National Minorities High School

Zoe and students by the school statue.

Being amazed at the huuuge school supermarket on the first night.

  

Steps up to the big school canteen and student dorms - so many steps!!!!

View from the top of the steps over the teachers' flats and into the moutains.

Walking over to the Grade 1 Classrooms.

Grade 1 / 2 building, i.e. the best classes :)

View from the top of the Grade 1 building over the whole school.

Students during a break

Students running after afternoon lesson.

Morning exercises.

My English Corner pagoda  :D

The school is actually very green but I've neglected to take photos. It smells gorgeous when you walk around as there's jasmine flowers in the air. There's lots of outside seating so students can work/eat outside since the weather's usually constantly Spring like. I never feel like leaving the school compound!

School life in China is incredibly different to school life in England, but the longer I've been here the more I understand of it and it's definitely starting to feel not so foreign (Anthropologist in the making, right? "Making the strange familiar and the familiar strange").

The Facts

• We are in a High School/Senior Middle school which has around 2500 students in Grades 1-3. (aged 15-19).
• Each grade has 12 classes and each class has around 60 students.
• In Grade 1 students study History, Geography, Politics, PE, Music, Chinese, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths.
• Students then pick either Arts or Science subjects to carry on for Grades 2/3. Every student has to carry on the core of Chinese, English and Maths and these subjects carry the most weight for their final University Entrance exams (Gao Kao).
• Students and teachers live in school.
• There's THREE canteens (including one just for Halal food) and TWO supermarkets!
• …. And this is small by Chinese standards.

The School Day

Most students wake up from 6am as they have to be in their classrooms before 7am to finish any homework before their first lesson at 7:50am and can finally leave the classroom at 10:50pm. The school day is very long and students have a lot of homework (like all good students, it's the thing they complain about most!).

Students work very hard and the school day seemed insanely long at first! However, unlike British schools they have at least a 10 minute break between every lesson and each lesson is only 40minutes long. Also, students don't always have proper classes for the evening lessons which are from 6:30pm-10:50pm. It is usually individual study, but teachers will teach if they need to cover extra work that there isn't time for in the lessons (which happens frequently). Zoe and I are often invited to English evening classes to give culture talks, help with speaking practice or play language songs/games. We don't have to do them, but students sometimes invite us to their class and it's nice to have a totally fun lesson!

At first I couldn't believe they had to study till almost 11pm and get up again at 6am, but as students live in school I guess it's the time they do their homework. I know most of my friends and I would often be doing homework till 11pm in England.

At morning break, all the students go out and do morning exercises in unison to music (it's a bit like some sort of upbeat tai chi) and in the afternoon students run around in unison in their classes. Like any compulsory activity at school, most students will pull a face and groan if you ask them if they like morning exercise or running. It's pretty amazing to watch from afar, but if you get up close and catch the eye of a student you know, they'll usually burst out laughing and you can tell they're counting the seconds till they can stop!

Students have lunch from 12pm-2:30pm and after eating most students go to take a nap and some will go to their classroom to do homework. Of course, they also have the option of coming to English Corner and getting to chat with their crazy foreign English teachers!

THE SCHOOL

It-is-HUGE!!!

BUT! After visiting other High Schools…. Our school IS tiny by Chinese standards! We visited the number one school in the county and our school might fit in its front drive. They have a river running through it and an observatory!

Our school isn't so snazzy and we just have a couple of playgrounds, a running track and normal classrooms. The school environment is really beautiful and we have a statue, a pond, lots of outdoor seating and a lovely pagoda. Plus… we're surrounded by mountains since we're not based in a city (well, the school is built jutting out of a mountain!). Classrooms are in 4/5 storey buildings and the view from the top over the town and into the mountains is wonderful.

So… this is where I live : )