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Published: April 21st 2009
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After our morning Chinese class we all went to visit a local secondary school. Our visit included a presentation by the vice principal and face to face communication with school pupils. It was interesting to receive information from both teacher and pupil! During the presentation the teacher spoke about the school facilities and mentioned an observatory on top of the main teaching building. We were each assigned a final year student and they took us for a tour around the school. They had the opportunity to practice their English and we had the opportunity to practice our Chinese.
The first place my student wanted to show me was the observatory and he seemed really excited about this. When we arrived there the door was locked and he explained that he had never been allowed in the room before, despite being in his final year of school. I think it was as much an opportunity for him to see it, as it was for me. He seemed really disappointed and it was really quite odd. It felt like a chapter out Harry Potter and some sort of forbidden/mystery room! The school did however have real facilities, which I got to see
e.g. the swimming pool, basketball courts, library, art rooms, music rooms, science labs and the school grounds.
The school has international students from America and Korea but they are kept separate from the Chinese students. They study on a separate floor and they even have their breaks at different times. I found that a bit odd and it’s a real shame that they don’t get to integrate with each other, such a missed valuable opportunity.
Some students live far away from the school so they stay on campus during the week and go home at the weekend. There is a school cafeteria but there is not enough room to sit inside and eat. The teachers are allowed to eat in there but the pupils have to eat in their classrooms.
There was a lot of artwork on display but both teachers and pupils. I thought it was a bit strange that they had the teacher’s artwork on display. They also had a big luminous picture of all the current staff. I got a strong sense that the teachers were seen as figures of authority. I certainly wouldn’t want to get caught talking in class! It was really
interesting to compare/ contrast my impressions of the school with the ones I visited in Norway (Fife Youth Forum visit to Porsgrunn, Norway - October 2007).
The pupils start school at 8am every morning. The lesson last approximately 40 minutes each and they have 8 lessons a day. Each class has approximately 45 students. They study a variety of subjects such as: Chinese, history, psychology, physics, maths and English. Students can also choose to study creative subjects such as: art, music and drama. Each student has one hour of sport each day, but this is reduced to three hours a week in the final year of school. The final year students have to sit an exam to get into University so studying for that is seen as more important. The vice principal said that almost all the students at his high school go onto University.
The pupils all wear a white a blue tracksuit for a uniform. I asked my Chinese student about this and he said he likes this because it makes every one the same. He also spoke about the library and said that every so often he is permitted to dust the books. In the
school this is viewed as a massive privilege. It means the pupils can spend time surrounded by so many books and become more knowledgeable (even if they are not reading them, just spending the time around them is supposed to inspire them!).
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