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Partner Schools

Experimental Primary School in Xi'an, China

Mrs Fryman and Miss Hazeldine visit on 18th September 2015

Miss Hazeldine and I are looking forward to our visit to Xi'an. We will be travelling on Friday 18th September, it will take us about 12 hours to fly there and we will be welcomed by headteachers and teachers from Chinese schools. We will be staying in Xi'an for a week and while we are there we will be working in the Chinese schools every day. The school day in China is even longer than ours so we will be up early!

Our partner school is much larger than St Matthew's, it has 1,300 children and 90 teachers! I have been told that every Monday morning the school children gather together outside and raise the Chinese flag. That's a REALLY BIG assembly!

Miss Hazeldine and I will be writing our blog to keep you up to date with what's happening in Xi'an during our visit ... so please keep checking for our news.

Friday 18th September - 06:00 am.

Finally the day we travel to China has arrived!
Miss Hazeldine and I are up early, packed and ready, and setting off for the airport soon. We are very excited and are looking forward to being welcomed by our Chinese visitors.

I'll post some photos as soon as I can ...

Mrs Fryman

Off we go!

Here we are at the airport - we met with the other teachers and headteachers and checked in for our flight. We were very excited!

After a VERY, VERY long time we arrived in China. We were very tired and when we were met by 'Alex' and taken to our hotel we were feeling very sleepy!

After a VERY, VERY long time we arrived in China. We were very tired and when we were met by 'Alex' and taken to our hotel we were feeling very sleepy! 3

After a VERY, VERY long time we arrived in China. We were very tired and when we were met by 'Alex' and taken to our hotel we were feeling very sleepy! 4

A full day lay ahead of us ... we were greeted by Chinese teachers and headteachers at our hotel and we talked about what we would be doing when we visited their schools. As Miss Hazeldine and I don't speak much Chinese (yet!) we had interpreters who helped us to communicate.

We meet Mrs Li and Echo.

We had lunch and then we were taken to visit the Wild Goose Pagoda. On the way there we saw local Chinese artists painting in the shopping arcade.

Shops in China are different to the shops you might see in England

This evening we had our first 'dumpling feast' and we were taken to watch a show. By then we were all very tired as we had been awake since Friday morning. The show was very bright and colourful and the Chinese dancers were very graceful.

Watching a show

The Wild Goose Pagoda

Sunday 20th September

Today we visited the Terracotta Warriors! We were so amazed by the Terracotta army and the number of soldiers that have been discovered in Xi'an. There are still thousands of warriors under the ground that haven't been discovered yet. We brought some models so you could see them at school ... they were very heavy to carry!

Visiting the Terracotta Warriors

Monday 21st September

Today we visited Experimental Primary School for the first time. As we drove into the school car park there were 1,300 children, all in their uniforms, lined up in rows and waiting to greet us.

Every Monday morning thee children have an assembly called 'Raising the Flag'. Miss Hazeldine and I spoke to the children and teachers.

During the morning we were taken on a tour of the school and watched the children having their lessons. We joined in with a 'Drop Handkerchief' game and a hopscotch game.

We joined the children for lunch and then it was 'rest time'. We were shown to our dormitory and rested for an hour. The children rested in rooms with two bunk beds in.

Then it was time for more lessons.

We arrived at Experimental Primary School

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 3

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 4

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 5

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 6

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 7

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 8

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 9

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 10

We arrived at Experimental Primary School 11

The students at Experimental Primary School

The students at Experimental Primary School 3

The students at Experimental Primary School 4

The students at Experimental Primary School 5

The students at Experimental Primary School 6

Learning how to play games

We were taken to the 'Small Wild Goose Pagoda' and walked up the 17 floors to the top! Miss Hazeldine was very brave and climbed onto the balcony!.

We also visited the museum and learnt about Xi'an and its history.

After another delicious dumpling feast we came back to our hotel and met with the teachers from Warrington and heard all about their experiences.

The Small Goose Pagoda

Tuesday 22nd September

We are up early again as school begins at 08:00 am. It's a long day for the Chinese children as they stay at school until 16:50pm, with an hour and a half to eat their lunch and rest in their dormitories. The children don't have playtime like you do at school.

This morning we are going to watch a science lesson and an art lesson. In all the lessons the teachers and children speak English. Even children as young as 6!

Science and art lessons

Wednesday 23rd September.

We went off to school early. It took about an hour to get to school and as we arrived we saw all the children walking onto the field to practise cheerleading. It was an amazing sight! Each child had a red and a yellow pom pom.

We couldn't watch for too long though as we had to get ready to give a lecture to the Chinese teachers. There were about 40 teachers who all wanted to know about St Matthew's. They loved seeing the photographs of you and said 'Hello'!

Mrs Fryman and Miss Hazeldine talk to the Chinese teachers about St Matthew's

We were invited to have lunch with one of the students. (The children are called students here in China). His English name is Jerry. His mum had cooked us a lovely meal and Jerry showed us his bedroom and his toys. His favourite toy is Lego. His bedroom was really tidy!

Lunch at a sudents house (Jerry)

In the afternoon we went to visit another Chinese school and saw some amazing Salsa dancing, we made clay pots and watched the children doing activities. Soon it was time for school to finish so we decided to go to do a bit of shopping in the markets.

It was very busy!

Shopping in China

Visiting Rich and Force Primary School

Visiting Rich and Force Primary School 3

Visiting Rich and Force Primary School 4

Visiting Rich and Force Primary School 5

Miss Hazeldine spoke to some of the children about how they save energy in their school. They explained that they have light monitors and they recycle paper and plastic like we try to do.

This morning Inspectors made a visit to school. The teachers have been preparing for this inspection for two months and they are very anxious and want to do well. It is an excellent school so I am sure they will!

Miss Hazeldine and I watched a maths lesson. The children were in 3rd grade - which is the same as Class 3 in our school. Their class is called class 303. The children had to solve maths problems and work out the answers to some very hard questions. We will bring the questions back and set you the same challenge!

Class 303 - Solving hard maths problems!

Class 303 - Solving hard maths problems! 3

Class 303 say "Hello!"

After a rest time Miss Hazeldine and I showed Class 303 the books class 4 had made. We read them together and then they made some little books to bring back to class 4 in England. The children really enjoyed making the books and they were very excited to think of them being read by you in England.

We had our school lunch in the canteen ( we are now experts at using chopsticks!) and then it was time to have a rest in the dormitory for an hour or so. It seems very strange to us in England to have a sleep at school in the middle of the day ... But when you get used to it, it's quite good! The problem is that the students have to be at school, working, until 16:50!

In the afternoon we were given a treat when we watched a performance in the hall. The hall is much bigger than ours and has lots of really big, comfortable seats I know you'd really like!
Some parents came too..... It was amazing!

The students performed for us on their stage

The students performed for us on their stage 3

The students performed for us on their stage 4

The students performed for us on their stage 5

Performing on Stage

Street Dancing Display

Cheerleading Display

This evening we were invited to a student's home. Her English name was Pat and her parents had very kindly arranged for us to make our own dumplings which they cooked for us. We weren't very good at making the dumplings at first ... but after we had made about 360 of them we got much better! We ate so many that we could hardly walk!

Making Dumplings at Pat's home

Pat shows us how to make dumplings

Making Dumplings

After we had eaten Pat's aunty showed us how to paint. She painted Chinese letters and flowers with ink onto rice paper for us. She used special brushes and ink and when she had finished the painting she used a seal so everyone would know it was her work.

Pat's aunty showed us how to paint

On Friday morning we went to the West Tang Museum. While we were waiting to go in we had a Starbucks Coffee - which was DELICIOUS and very tasty! It was our first taste of Western food and we really enjoyed it!

The museum was very interesting and we learnt about the Tang Dynasty.

The West Tang Museum (and Starbucks!)

In the afternoon we met with the teachers and headteachers from the Chinese schools and signed partnership agreements. We made speeches and all agreed to work together to make our partnership schools successful in the future.

Signing Our Partnership Agreement

Miss Hazeldine and I have learnt a lot from our visit to China and we are looking forward to seeing you all and telling you all about it!

See you soon!

Experimental Primary School...

The culture of our school is called "The Sunshine Education", so different floors have different colours. The first floor is green, the second floor is red, the third floor is blue and the fourth floor is orange. The floors represent the seed, sow, irrigation and harvest.

Photographs of Experimental Primary School, Xi'an, China

Photographs of Experimental Primary School, Xi'an, China 3

Photographs of Experimental Primary School, Xi'an, China 4

Photographs of Experimental Primary School, Xi'an, China 5

Photographs of Experimental Primary School, Xi'an, China 6