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Our Partner:
Suzhou Lida Middle School,
Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
For a number of years the county
of Essex has developed a close relationship with Jiangsu province
in China. In recent years our school has begun to work closely
with a school in one of the province's principal cities, Suzhou.
Suzhou
Suzhou is a city of around 6,000,000 inhabitants on the eastern
coast of China about 60 miles from Shanghai. This ancient
city is famed as a popular tourist destination with the highlights
being their beautiful gardens, stone bridges and pagodas.
It lies on the shores of Lake Taihu at the lower reaches
of the Yangtze river. It is one of the traditional centres
of the Chinese silk industry.
Our partnership
In the Spring of 2007, twelve students from Lida school In Suzhou
visited Burnt Mill and stayed the families of some of our students.
The party was led by the head Teacher, Madam Zhou, who signed
a “Memorandum of Understanding” with our Head Mr.
Chamberlain to recognise how our partnership will help bring
together young people from our different cultures. During
that March, the school held its inaugural China week celebrating
Chinese culture across the curriculum.
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Our visitors were able to join in with this celebration
and sampled British culture themselves by taking part in visits
to Cambridge and London. All subject areas made a contribution
to this event, from Chinese kite making in science and Calligraphy
in Art through to Chinese cuisine in technology. The school
welcomed Chinese acrobats and the Peking opera through our doors.
May of our students have remained in contact with our Chinese
guests via e-mail since this ground breaking event.
In
the summer of 2007 Mr. Chamberlain and Deputy Head Mr. Halls
paid a visit to Suzhou to visit Lida school and continue to
cement our partnership. This visit was the prelude to Burnt
Mill students making a visit to China themselves in the
summer of 2008, a trip led by Mr. Williams, Mr. Walker and Miss
Holleran. The two schools will use this visit to engage
in some shared learning activities to promote the idea
The partnership between Burnt Mill and Suzhou
Lida school has continued apace during 2007/08. During the course
of the year the two schools have worked on a ‘Joint Curriculum
project’ about being ‘a global citizen in the 21st
century’. Classes from both schools engaged in a range
of shared activities culminating in Burnt mill visiting China
in May/June 2008. Click on the link to our ‘China Special
2008’ edition of BM News to find out more!
In the coming academic year we are looking forward to receiving
our friends from Suzhou to Burnt Mill once again. The visit
is planned for March 2008, at the end of the Essex/Jiangsu festival.
China
Expedition 2008
Forthcoming
Activities 2008/2009
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