Pupils from Pleasant Street Primary School have been finding out more about Chinese culture with the help of University of Liverpool students and ‘Professor Long Long’.
Chinese students, ably assisted by mascot Professor Long Long (meaning ‘little dragon’ in Mandarin), have been teaching the year five and six pupils everything from language skills to using chopsticks, as part of a programme developed by the University’s Educational Opportunities team and the Confucius Institute.
The idea behind the programme is to bring Chinese students more into contact with schools and for young people to learn more about Chinese culture. As a result the five students who have taken part in the programme have been helping teachers show pupils how to design their own Chinese opera masks, take part in a Tai Chi exercise, paper cutting, a chopsticks game and learning common words such as colours.
The scheme began in May and culminated in July with a graduation ceremony on campus where each school pupil was presented with a certificate.
Kevin Hornblower, who is the University’s Project Director for the Programme, said: “An understanding of Chinese culture is going to be increasingly important as these children grow up, so the more they can learn now the better.
“But it’s not just about learning and having fun for the pupils. It also gives our Chinese students an insight into life in the UK which they might never see in the normal course of their studies.
“The students really enjoy teaching people about their home country and gain a lot from seeing how schools in the UK work.”
Find out more about the programme, including information on how to receive a teaching pack here.