I enjoyed a wonderful welcome as I arrived at Shanghai Jinzhou Primary School for the second week of my trip. This is a private school on the outskirts of Shanghai and upon our arrival we were able to witness their weekly raising of the flag assembly with over 1000 packed into their hall- and that was only two year groups attending! We were invited onto stage to then introduce ourselves to the children before attending a more formal welcome ceremony where we were presented with some lovely flowers by the Principal of the school.

Throughout the week we were fortunate to witness some wonderful maths lessons- one involving a potato and cubes/cuboids literally blew my mind! We’ve also been able to observe and be part of P.E, music and (more) calligraphy lessons.

The week (and trip) culminated in myself and Ms Atkins being asked to plan and teach a maths lesson to a group of Grade 3 children from the International Class- these were children whom had been receiving extra English lessons so their language skills were really impressive- although not as impressive as their maths skills!! This was the first time that teachers from England had ever taught a maths lesson to children in this school and so the children (and staff) were all really excited- I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous as we began the lesson with the whole of the maths department watching…and videoing/taking pictures of the lesson then throughout! The children were a delight to teach however and this was a fantastic end to a fantastic trip.

The two weeks have flown by and I’ve loved experiencing a different country and culture- I’ve also been fortunate enough to learn lots regarding maths that I look forward to sharing with you all in the coming weeks.

I now need to finish packing and prepare for the 12 hour flight back to London ahead of seeing you all again in school next week.

Mr Cannon