PUPILS at St Richard’s School, Bredenbury, had a special introduction to the Chinese Year of the Horse, when visitors from China opened their assembly by singing a traditional Chinese folksong before fielding questions about China and Chinese new year.

The focus then turned to the four-six-year-olds, who sang a Chinese nursery rhyme they had learned in Mandarin.

Chinese pork and vegetable dumplings were then sampled by the rest of the school followed by a Chinese banquet.

DenDen and her mother, Mrs Chun, offered to help out with the assembly and the many other activities that the school had already prepared.

Keen horse rider, Sam was delighted that the school was celebrating the Year of the Horse, “St Richard’s is a very horsey school anyway. So, it makes sense we want to make a lot of fuss of the Chinese Year of the Horse.”

New headteacher Mr de Falbe was keen to stress that the celebrations were just the start of a new initiative to promote Mandarin Chinese at the school.

“The school has two Mandarin teachers among the parent body who already offer a weekly Mandarin Chinese Club as an option and we intend to extend this. With Mandarin on the Common Entrance Syllabus and now being offered at GCSE, St Richard’s is looking to the future as it moves to bring it into the curriculum.”

The Chinese New Year of the Horse started on January 31 and runs for 15 days, culminating in the lantern festival on the final day.