CCF Showcased at UCL Institute of Education

Ms Woo, our Head of Mandarin, was recently invited to speak at UCL Institute of Education as part of the Master’s module Intercultural Communication in Language Classrooms. She shared insights on fostering intercultural sensitivity through modern Chinese poetry in the foreign language classroom.

Her session highlighted a project run a couple of years ago with CCF’s Year 9 Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) students. This initiative encouraged creative language learning through modern Chinese poetry, including calligrams and other literary forms. CCF students’ impressive work, along with their reflections and perspectives on learning Chinese as a foreign language, was showcased during the session, demonstrating how poetry can serve as a powerful tool for cultural exploration and self-expression.

The impact of this project extends beyond the classroom. Ms Woo is the lead author of a forthcoming book chapter, Intercultural Sensitivity in Young People: Perspectives from Diverse Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) Learners in an English Secondary School Classroom, which will be published soon by Routledge in Diversity and Inclusiveness in Chinese as a Second Language Education.

We are proud to see Christ’s College Finchley students’ work recognised at a prestigious institution and contributing to wider conversations about innovative language teaching. Below, we showcase some of CCF students’ work to celebrate their creativity and achievements.

The Chinese character “water” (水 shuǐ),

written in the shape of a water drop,

inspired by the poetry lesson

“Calligram: Let the picture speak”