Mr Croston, our Director of our International Programme, recently visited China for the first time since the Pandemic. Here he tells us about his trip...
"At the end of last term, I was fortunate to be able to represent the Norwich School in China, taking the rare opportunity to meet friends of the School, agents and parents in three Chinese cities. Getting a visa and finding somewhere in Norwich which still offered PCR tests were the first challenges and as the school was preparing to battle it out on Mousehold Heath at the Cup Run, I was queuing up as one of the first Westerners to visit China since the opening of the borders without any quarantine. After much queuing I was finally let into China and was on the way to Nanjing, my first stop, a city of 18 million people.
Nanjing is the home of our partner school – the Nanjing Foreign Languages School - and they were delighted to welcome a real English speaker to class. After a quick tour of the school and a traditional school lunch, I was ready to deliver my guest lesson – but what I didn’t know was that I would be teaching the British School system to a class of almost 100 children, which meant a little bit of a change in technique to the usual more intimate Norwich School lessons. I also met the Head and the Head of English who is looking forward to working with Mrs Song to enable our pupils on both sides to learn more together about each other’s cultures and language. Nanjing is also the home of some of our international pupils and alumni and it was a pleasure to meet them and to find out more about their historic city. I also enjoyed sampling some of the local cuisine – the emphasis on duck very much reminding me of the South-West of France, so despite the distance, perhaps we have more in common after all than we think. Historically Nanjing is a former capital of Imperial China as well as the site of the burial place of Dr Sun Yat-sen who is widely known as the father of Modern China as well as the home of some of the finest cherry blossom displays outside of Japan.
From Nanjing, it was a short bullet train ride to Shanghai which is the business capital of China. Again it was a real chance to connect with ONs, agents and friends of Norwich School as well as taking the chance to explore a unique city and to better understand local people. People were genuinely curious to see someone from Europe and although my Chinese is more than limited, communication was achieved through English, sign language and beginners Chinese. Our homestay provider has its Chinese office in Shanghai and it was a pleasure to meet them and talk about how our international programme has developed and thrived despite the pandemic. Shanghai embodied how fast China has developed over the past 30 years with its futuristic cityscape along the Bund married with pupils doing tai chi at School.
The final stop on this whistlestop tour of China was Beijing, the country’s capital. Here the sense of security was overwhelming with guards in every metro station checking baggage and people buying tickets. From my base, it was only a short journey to Tiananmen Square, home of all the key institutions of the Chinese state including the Great Hall of the People and the Mao Mausoleum. I was fortunate enough to be shown round by one of our Norwich School Families who took the time to explain some of the history and culture of this 3500 year old country to me.
We are extremely fortunate to have Chinese students at School both from the mainland and Hong Kong and they have contributed a lot to all aspects of School life as well as to the Old Norvicensians. In the last couple of years, we have started teaching Mandarin in School but even if you only know how to say 你好, do make the effort to find out more about China, her system of governance and way of life."
