Wellington’s famous lantern dance impressed local Chinese

After making a huge success on our last Chinese New Year celebration, the wonderful rendition of the famous Wellington lantern dance once again impressed the Local Education Bureau. Wellington dancers from Year 4, Year 5 and Year 7 were among a small number of Shanghai children selected to perform on a ‘Chinese culture in international schools for non-Chinese children’ themed event at Jincai Middle School on Friday 11 November. Engagement in regional performances not only heightens pupils’ understanding and appreciation of the Chinese language by learning through the art of dance, it also raises pupils’ awareness of the rich multicultural diversity within our school, community, and the society. Wellington encourages pupils to actively participate in regional performances and competitions. We also spare no efforts in organising the annual spectacular New Year celebrations. These all represent one of the fundamental aims of Wellington College - to fully integrate the Chinese language into the College’s values and practices. The Chinese department provide multiple opportunities to bring both language and culture into the experience of every pupil, not only inside the classroom but also through a wide range of extra-curricular activities, which focus on Chinese history, arts, cuisine, music, song and drama. Besides delivering a wide-ranging programme of enrichment, our Chinese department has also achieved academic success. Our nearly flawless Mandarin IGCSE result is a great example of our robust and tailored curriculum for native speakers, first language learners and second language learners. This term the College started to offer a new Chinese Cultural Studies course for selected first-language students, which shows the school’s determination to give its pupils an in-depth education in Chinese language and culture. Helena Hicks Director of Chinese Studies