Junior classes at St Mary’s School, Cambridge, hosted a special week celebrating Chinese culture to mark the Chinese New Year. Events included workshops on traditional dance, ancient art and calligraphy.
The celebration began with a visit from a Chinese dance specialist, Sinman Yue, who ran Chinese dance workshops with students of all ages. Sinman performed traditional fan and ribbon dancing to the girls and then taught them the dance of their choice. These sessions were ran alongside poetry, calligraphy lessons
St Mary’s was also thrilled to be housing a box of Chinese artefacts loaned by the British Museum, which took pride of place in the main school hall for the duration of the week. The box contained replicas of the British Museum collection including artwork, statues and household items. The artefacts showed the craftsmanship of the ancient Chinese as well as their art and culture. James Trapp, Curator at the Museum visited St Mary’s, at their new home on Chaucer Road, Cambridge, to run workshops on the items.
Deirdre O’Sullivan, Headmistress at the Junior School, commented: “Our week-long celebration of Chinese culture was inspired by the highly successful introduction of Mandarin as part of the Junior School curriculum. Languages have always been strength at St Mary’s and all our students, from the youngest in Reception to those in Year 6, are enjoying this new experience. Mandarin has proved so popular that we are now also offering introductory Mandarin lessons to our parents, as well.
“I hope our week dedicated to celebrating Chinese culture will provide our girls with a variety of hand-on activities, and show them more about this vibrant and historically fascinating country. We are also delighted that some of our Chinese boarders will be cooking traditional food and playing Chinese instruments during the week for the children.”