The visit to Beijing , in terms of achieving our expected outcomes was very successful. The visit was an amazing learning experience that will feed into our future teaching in countless ways.

We spent a week at our partner school observing lessons, engaging in professional discussions with the Chinese teachers about teaching and learning. We were also able to speak with the students about their own learning experiences at their school. The Headteacher and staff were extremely hospitable and were keen to show the best of their school. Everyone greeted us with an enthusiastic reception. We spent much of our time with members of the English Department, which meant that being unfamiliar with the language, was less of a barrier to communication. The school also brought in a specialist translator to ensure that discussions and paperwork was translated accurately. This is an example of the attention to detail and care provided by the school to ensure a successful visit.

Our first morning began by observing the daily flag raising ceremony followed by an exercise routine performed perfectly by the whole school and ending with the children marching back to their classrooms with no input from teaching staff. There were four children on a stage leading the display that had been choreographed by the children. Children demonstrated the self-discipline and good behaviour that we would see throughout our visit.

All the classrooms we saw had projectors, visualisers and new computers. All staff demonstrated excellent IT skills in their teaching and had prepared quality resources to use during their lessons i.e. made own video clips, interactive powerpoints and flash presentations. As the same lessons were taught to many classes these resources were used many times. The visualisers were very popular and used throughout the lessons we observed. A good example of this was seen during a folk art class; the students were learning about Chinese Crafts through an old folk tale, the teacher was able to show finished pieces of art to the whole class. The visualiser aided discussion between the students about their work.

The computer suite was well equipped with forty new computers, a projector and a visualiser. They had less software programmes, compared to English schools choosing to use mainly Microsoft Office , Paint and Adobe Flash . The focus was more on the learning of key computer skills leading to producing presentations. Our IT Curriculum is broader in coverage but many of our children lack the key typing and presentational skills demonstrated by their peers in China .

We observed fantastic Art and Music lessons with children showing excellent skills and confidence to perform in front of the class. The specialist teachers had great subject knowledge and skills and were surprised that we were expected to teach these subjects to our children without their training, knowledge and skills

Classrooms had their tables set out in rows and all children completed the same tasks, as “Every child is equal.” During our professional discussions and feedback from lessons, we were asked to teach an additional English lesson to their students. We observed the Chinese teachers teach and then they wanted us to teach the same lesson the way that we would approach it. The Chinese teachers were interested in our differentiated group work but were concerned that children should not be aware that they are in a lower group . We discovered that the Chinese teachers do not differentiate the students learning, the students are expected to take part in the lesson regardless of their ability. During our teaching of this lesson we gave the students praise and feedback, checked their understanding, supported individual students where necessary. The Chinese teachers saw this as very caring and that our teaching came very naturally to us. They pointed out that we had good interaction skills with their students and good facial expressions while teaching. In the UK we see the use of body language and facial expressions as a very important and integral part to teaching and learning.

Through our direct experience of Beijing we have been able to gain a deeper understanding of their education system compared to that of our own. We have seen how their students are able to explore their own culture and traditions of Beijing and China , which have helped to shape their education system.

我们到访北京的目的成功的达到了。这次拜访给了我以后会对我的教导有所帮助的很惊人的学习经验。

我们花了一个星期在我们的合伙学校做课堂观察，参与并和中文老师讨论了专业的教导和学习方式。我们也有机会了解学生们自己在学校的学习经验。校长和所有职员都很亲切，并介绍学校最好的一面。所有的人的很热情的招待我们。我们花了很多的时间和英文部门的职员在一起，因为我们和英文部门的职员的沟通和互动有比较少的阻碍。学校也带来了一位专门翻译的人员并确保所有的文章都能准确无误的翻译。这就是一个学校为了能够确保一趟很成功的到访的一个很好的例子。

我们的第一个早晨开始观察升旗典礼，然后是惯例的全体早操，他们跳的很好，最后则是学生们的游行回到自己的教室，并无须教职员的帮助 。舞台上有四位学生带领一群学生跳舞，此舞为学生们自己编的。在我们的拜访之中，我们可以看见学生们展现了良好的自治能力和处事态度。

我们参观的所有教室都有投影像，可视化机械，和新的计算机。所有的教职员人员都在他们的教导课堂展现了良好的计算机技术，并准备了高品质的数据来源提供课堂上的教导。他们建立的自己的影片，互动的投影片和动画展览。这些资料都可重复使用很多次，因为同样的课堂可以给不同的班级上很多次。可视化机械也在课堂上被经常的使用。一个很好的例子好比我们在民族艺术课堂上看到的，学生们在由古老的民族传说中学习关于中国的手艺，老师利用了可视化机械展示给学生看完成的手艺作品。所以可视化机械帮助了学生们和他们课堂上的讨论。

每组新计算机的配备都很齐全，一个投影机和一个可视化机械。它们和英文学校所用的 Microsoft Office ， Paint 和 Adobe Flash 比较之下拥有较少的软件程序。重点在于学习主要的计算机键盘打击能力和创造出展示的视觉图像。我们的计算机课程虽然广，但是根中国的学生们比较起来却缺乏计算机打字和展示能力。

我们参观了完美的美术和音乐课堂，学生们都可以很自信的展现自己的能力给全班看 。这些老师都很专业，并对他们所教的领域有着专业的知识。他们惊讶于我们可以在缺乏这些训练、知识和能力之下教导这些科目。

教室的桌椅都是一条一条摆放的，所有的学生都在做同样的差事，好像“每一位小孩都是同等的＂。在我们的专业讨论和回复之下，我们被邀请参与教导他们的学生一堂英文课程。我们看中国老师教过之后，并告诉我们以自己平常的方式去教。中国老师对我们不同的合作感到有兴趣，但也同时表达了对学生们不应当认为自己是在一个下等的组别而感到关切。我们发觉中国老师并不区分学生们不同的学习方式，所有的学生都应当学习不管他们的能力是否够。在我们的这一堂课堂当中，我们给了学生赞美和回馈，检查了他们是否了解，并给予需要帮助的学生支持。中文老师觉得我们很亲切的照顾并且我们的教导方式对我们来说很自然。他们特别指出我们和学生之间有良好的互动，并且在教导时有好的脸部表情。在英国，我们认为肢体语言和脸部表情是教导和学习中不可或缺的一部分。

经过了北京的经验，我们对他们的教育系统和我们教育系统的差别有了更深的体会。我们认为他们的学生可以探索自己的文化和中国的传统习俗，是一个很成功的教育系统。