Wednesday 2 December 2015

Eastern Promise: CU China opens its doors for the first time


Hi everyone,

A very special branch of Children’s University opened its doors for the first time in November 2015. What makes this one special I hear you ask? Well, this Children’s University is in China!

Run by Mark Upton (who we owe thanks for providing the images and information featured in this post), CU China has opened first of all in Ningbo, a large city a three-hour drive south of Shanghai. Their first Passport To Learning holders come from a bilingual school called HD Ningbo School. These children will soon be reaching out to students in other less privileged schools, allowing the children to enjoy joint visits to Learning Destinations and shared learning opportunities.


CU China have also, this month, begun pre-launch activities in Shanghai ahead of an exciting 2016! Shanghai is a city with a population of 23 million, so there’s plenty to do!

There are already a number of schools in both Ningbo and Shanghai interested in setting up joint-learning video links with children in UK schools currently involved in Children's University. It is hoped that this will build upon a pilot video created by children in China and Coventry last year.

“So,” says Mark, “if you know of a school keen to link up then please do get in touch and we can get going! These exciting joint international CU video learning links are quite easy to arrange - early morning at school in [the] UK is late afternoon here in China - perfect!”

There is a real respect and love of learning built into China's culture. As such, it's really exciting that we’re now getting to see how Children's University can play its part in using this to offer learning opportunities outside of the classroom. I’m sure you’ll agree, there are exciting times ahead – who knows what 2016 may hold!

CU soon!

Ian

No comments:

Post a Comment