as I have really developed a new perspective of our place in the world educationally. It has been fascinating learning about Chinese Culture from our new friends, including Will - our guide and English representative from Opportunity Education. Whilst there are cultural differences between China and the UK, there are huge educational similarities and of course children around the world are...children - who like to play, laugh, cry, sing and smile. We have seen lots of smiles on this trip and were greeted so warmly by the teachers and children at each of the schools we visited. 

Today didn’t involve visits to school or presentations to a few hundred educationalists. Instead, it was a day for us to network with staff from CIPTC (China International Personnel Training Centre - the sponsor of our visit) and to have a tour of the extensive training facilities it owns. We also managed to network with the other visiting English Schools through the medium of shopping at possibly the largest tech market around - think Westquay times....ten! It was amazing to see so much technology on sale and I look forward to sharing some with the children when I return. If you would like to find out more about China, please do email adminoffice@fairoak-jun.hants.sch.uk to book a space at PIPs on the 6th of November. 

Our last dinner in China (although we will probably have some food in the airport tomorrow before we fly) was from the Dong Bei region of China, found towards the North East of the country. The food was delicious and was a wonderful end to our culinary journey. 

After dinner we watched the famous Shenzhen light show. This was utterly breathtaking! Please do look through the pictures, although they won’t really do adequate justice to the show. 

As we are flying out from Hong Kong airport tomorrow evening, Mrs Tuxford, Miss Coxhead and I will be spending a few hours in Hong Kong - something we are really looking forward to. 

This whole experience has been so inspirational and one which I am glad to have been able to share with you through these blogs. Please do catch me on the school gate if you want to have a quick chat about the visit or, as mentioned earlier, come along to PIPs. We have made so many friends during this trip and I look forward to deepening these friendships further in the future, so that our pupils develop as Global Citizens.

I wish you all a lovely half term. I look forward to seeing you all back at school on Tuesday 5th November.

Mr De Silva

This morning we visited Shiyan Public School in the Bao’an District. Fair Oak Junior School is considered (by UK standards) to be a very large school with 5 forms of entry and just under 600 children. However, Shiyan has an impressive 7,000 children, with 3,000 of them boarding during the week! Due to the large nature of the school, it was no surprise that it had world class facilities for its pupils, who range from Year R to Year 13. I’m surprised at the number of all-through schools in Shenzhen, although given the nature of the Chinese core curriculum, I see how this is done so successfully. In the vast majority of schools we have visited, we have seen statues of the Chinese Philosopher, Confucius, and many schools have been inspired by his teachings - and this was evident by Shiyan’s values of Responsibility, Respect, Cooperation and Friendly. In that vain, I asked whether it would be possible to have copies of some of their maths books, so that I could have a full range of the maths learning journey (as I had some books from yesterday). Thankfully the school was very generous and gave me some books to take home. 

 

After a very yummy lunch of Pizza Hut (including the interesting smell and taste of Durian fruit), we made our way to Luohu District, which is on the east side of Shenzhen and consists of about a million people. We were in Luohu to present to the Education Forum. I talked to the forum about our Fair Oak Family and about the parts of our school that are unique to us. It was wonderful to talk to so many Chinese and foreign teachers about teaching and learning at Fair Oak Junior School and for them to get a real understanding about what makes our school so special. At the end of the presentation, we signed agreements with sister schools in the district and I look forward to sharing best practice of teaching and learning with them in the near future. After the signing, we saw two ‘master class’ lessons. These were fascinating to watch, as they were both English lessons. I could see so many similarities between the teaching of English (as a second language) and our own INSPIRE maths curriculum, as both encourage children to learn in incremental steps (procedural variation).

 

The Luohu Forum was our last formal commitment and I am sad that our time in China is coming to an end. It has been a real privilege to have brought along Miss Coxhead and Mrs Tuxford, as they have both been inspired by this experience. Having seen teaching in China - which is of a high standard - I can safely say that your children are in very safe hands at Fair Oak Junior School. I am so proud of my whole staff team and this learning trip to Shenzhen has really cemented my belief in my staff...our staff. If you would like to find out more, please do email the office to book a space onto PIPs (6.11.19). 

 

I’m looking forward to visiting the world-famous Tech market tomorrow, as it will showcase all the latest technology. I can only imagine how happy Mr Emerton would be if he were coming with us tomorrow.

Today we had the privilege of visiting two schools in the Bao’an District. The first was Xin’an Middle School. It was very interesting to observe teaching and learning delivered to so many children with just one adult teaching and to see the impeccable behaviour of the children - who were all focused on their learning tasks (see photo below). That being said, the children were incredibly warm and I enjoyed trying to learn their names - alas, I think I may have forgotten them now! At Xin’an we got the opportunity to have school lunch - this was very different to our menu at Fair Oak! 

As you are aware, we teach Mastery Maths at Fair Oak (in years 3 to 5) through a scheme called INSPIRE MATHS. This is proving very successful at our school, but the concepts of INSPIRE are firmly rooted in the best teaching and learning in China. With that in mind, it was wonderful to look through some Chinese maths books and to see the similarities between primary maths in China and primary maths at Fair Oak. This was made even better by the staff giving us some of their text books to unpick when we return home. 

After lunch we visited Bogang Primary School. Our visit began with a performance of the Cantonese Opera, ‘Zhong Kiu on the road’. This was fascinating to watch, especially as children as young as 7 were performing some incredibly difficult gymnastics whilst singing. Bogang is known for sporting success and they teach football as a core subject in their curriculum - I’m sure Mr Stredwick would approve! During our tour, we had the pleasure of experiencing Chinese heritage through poetry and music. We then saw modern day China, through computing, including drone obstacle course sessions - yes...really! Mrs Tuxford and I enjoyed Chinese Caligraphy, whilst Miss Coxhead took part in some Paper Cutting. Please do look at the school Twitter feed (@FairOakJS) to see some finished work from a year 2/3 child at Bogang.

We finished the day with a visit to the top of the Ping An Tower. It was stunning and  provided a great vantage point to see the significant size of Shenzhen.

Today was hugely exciting and I’m looking forward to going back to another school in Bao’an tomorrow morning and presenting at another Education Forum (conference) tomorrow afternoon for the Luohu Education District.

Mr De Silva

Today I was left truly astonished at what I saw in Shenzhen! After breakfast - yes, it was KFC - we went to present to the Bao’an Education Bureau (district) at Xiaode school. Xiaode is a new school, having been open for only 3 years. It pioneers many things, including new forms of technology - which was the focus for our presentation this morning. It also pioneers smaller class sizes of 38 - 40 children. Normal class sizes in Shenzhen range from 55 - 60 ...somewhat different to Fair Oak Junior School. The school also caters for just under 2000 pupils. We had a brief tour of the school, including seeing some fantastic resources ranging from a museum showcasing the local Jade, to Augmented Reality sand trays! After our tour we went into the lecture theatre to speak to 300 head teachers and education officers for Bao’an. It was wonderful to show them our school and to introduce the people of China to the Fair Oak Family. It was also fascinating to hear the presentations from our Chinese counterparts about how technology is used to support learning in Shenzhen. After the presentation we met the Bao’an Minister for Education - somewhat of a celebrity in the area. It was a privilege to speak to him and to find out his vision for education. 

After the presentation, we went to another two school to see teaching and learning. The  children in both schools were friendly, warm and engaging. I was increadibly impressed with the resources the children have access to and the huge sense of hard work that they put into their learning. This is epitomised by the children’s choice to carry on the school day to partake in co-curricular activities to a world class standard - whether GCSE level art (being carried out by 7 to 12 year olds), Traditional Chinese Orchestra, Computing (Robotics and Augmented Reality), Opera, Martial Arts or beating their teachers in Draughts. That sense of hard work is incredibly impressive and you can clearly see the fruit of their labours in their learning around the school. I’m really looking forward to talking to parents about the visit to China at PIPs on the 6th of November. Please email into the office to book a space.

After a Cantonese dinner, we went for a walk to see the Ping An tower. A marvellous end to a truly inspirational day.

Mr De Silva

On the afternoon of Monday 21^st October the pupils of Fair Oak Junior School competed in our annual cross country races. Below are the year group results:

The overall house totals are as follows:

1^st     St David  (521 points)

2^nd    St George   (468 points)

3^rd    St Patrick   (426 points)

4^th    St Andrew  (386 points)

Well done to all of the pupils who took part!

What an amazing second day. Today was all about acclimatising before we deliver a presentation on technology at Fair Oak Junior School tomorrow. Acclimatisation was slightly interesting, as our venue for breakfast was KFC! After our ‘breakfast’ we went into Futian to look around the shops. The shopping area was huge - and consisted of malls and market stalls. One stall was particularly fascinating - see picture below of Mrs Tuxford and Miss Coxhead! Having worked up an appetite (or not...in the case of some), we went for a more ‘traditional’ lunch. We enjoyed food from the Hunan area; it was much spicier than the Cantonese food we had yesterday. After lunch we went for a hike in Lianhuashan Park and saw the famous statue of Deng Xiao Ping. From the top of the park, we had a glorious view of Shenzhen - which really is a quite spectacular city with a population of 12.4 million people.  As we were walking around the park, it was great to talk to our Chinese guides about teaching and learning in China - and I really cannot wait for tomorrow, when we present to the Bao’an Education Bureau and visit schools in the district.

For dinner this evening we had a fusion of Cantonese and Hunan food - and I tried to master my nonexistent chopstick ‘skills’.  Afterwards, we worked through our presentation for delivery tomorrow.  

Mr De Silva

We left London Heathrow an hour behind schedule at 10.50pm, but were raring to go for our 12 hour flight across Europe and Asia. We arrived safely in Hong Kong and met up with the other delegates from schools across the south of the country. We then made our way into main land China being greeted by the very impressive Ping An building found in Shenzen. Once we checked into our hotel, we were formally introduced to the Chinese Partners over a Cantonese dinner - which was delicious, especially the herbal tea and the apple juice with vinegar in it. After dinner, we went for a stroll around the hotel and stumbled across locals exercising with Tai Chi.

A wonderful first day - now off to bed!