Chester Queen’s School girls celebrate Chinese New Year

Mar 11 2010 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

PANDAS and dragons helped usher in the Chinese New Year at the Queen’s School

A group of girls from the City Walls Road school performed a lively dragon dance with the school’s own colourful Chinese dragon, following an assembly where they learned about the traditions associated with Chinese New Year.

They later welcomed Dr Simon Dowell, a Fellow of Chester Zoo and lecturer in conservation ecology at Liverpool John Moores University, who described his work with giant pandas at the Chengdu breeding centre in Sichuan province as part of a biodiversity project funded by the zoo.

Head of biology Claire Dillamore said: “Pandas are such magical and iconic symbols of China. “We were privileged to hear Dr Dowell talk from personal experience.”

Awarded the title of Confucius Classroom by the Chinese authorities, Queen’s is one of only a handful of schools in the area which offer Mandarin as part of the curriculum. Native speaker teachers from the school also work with primary school pupils to offer Mandarin lessons to younger learners.