Asian Language Learning in Schools (ALLiS)

The Remuera and Epsom ALLiS cluster had a number of very successful cluster meetings in the previous two terms. The cluster is composed of eight schools, which included Meadowbank School, Epsom Girls Grammar School, Remuera Primary, Newmarket Primary, Cornwall Park School, Remuera Intermediate School, Parnell District School and Victoria Avenue School. All of these schools offer Mandarin and two of them offer Japanese as well. Each term the language teachers or cluster representatives get together to discuss about language teaching, learn about new teaching methodologies and enjoy various cultural activities. 

In Term one, we made dumplings and used chopsticks to eat. It was the first time to make jiǎozi for some of us.  It was a great team building activity! 

In Term two, we were pleased to have Dr Julie Zhu (ALLiS Adviser, ILEP) to teach our group about Chinese calligraphy. We learned about the history of Chinese calligraphy and different types of scripts. It was fascinating to appreciate the beautiful handcrafted calligraphy tools. We had an attempt to write the characters on the special rice paper. ​

In relation to the calligraphy activity, Dr Jiwei Fu (Chinese National Adviser) has delivered two teaching pedagogy sessions about Chinese character learning. Teachers have gained a deeper understanding about the formation of Chinese characters, radicals and the development of characters throughout the past five thousand years. 

Our knowledgeable teachers in the cluster have shared their expertise in Chinese and Japanese Tea Culture. We sampled different kinds of tea and learned about the benefits of drinking tea.  ​

By Amy Ko (Meadowbank School)

School Assembly Held in Meadowbank School in Honor of the YCT Participants

In November last year, over 200 students from Meadowbank School sat the YCT Level 1 and 2 exams. YCT is an international Chinese language test which is administered by the Confucius Institute. Meadowbank is the first school in New Zealand to have over 200 students sitting the test.

Students from Meadowbank have been working very hard to prepare for the test and they have achieved some fantastic results. Last Friday at the school assembly students were congratulated by our Principal Mr Peter Ayson and Mandarin teacher Ms Amy Ko. 13 top achievers received awards from the Confucius Institute Director Ms Nora Yao and Exam Coordinator Ms Meiju Wang. World TV has reported about this event in the Mandarin news.

Lantern Competition

Our Mandarin Teacher, Amy Ko attended a very successful event at the Remuera Chinese New Year event in February and Benji Lowe (Room 27/Year 6) presented his Mandarin speech very well. Fantastic results from the Lantern Competition where we won $500 from sponsors Barfoot & Thompson as we had the most finalists! 

Congratulations to the following Lantern winners:- 
1st : Mary Meredith 
2nd : Alyssa Bai, Frederica Chai, Oscar Gong 
3rd : Lilly Peeters, Rex Chu 
4th : Ellen Loftus 
5th : Monique van der Linde, Zoe Fisher, Julie Qian 
Finalist : Oliver Blair 

http://www.remuera.org.nz/gallery

Huānyíng 欢迎 Welcome!

Welcome to the new Mandarin Room! We are now located at Room 32 on the Senior Campus, next to the Garden to Table Room. The artwork on display are produced by our children, these included Chinese calligraphy, paintings, fans and paper-cutting. The beautiful lantern are the winners from the recent lantern competition. 
We look forward to lots of exciting new learning this year! Xie xie. 

YCT at Meadowbank School

YCT at Meadowbank School

In November 2016, around 200 students from Years 5 and 6 at Meadowbank School sat the Youth Chinese Test (or YCT) from the Confucius Institute. In fact, Meadowbank is the first school in New Zealand to have over 200 students sit the test. Most students sat Level 1, and 17 students sat Level 2.

After completing their Mandarin speech contest in September, the students began preparing for the test. It was a good experience for them. They helped each other and had meaningful discussions about the use of language while working. The school Mandarin teacher, Amy Ko says: “It is good for children to graduate from primary school with a Mandarin test standard that is recognised worldwide. They can then take the results to their intermediate schools and carry on with the content of learning at their level. This is a great motivation for them to continue learning Mandarin in the future”. Meadowbank school sees this as a means of challenging the students and at the same time establishing benchmarks for the Mandarin language programme.

Meadowbank School became a Confucius Classroom in 2015. It has been running the Mandarin programme since 2011, and currently has 600 students learning Mandarin. Last year was the first year the school entered students into the YCT test. 31 students sat Level 1, with four students receiving 100% and 22 students achieving 85% or above. It was an excellent achievement, and the certificates were presented in a school assembly to recognise the students' effort and achievement.

Since completing the YCT test this year, students have been learning about martial arts and will have some practical experience with Kungfu masters from the Confucius Institute.

We wish the students all the best for this year’s test!  

Speech Competition for Year 5 & 6

The Year 5 & 6 children have been working very hard on the Mandarin speech this term. First, we wrote the script. The topics are about ourselves, such as our family, pets, our favourite food, colours, hobbies and sports, as well as the countries we want to visit. We then had our in-class competition and four children will be selected from each class to go to the final, which will be in week 8 on Monday 12th September at 9:15am. It was a very good experience for the students.

Mandarin class for teachers

'Ni hao!' 15 teachers are learning to speak Mandarin every Friday at lunchtime.
We experienced Chinese calligraphy today. We wrote Chinese numerals and the character 福 (fortune) using traditional brush and ink. Chinese calligraphy is the art of writing and it requires a relaxed mind and focus.