On Monday 27^th November year 5 and 6 pupils from Grosvenor Park Primary School in Morecambe visited Lancaster University Confucius Institute. The following week, year 3 and 4 pupils came to visit campus.

At Grosvenor Park Primary School Chinese language and culture is taught as part of the curriculum to key stage 2 pupils (years 3-6). The Lancaster University Confucius Institute team was very impressed by how many Chinese words the children knew and their knowledge about China and Chinese culture.

As the pupils arrived at The Roundhouse, they eagerly greeted the staff with “你好” which means “hello” in Chinese.

Staff guided the children on a tour of the Confucius Institute and then of campus. The children enjoyed seeing the different areas of campus and learning about life as a student at Lancaster University describing the campus as ‘like its own little village’.

Once the children reached the centre of campus, they were very excited to visit the library. The library staff showed the children how to borrow a book from the library, which is also available for members of the public, and the children were very surprised to learn how many books were in the library. The children were also introduced to the well-known tree, Norma, in the centre of the library.

After the tour, the pupils gathered together in one of the lecture theatres for a Chinese language and culture lesson delivered by Chency Xiao Chen. This was the first time the pupils had been in a lecture theatre which helped to give them the university experience. During the session, the pupils took part in a quiz about Chinese culture and played bingo to practice numbers in Chinese.

The year 5 and 6 pupils each made a 东南西北 Chinese origami crafts to practice Chinese directions and greetings in pairs.

The year 3 and 4 pupils watched a video about pandas and then each received a piece of card with a panda on it for them to make a panda bookmark at home.

The children and teachers were very grateful for the visits and said ‘谢谢’ (‘thank you’ in Chinese) to the team as they walked back to the coaches.

The Lancaster University Confucius Institute team would like to thank the teachers for delivering a great experience for the children. Thank you also to the student volunteers who are studying Chinese for assisting the teachers to help the visits run smoothly.