December 2011


Year 3 were very excited at the thought of exchanging mascots with Wen Ya School, so at the next Form Time opportunity we got together again to think of some ideas.  What could we send the pupils at Wen Ya?  What would be a typically English mascot?  After some discussion, we decided we would like to send them a teddy or a toy.


That night, Miss Wilson went shopping and bought a Paddington Bear, advent calendar, story book and some Manchester post cards.


During the busy last week of term we managed to wrap the presents and write the postcards in our neatest handwriting.  We sent postcards of Manchester United, the cathedral, the city centre and one of a Union Jack flag. 


In that week's Mandarin lesson, Mr Hilton gave the classes Chinese Christmas messages.  The girls stuck these on to card and made beautiful Christmas cards in small groups.  They wrote friendly messages inside 


Miss Wilson went to the post office with the box and send the parcel to Taiwan. 

9th November 2011


Email from Wen Ya School.

Dear Year 3,

Thanks you very much for the information and photographs you sent.  Please tell Alvena and Mia we appreciated their hard work.

In Wen Ya, we have a school mascot, Wen Ya Frog.  He likes visiting our partner schools and writes us a letter back once in a while.  Do you want one from us?  If you can send us yours, we will ask him to write back to you as well. 

In our experience, all children in the world love making friends with toy animals.

Please talk to Mr Hilton if you are not quite sure what I am talking about. 

Look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Best wishes

Ruth

October 2011


Taiwan celebrates its 100th birthday!


Email from Wen Ya.

Hello Year 3!

October is always the most popular month in Taiwan.
We are also very excited about our 100 year old birthday.

Principal Huang told us the story of our country and you can see all of us were listening to him seriously. It has been really hard for Taiwan to survive for a century.

Taiwan flags on the road.

This is a flag outside the train station.

Do you need more informaiton about Wen Ya to share with your pupils?

It is always our greatest honor to support you as much as we can.

Best wishes

Ruth from Wen Ya Elementary School, Chia Yi City, Taiwan

7th November 2011


During Form Time, Year 3 composed an email to send back to Wen Ya School.

Dear Class 2,

Thank you so much for your email.  We really enjoyed looking at photographs of your school.

Does Mr Chen speak using a microphone because we could see one on his desk? 

We like the way the wreaths welcome people to your new school.

The coach trip looked really fun.  Did you have fun on your trip?

Do you have packed lunches or school dinners?  We have school dinners but we are allowed packed lunches when we go on school trips.

In Year 3 we have special guardian angels.  These are special friends who look after us.

We start school at 8.45am and finish at 3.15pm.  We have a play time at 10.55 and at lunch time. 

Today Alvena and Mia took photographs of the school to show you.  We hope you like looking at our school. 

Love from

Year 3

10th October 2011


Email from Ruth Hou.

Dear Year 3,

Our new school building is ready now.  I asked my students to take some pictures from the school campus.  Obviously, they have different ideas from mine.  I would like to show you their pictures this time.  We will talk more in detail next time.  Please take a look and give comments if you don't mind. Thanks.

World Map on the Floor is easily seen as soon as you enter our school. 

When you stand in front of the gate, you will see the Big Dipper on the wall. 

Between the two main buildings, you can see Rainbow Plaza, where students play balls. 

You can also see international flags hanging on the pathway. 

There is also a bulletin board where international news items are posted and changed every week. 

If we go to the playground, you will see the flag tower where we have the weekly gathering every Monday morning. 

Opposite to the flag tower, you can see the name of Wen Ya Elementary School. Every teacher, student and PTA member had their hand print on a small piece of brick. By putting the bricks of the same color together, the name of my school is seen easily.

Best wishes

Ruth from Wen Ya Elementary School, Chia Yi City, Taiwan

18th October 2011


Mrs Westall and Miss Wilson told Year 3 pupils the exciting news that we would be making friends with children in Taiwan.  In Form Time, Miss Wilson showed the girls photographs of Wen Ya School.  We also talked about the location of Taiwan and learnt a few facts about the country.


As a year group, we composed this email in response.

Dear Ruth and all the pupils at Wen Ya Elementary School,

Hello from Manchester High School for Girls.  We were very excited to receive your email with the photographs of your school. 

We are Year 3.  We are all 7 or 8 years old.  There are two classes.  One is called 3VW and is taught by Miss Wilson and one is called 3CW and is taught by Mrs Westall.  There are 30 girls in our year group.

Thank you for showing us what your school looks like.  We were able to imagine we were there.  We think your school looks lovely and colourful.  The hand prints on the wall are very unique.  

We love the play area and wish we had one like that here! The World bulletin is a great idea.  We would like to do something similar at our school.  The paintings on the wall are wonderful and creative.

We will take some photographs of our school to send back to you but today it is very cloudy and wet so we will wait for the sunshine!

We have a couple of questions we would like to ask.  How many children do you have in each class and do you have boys in your school?  We only have girls.  Also, we would like to know what the weather is like in Taiwan because you do a lot of activities outside.

We can’t wait to hear from you and we’re very excited to become friends.

From Year 3 – Manchester High School for Girls

15th September 2011


Letter from Ruth Hou at Wen Ya Elementary School.


Dear Miss Wilson,

This is Ruth Hou, writing from Taiwan to say hello to you.

Mr Hilton told me that your class are interested in making friends with us.  We are so excited to hear the great news from him.  We have a class of 30 Grade 4 students and their homeroom teacher is Jimmy Chen. I teach them English at Wen Ya so I will be responsible for all the communication between you and us.

We would like to make brief self-introduction sheets and send them to you through email as soon as possible. 

Please feel free to contact me whenever you have any questions.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog documenting our growing friendship with pupils at Wen Ya Elementary School in Taiwan.


Our link began in the summer of 2011.  Mr Hilton, the Mandarin teacher, traveled to Taiwan on a quest for Chinese teaching resources.  Before his trip, he researched schools and made an initial link with staff at Wen Wa School who were excited to meet him.  During his stay in Taiwan, the school welcomed Mr Hilton and the staff were thrilled to become our friends.


When the new term began in September, Mr Hilton shared his enthusiasm with Miss Wilson and it was decided that this would be an exciting venture for pupils in Year 3.


Mandarin lessons begin in Year 3 and we felt this would be a perfect way of allowing our pupils to learn about the culture of China and Taiwan.  It is also helping us with our I.C.T work as we can use technology such as email, photographs and videos to communicate with each other.


So that everyone in the school community can keep up to date with our links, we decided to create this blog.  We hope you enjoy sharing the friendship with us.


Watch this space for updates!