St Gabriel’s hosted two Chinese New Year celebration events recently for groups of Junior School pupils from Cheam and Ashford Hill Primary schools.

Mrs Clarkson visits both schools each week to deliver outreach lessons in Mandarin Chinese and these events have added a cultural dimension to the pupils' Chinese language learning experience. 

The action-packed day began with a scrumptious Chinese lunch provided by our chef and his team, followed by a variety of practical activities including: traditional paper cutting, Tai-Chi - delivered by our Chinese Language Assistant, Anqi (who is a qualified instructor in China) - and calligraphy, where pupils learnt to write their names in Chinese using traditional brushes and ink. 

As a memento of the day, all the boys and girls were given a red envelope (hong bao) containing an example of Chinese money, which reflects the Chinese New Year tradition of giving money to young family members.  Everyone had a fun and informative day and we look forward to welcoming more visitors for similar events in the future.

mrs wendy rumbol - director of education partnerships