Pupils learns from Chinese system

Holly Rea, a sixth form teacher at Stubbin Wood School in Shirebrook, visited China for a month, learning about the different ways they educated special needs youngsters.

And following the success of her trip, Stubbin Wood will be hosting a visitor so they can see how the education system works in England.

Holly said: “It was incredible to see how educational systems work in different countries and what could be put in to action back here.

“Zhongshan is very cultural and not very tourist-orientated like in Hong Kong. It was incredible to be involved in their lives for the time I was there. It is like another world.

“And culture is a big part of the curriculum. While I was there I learnt how to do traditional Chinese paper cutting, basic calligraphy and how to make proper Chinese tea and dumplings.

“In return, I showed them how to make pizzas and they loved it - many of them had never had pizza before and were blown away.”

Holly visited six schools in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, and stayed with members of staff and their families.

In one of them the secondary students all had a wage slip and collected points throughout the week. At the end of the month, the students had their currency to spend in a tuck shop on the school site.

Holly said: “The wage slips were a great thing to see in action.

“If the pupils lost them they were not given a new one so they had to look after it 
to be able to spend their money at the end of the month.”