As part of an exchange between our school and Beijing Academy of Educational Science Pilot Middle School, students learnt about each others' cultures.
 Melissa and Rebecca, 14, learn Chinese calligraphy |
One aspect of the Chinese culture is the language. At Our Lady's students begin to learn Chinese calligraphy in Year 8. Wang Ping, who used to be a head teacher in China, now teaches calligraphy at Our Lady's and also Central Foundation Boys School in London.
Students also learn Mandarin in Year 8. In Year 10, the teachers decide which 15 to 17 students they will take to China. In order to be chosen, students have to do their GCSE in Mandarin in Year 9.
Rose, 14, from Year 10, said: "We learn in small classes so we get more one-to-one attention. After school there are free Mandarin sessions which I find really helpful."
Mandarin teacher Shan Li is proud of being Chinese and wants more people to know about Chinese culture.
She comes from An Shan, which is a city in north-east China, and loves to teach.
She said: "At the beginning you struggle to learn Chinese. The characters are the most difficult. But it's actually very easy to pronounce Chinese words."
 The visual connection between a mountain and its Chinese symbol |
She explained that Chinese characters come from pictographs, which means the symbols start life as pictures. An example of this is the symbol for mountain (see photograph). Sabrina, 12, said: "Sometimes we use pictograms to make up picture stories about characters. For example, the character for London looks a bit like Big Ben and that's how we remember it."
In China, the students learn all subjects we would learn in the UK including English.
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