The Hub is designed to teach primary pupils from across the Stirling area about Chinese culture and language and follows the successful launch of the secondary pupils Confucius Hub at Stirling High in 2015.
Braehead Primary welcomed Wang Yongli, the Minister Counsellor for Education of the People’s Republic of China in the UK along with key Tianjin Education delegates to a special opening ceremony including Deputy Director of the Hedong District Bureau of Education, Shao Changsen and Party Secretary of Hedong Experimental School, Li Wenge.
Pupils took part in a number of activities representing both Scottish and Chinese culture. Activities included performances of the Highland Fling and a traditional Chinese dance by pupils from the upper school; Auld Lang Syne in both English and Mandarin and a tour of the school, highlighting pupils work on Chinese culture.
Braehead Primary has been leading the way with teaching Mandarin to Primary 4 pupils for the past two years.
The language will now be taught to all pupils in P4-P7 as their third language by Primary Teacher Susan Lawson. She said, “I am delighted to be a part of our new Confucius Hub. It means our P4-7 pupils will already have a great knowledge of Mandarin by the time they head to secondary where they can continue their lessons, so this will be fantastic for their studies.
“We have already been teaching Mandarin to a few classes within the school over the last couple of years and I have been astonished by the enthusiasm of our pupils. The progress they have made in such a short space of time is amazing as this is not an easy language to learn. The whole school is now learning about China and the children are loving finding out more about the culture.”
Pupils who have been learning Mandarin for 2 years have even used their skills to help the local community. During the ceremony, pupils presented a film clip of the Castle Project, which saw children from the Primary teaching some basic mandarin to Stirling Castle staff to help support their welcome of Chinese visitors to the attraction.
Provost Christine Simpson was also in attendance at the event, “It is wonderful to see a second Confucius Hub open in Stirling dedicated to the teaching of primary pupils and it’s clear a lot of hard work has gone into today’s ceremony - I really enjoyed seeing all the wonderful pupil performances. It is fantastic to see children taking such a keen interest in different cultures and languages and even helping the local community with their new found skills.
“I would like to give special thanks to Braehead Primary teacher Susan Lawson for bringing Mandarin to the pupils and to Headteacher Mairi Breen who has helped drive the project forward and will be retiring in the October holidays.”
The Hub is a partnership between Stirling Council and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS). Primaries from across the Council area will be able to access the hub’s resources and receive support from three Chinese native British Council assistants who are also supporting the initiative.