Friday morning was spent at Guangzhou School for the Blind, running a taster workshop for 35 students (a few more than anticipated). Their English language skills varied but were generally very strong. We only had two hours so in that time, introduced the group to some English songs including the hokey cokey and developed 10 word dialogues around a series of encounters between people in a train station. We learnt a lot from the session and next time, would stretch the student’s creative language skills more by introducing more playmaking techniques. After lunch we split up to observe lessons at Guangzhou No 5 Middle School, Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Foreign Language School and Jiang Nan Middle School. It was fascinating to see the teachers successfully implement many of the games and activities used in the workshop the previous day. Feedback sessions held after the lessons confirmed the value of 100 Words in terms of supporting the development of a larger vocabulary and specific language skills such as speaking and listening skills. Our last night in Guangzhou was spent taking a night time cruise on the river and going to a seafood restaurant. Saturday morning was spent meeting British Council staff for a debrief before catching the afternoon train to Hong Kong and a night time flight back to snow bound Britain.

I’m writing this in the British Council car on the way to Guangzhou School for the Blind. Yesterday was spent at Guangzhou No 5 Middle School in the south of the city. We ran a three hour workshop in the morning for more than 30 teachers from different primary, middle and senior schools. The focus was very much on passing on practical skills and techniques that could subsequently be implemented by teachers in their English lessons. Some of the main challenges include very large classes and a lack of space, along with the pressures of delivering a demanding curriculum in just 40 minutes. In the afternoon, we had an excellent planning session with three teachers from Guangzhou No 5 Middle School, Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Foreign Language School and Jiang Nan Middle School. All three teachers will be using elements from the 100 Words workshop in today’s lessons, which we will be observing later. Before this, we’ll be delivering a taster workshop to students at Guangzhou School for the Blind. Graham Hardy, headteacher at its link school in Birmingham, Calthorpe, will also be there along with the Guangzhou based English team from the British Council. We’re hoping that we’ll have time for a quick chat with staff beforehand to establish the skill level of the students - traffic allowing (always an unknown in China).

We return to Guangzhou tomorrow for another brief but intensive vist. We’ll get there on Wednesday evening (via the train from Hong Kong - always a great way to arrive in China) and return overnight on Saturday evening. The three days we’re there will be spent delivering a 100 Words workshop to 30 teachers from 22 schools with UK links, delivering another workshop to 25 students at Guangzhou School for the Blind (linked with Calthorpe School in Birmingham - headteacher Graham Hardy will also be there) and observing three teachers in Guangzhou No 5 Middle School, Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Foreign Language School and Jiang Nan Middle School as they implement 100 Words technique in the classroom. We’ll also be spending time collecting feedback and talking with British Council colleagues about longer term planning. The visit is being supported by British Council Guangzhou and Guangzhou Education Bureau, and we’re really pleased to have the opportunity to further develop our partnerships with both organisations.

YeastCulture has posted films from the Young Advocates Programme Youth Forum on YouTube (see below). The first includes six 10 word films written by participants in the 100 Words workshop; the second is a film that was made during the Youth Forum and captures the journey made by Young Advocates over the course of the week:

10 word films from the Youth Forum

YAP Journey 2008

We had a fanastic time last week with students from the four winning schools in the CHINA NOW 100 Words Schools Competition. Although the schools have active links (Lambeth Academy with Harbin No 1 High School), Deyes High School with Shanhu Middle School), none of the young people had met each other. We started things off gently with games and a lot of exercises designed to break down barriers. Exploring cultural similarity and difference was a theme we kept returning to over the three days and informed material created and showcased on Wednesday evening. This included a soundscape, 10 word plays, a montage of short pieces inspired by food and two 100 word plays, all of which blended cultures and languages. The results were shown to an invited audience which included representatives from CHINA NOW, HSBC and the British Council, which had supported the project.

Tomorrow sees students and teachers from Deyes High School (Sefton), Shanhu Middle School (Chongqing), Harbin No 1 High School and Lambeth Academy (London) gather together at Siobhan Davies Studios in Southwark for a three day 100 Words workshop. The four schools were winners in the CHINA NOW 100 Words Schools Workshop, run in partnership with the British Council and sponsored by HSBC. The workshop will provide an opportunity for students to work together on developing and creating new material which will be performed in both English and Mandarin to an invited audience on Wednesday evening. We’re co-delivering the workshop with Theatre 503 who hosted a 100 Words workshop/performance involving artists from Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre earlier in the year. It’s the first time that we’re using Siobhan Davies Studios - converted from a Victorian school annexe by architect Sarah Wigglesworth, it’s a stunning building with two superb studio spaces. We’re expecting the week to be a lot of fun and also a real chance to explore the potential of 100 Words as a creative language learning project.

There hasn’t been time in the past week to post regular blogs. From our arrival in Beijing on 6 September to our departure last Friday, it was non-stop. We were based at the China National Paralympic Training Centre, a brand new complex near the airport with stunning sports facilities including outdoor and indoor running tracks, a velodrome and vast sports halls which were used for the workshops run by five groups of trainers from the UK. Aside from 100 Words, the other UK trainers included Northern Ballet Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University, yeastCulture and the Youth Sports Trust. The workshops were just part of a range of activities designed to nurture the leadership and communication skills of around 220 Young Advocates drawn primarily from mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK. The Young Advocates included both disabled and non-disabled people, all of whom were committed to developing the Paralympic Spirit.

The Youth Forum started with a session exploring the Young Advocates’ vision and mission for the week. It was followed by an evening visit to the Bird’s Nest to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Everything about the occasion impressed from the stunning architecture and outstanding performances to the enthusiasm of the hundreds of Chinese volunteers. The next two days were spent delivering workshops. We spent much of Sunday using theatre and music games to get to know our group of Young Advocates. By the end of the day we had moved onto writing and our participants had generated several 10 word plays which were subsequently filmed on Monday by Young Advocates involved in yeastCulture’s workshops. On Tuesday we had a day out - a visit to the Great Wall, lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Beijing, a performance by the China Disabled Performing Arts Troupe at the Poly Theatre and another visit to the Bird’s Nest in the evening to watch some athletics in torrential rain. Our final workshop day followed during which, we pulled together content for the ‘Grand Showcase’ performance on Thursday afternoon. This was a true sharing of work created over the week in each workshop and a celebration of the creativity of all the young people involved; a documentary which had been filmed and edited during the Youth Forum was also shown. Our final evening was spent at a VIP reception at the British Ambassador’s Residence, where there was an opportunity to advoacte to Lord Coe and representatives of London 2012 about the success of the YAP Youth Forum and the importance of continuing such initiatves over the next four years of our Cultural Olympiad.