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