Xin Nian Kuai Le

On Monday 30th January we welcomed Marcus Reoch, Director of Dragons in Europe to lead our school assembly on Chinese New Year. It was very interactive and teachers and children alike were soon speaking in Mandarin with phrases such as: Xie Xie (thank you) and Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year). Every child was given a lucky red envelope called a hong bao and told that normally these would be filled with money. We learnt that you give and receive these envelopes with two hands. Pre-Prep ended our assembly with a performance of the dragon dance and a song.

This was followed by workshops for years 4, 5, and 6 in which they were given chopsticks and shown how to use them, a small lantern and another lucky red envelope. Marcus told the children about many Chinese customs and superstitions and showed some pictures of famous landmarks in China. We were fascinated to learn that there are as many Year 5 pupils in China as the whole population of the UK – a fact he researched especially for us.

The morning was finished by tracing and colouring an important Chinese character ‘fu’ which means good luck.