Chinese New Year celebrations

Harrogate Grammar School held an entertaining and informative Chinese Celebration Evening, to honour the recent Chinese New Year, 2023 being Year of the Rabbit. The event explored the background and culture of Chinese New Year celebrations, the language and traditions.

The celebrations started with a traditional lion dance, followed by a welcome address from Neil Renton, Headteacher of Harrogate Grammar School. He thanked Mr Barnard, Teacher of Chinese, for his involvement in teaching and inspiring students in Chinese learning over the past five years; and the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds, for their support over the eight-year partnership of the school being a Confucius Classroom.

Yuanyuan Liang from the Business Confucius Institute spoke of the challenges and joys of learning a new language, offered some techniques for memorising Chinese characters, and inspired students that learning and speaking Mandarin Chinese can be achieved.

The evening was interspersed with a variety of spellbinding dances, Thai Chi and Kung Fu performances. Seated at decorated tables, students and parents experienced a traditional Chinese tangram; made paper rabbits and opened red envelopes filled with gold chocolate coin ‘money’.

Sixth Form students showcased their brilliant GCSE Mandarin Chinese speaking skills and then helped teach the audience a few words and provided an insight into the language ‘tones’.

Year 13 GCSE students showcasing their Chinese

Adrian Stipetic, Faculty Leader for Modern Foreign Languages, commented: “It’s brilliant to open our young people’s eyes to a world beyond where they live. These evenings inspire them to learn more about the wider world and how people in other countries and cultures live. It makes them realise the value of language learning as a means of bringing people together.”

The evening continued with an excellent solo violin performance from Year 9 student Amy Tang, followed by a Year 10 musical duet between her sister, Jessica Tang, playing the violin; and Ella Chen, on the keyboard. The successful evening concluded with delicious Chinese food being served, expertly cooked by Harrogate Grammar School’s catering staff.

Headteacher, Neil Renton said, “It was a wonderfully entertaining and enriching evening, that we are delighted we could share with both students and parents. Embracing and understanding different cultures and languages is something we promote at Harrogate Grammar School, encouraging students along their language learning journey”.