Beauchamp College

Our Mandarin students had a love surprise when Totoro (Ms. Zhao), who previously worked at Beauchamp in the Mandarin department, took a 5 hour train from Shanghai to join the students, to help out over the following few days. The students were so happy to see her and have her support.

The day's activities centred around painting: opera masks and wisteria fans and in the evening the students enjoyed a visit to Yintai Creative City, an 8-storey department store.

Thank you to all students, staff, parents and carers, and the local community for the support that has made this such an amazing year. Have a wonderful summer!

Day 6 was the first day completely off campus in Wuhan as part of an organised tour.

The first stop was the Hubei Provincial Museum, known for its ancient architectural treasures, particularly the 2400-year old bronze chime bells and the preserved Sword of Goujian, plus ancient refrigeration containers. Students experienced a captivating performance using replica chime bells, traditional bamboo flutes, zithers and percussion instruments that brought the music of ancient China to life.

In the afternoon, the students visited Tan Hua Lin, a street lined with cat cafes (enjoyed particularly by Uzair and Jerry) artisan craft shops and bookstores. Lots of opportunity for souvenir purchases! (or just chilling with cats).

Afterwards, They headed to the Yellow Crane Tower - a five story pagoda - with the morning rain having stopped and the sun emerging for the first time. All climbed the stairs to the top in the searing heat, stopping briefly for intermittent fan breaks, and were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding cityscape.

The nighttime Yangtze River cruise was, for many students, the definite highlight of the trip so far - with the nighttime skyline coming alive with spectacular illuminations amidst wonderful music. Mr. Tang particularly enjoyed singing along to the Chinese songs.

It's been nearly a week in Wuham for our Mandarin students but the activities have not stopped. After a jam-packed itinerary the previous day, the students were shattered, but some morning in-class role play helped energise. They practised a story that Max, Rio, and Maleeha will play starring roles at the closing ceremony.

Due to their resilience and hard work, the students were gifted a bubble milk tea during the morning session by Mrs. de Souza. Some opted for the addition of ice cream while others stayed original.

Students in the afternoon were each gifted an ocarina. The initial sounds produced by some combined 50 English and Chinese students were challenging, forcing the teachers to take refuge in the corridors to save their ears. The students had fun, though, and that’s what matters, right?

Afterwards, a few of the students tried on traditional Chinese clothing (Hanfu). The rest of the late afternoon was spent practicing individual roles for the closing ceremony on Saturday. A evening trip to the campus supermarket was their reward.

On Monday our students in China were taught about History and Culture by the wonderful Qu laoshi, who made the learning particularly fun and interactive.

In the afternoon, Beauchamp visited the most prestigious high school in Hubei province and after a tour of the campus, students were split into four groups, which each diverted and learned about 4 different areas.

Group 1 was tasked with using AI to make a badge alongside their Chinese peers. Uzair designed one for Beauchamp College and was the first one to introduce his design to the whole class. Group 2 were taught how to use 3D printing pens; Group 3 were acrylic painters for the afternoon; while Group 4 learned about the process of tie-dyeing.

The evening consisted of a birthday party for all the July babies of the English schools, of which Ivana was one! Shengri kuaile!

It's fantastic to see the interaction between students from both countries.

Despite it being Sunday, our students have been working hard to improve their Mandarin. Sunday's topic was Sports & Hobbies, which led nicely into the afternoon activity, Chinese martial arts (wushu). Everyone was watching and trying to replicate a 76 year old master at work, describing and illustrating with passionate zeal, the art of Gong Fu. We also saw his protégé at work, a young boy (probably not old enough to be one of our Year 7s), who was nothing short of brilliant.

Afterwards, the main event began: a sports competition involving the 4 British schools. In all honesty, this is what the day (and really the trip) had been leading up to: potential silverware and potential glory.

The 11 Beauchamp students were paired up with 7 pupils from Dartford Grammar School, as well as Chinese students from Wuhan. Ms. de Souza’s enthusiastic pep talks inspired the group into action. The events comprised of: a tug of war, a group hula hoop speed race, a dragon boat (land) race and a relay race.

Notable was a valiant team effort at the tug of war, and many strong individual performances, including Jerry spearheading the dragon boat race and Ivana’s relay sprinting. Despite this, a 3rd place finish overall out of 4 teams. Nice work, team - whatever anyone says, that's a bronze medal position.

Another update from Wuhan, this time it's a morning learning session on food and shopping. The students managed really quite admirably with a lot of new vocabulary and grammar, which sets them in good stead for Y10.

In the afternoon, they were introduced by an expert to tea-making traditions from the ancient Chinese dynasties to the present day. The students then tried their hand at making tea from powder, using a bamboo whisk (cha xian) and gradually adding water, finishing with decorations at the end. Some garnished with well-crafted Chinese characters; others with ornate pictures.

Later on, our students traversed the Wuhan Metro with one destination in mind: the Wusheng Dream Plaza. An unbelievable sensory experience.

We had a weekend update from a damp and drizzly Wuhan! The rain has not dampened the spirits of our Mandarin students, though. Having mostly recovered from the jet lag, the students enjoyed their first full day of activities on campus at the Central China Normal University.

First up was the opening ceremony, where Maleeha spoke wonderfully on behalf of Beauchamp College in front of a large audience and supportive audience.

Then, some language learning! The lessons centred around food and drink, and the students engaged in role play as vendor and customer to practice key words and phrases.

The afternoon first consisted of the icebreakers, where Beauchamp students were teamed up, in groups of ten or so, with Chinese students and pupils from other UK schools. They were asked to create a team name and slogan, which were presented on stage. We were extremely impressed by their creativity. One team created Jufi; the other 7-Eleven: United by One Shop. The latter came third in the standings; the students winning a bookmark each. Look out for these on the photos!

After, the students became masters in the art of dumpling wrapping (bao jiaozi) - both pork and vegetable - which they later sampled for dinner. Yum yum (hao chi!)

In the evening, everyone enjoyed learning a Chinese song entitled Singing and Smiling (Ge Sheng Yu Wei Xiao), of which Beauchamp performed a sterling rendition.

We have something exciting to tell you.

This year's total raised for charity is an incredible £17325, beating last year's total by £3000.

Thank you to all students, staff, and parents/carers who have supported every one of our charity events but special thanks to Ms Higgitt, Mr Craven, the house heads, and admin and support staff for the energy and enthusiasm that made our charity events a success.

This is money raised for charities that will change people's lives.

MacMillan - £970
Islamic Relief - £1728
Place2Be - £886
Children in Need - £1819
Save the Children - £1048
Place2Be - £862
Comic Relief - £650
Cancer Research £649.20
Stroke Association £761.87
LCH - £2140
UNICEF - £5811.65

Look forward to even more next year.

Our Mandarin students have all arrived safely into Wuhan, China!

They are currently on the coach to Central China Normal University, where they will be shown around the campus and meet their Chinese counterparts.