Acle High School - Looking East
Young people from one of the eastern most corners of the UK are looking east to China to understand and appreciate culture and lifestyle from a completely new perspective.
The ‘Looking East’ project was undertaken by Acle High School in Norfolk as part of the Creative Partnerships Enquiry School programme. Through the project a group of 28 Year 7 students and the wider school community were encouraged to look outwards beyond their region exploring the ‘Looking East’ line of enquiry. In particular young people were tasked with sharing and fostering an understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture and way of life. The project was designed to be as creative, innovative and enjoyable as possible.
An existing link with Fenyang Middle School in Shanghai meant that it was natural for the children to want to find out more about culture from that part of the world.
The project focused on two key curriculum areas: food technology and art.
The school worked with Suffolk-based Eastfeast as a creative partner. Clare Chacksfield (visual artist) from Eastfeast, Paul Freeman, (professional chef/restaurant proprietor) and the school’s teaching staff Karen Letort, Maxine Blocksidge and Jenni Lotarius facilitated visual arts and food technology sessions with students. Everyone taking part was able to try their hand at all the sessions which included designing and creating giant Chinese lanterns, exploring the techniques and possibilities of traditional Chinese paper cutting and fabricating unique tablecloths and aprons.
A group of students also created a dragon for a classic Chinese dragon dance. This was performed at a feast for 80 students, parents, teachers, police and local community figures. The feast was timetabled to act not only as a focal point for the project but also as a celebration of the opening of the school’s new dining room facilities.
Students created and prepared an ambitious menu of food including crispy vegetable rolls, sesame prawn toasts, roast plum duck puffs, hot and sour soup, festive five spice golden chicken and Chinese crescent moon biscuits.
In addition to achieving its aims and objectives, the project also helped to foster unexpected new relationships such as with Sodexo, the school catering firm with whom the young people collaborated extensively to prepare their feast and local restaurateur and businessman, Richard Hughes, who was invited to the feast and has invited the children to his restaurant.
Creative Partnerships Co-Ordinator at Acle High School, Ian Shepherd said: "This has been a project that has brought together many different people and helped build new relationships both across the school and in the local community. Through the project, everyone involved has developed their creative ways of learning which will have a lasting impact in the future. We aim to build upon the work done in Creative Partnerships to develop further exciting and original projects for our students."
Students prepare food for community feast at Acle HighSchool
Students create dragon head for classic Chinese Dragon dance
80 guests from the community around Acle High School in Norfolk enjoy a feast conceived and prepared by students as part of their Looking East Creative Partnerships project.
