Mrs Steel gets a taste of China. How our link started. |
| Posted by School Website Administrator (siteadmin) on Mar 18 2009 at 12:02 PM |
It was the chance of a lifetime when Alderman Knight headteacher Clare Steel was chosen to go on a headteachers' trip to China.
Within a month of applying, she was jetting off to Beijing for an eight-day fact-finding mission to a special school in Weihai.
"It was totally fantastic from start to finish," said Clare. "The hospitality was staggering. There were banners, flowers and singing all the way. Every lunch time we seemed to have a banquet. We couldn't have wished for a better welcome."
Clare was one of eight head teachers from Gloucestershire in a group of 100 from all over the UK, on a trip organized by the British Council.
They spent two days on a whistle-stop tour of the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing, then flew to their partner school in Shandong province.
Mrs Steel's school is the only special school in China which is free.
Despite the geographical and cultural gap, however, Mrs Steel found little fundamental difference between the children in Tewkesbury and those in Weihai.
"The biggest similarity is that what the Chinese teachers and parents want for their children is exactly what we want for ours that they are warm, happy, and most of all, that when they leave school, they feel good about themselves and are able to make a contribution."
"For example, a lot of their children are blind but don't have learning disabilities. They teach them to become massage therapists."
"The main lesson I learned was that there are more similarities than differences between us."
There was an exchange of letters from the children in both schools and a concert to round off the visit.
Mrs Steel hopes the visit will be the start of a long and lasting friendship between Alderman Knight and Weihai.
For more information on Weihai, take a look at this link: -
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