Ofsted Good Provider

North Welcomes year of the Snake

Students and staff welcome the arrival of the new Chinese (Lunar) New Year in style!
To prepare for these celebrations, Mrs Smith and Mr Man jointly launched the "New Year, New You" House assembly where we discover about the origins of the Chinese New Year and introduced a variety of activities to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Snake.
Activities included constructing lanterns, where the students and staff used tutor time and a CARE lesson to construct lanterns in their House colours. The lanterns were colourful and were in the colours that reflect on the school's CARE values. These are yellow (Churchill - community / connect), blue (Attenborough - aspiration / adapt), red (Rowling - respect / respond), and green (Earhart - endeavour / engage). Many congratulations to Earhart for assembling the best lantern decorations!
At the same time, students and staff also were given a new challenge this year to construct the longest snake in their House colours. This proved to be very competitive as form groups collaborated together to join one snake after another to construct the longest snake. The snake measured at 540.5 metres, with Churchill coming out on top with the longest individual snake with 185 metres!
House Captains, Sports Captains and House Council Form Reps all joined together to then assemble the House lanterns and the longest snakes in the atrium. The decorations looked very impressive, and this set the tone for the Chinese New Year celebrations which took place on Thursday 30th January (Day after Chinese  New Year's Day). A special mention goes to Mrs Smith's form (10H1) where they constructed special lanterns in their House colours with each pupil putting labels on and writing their name in Chinese!
On the day of the celebrations itself, there were more special events that took place. The canteen team delivered a special Chinese New Year menu for the students and staff. Dishes include Chinese Chicken Curry, Chinese Vegetable Curry, Chicken in Black Bean Sauce with Noodles, Spring Roll with Egg Fried Rice & Sweet Chilli Sauce, Prawn Crackers, and Cookies. All the dishes proved to be very popular with students and staff, with long queues, with many of them giving very positive feedback of the food!
Meanwhile, Mrs Needle hosted two groups of students (Year 9 and Year 10) to learn a new Chinese Dance routine based on the story of Qin Shi Huang and the Terracotta Warriors. Both groups were given just one hour to learn and practise the three-minute dance routine. The enthusiasm from these students was exemplary and resulted in a very inspiring dance routine which will enrich their experience of Chinese culture.
Mr Man said, "This year marks a very special year for me as I was born in the Year of the Snake! Chinese (Lunar) New Year is the most important event in the Chinese calendar and is celebrated not just by the Chinese but to many Far East Asians from all around the world, including the UK. Many of the students enjoyed the New Year celebrations last year, so we wanted to make this year an even more memorable one. Speaking as someone of Chinese heritage, these celebrations have a very special place in my heart, and I am so pleased to see everyone on board to celebrate this wonderful occasion!"
Our thanks go to Mrs Smith for organising the House activities and assisting Mr Man with events related to Chinese New Year events; to Mrs Needle for organising the Chinese dance activity; to the students for their tremendous engagement in all of the activities; to the staff for their encouraging support for the celebrations; and to Mr Man for leading and inspiring students and staff with activities related to Chinese New Year!
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Wishing you all with good health, success and prosperity for the years ahead!

North welcomes the Year of the Snake!

Students and staff welcome the arrival of the new Chinese (Lunar) New Year in style!