STUDENTS and staff at Bohunt School have celebrated Chinese New Year in style.

The Year of the Dog was heralded with celebrations including Chinese poem writing and Mandarin speaking competitions, fundraising and a Chinese New Year performance of traditional dance.

Calligraphy, panda painting, paper cutting and kung fu were woven into the timetable for Bohunt students in Year 7 to take part in throughout the week.

Students in Year 7 and Year 8 sold Year of the Dog cupcakes and fortune cookies during their lunchtime as the fundraising for their house charities.

Bohunt has a long-standing Mandarin programme, including offering immersion teaching, where students learn a third of the curriculum in the language.

Bohunt welcomed five representatives from the Confucius Institute at the University of Southampton – a public institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, providing Chinese teaching resources and services worldwide.

The Confucius Institute in Southampton provided dancers for a traditional Chinese and Lion dancing performance, which was seen by staff and all Mandarin learners in years 7 to 10.

Head of Mandarin at Bohunt Guan Clarkson said: “As a Mandarin teacher, I think language can never teach alone, it is always taught with the culture.

“To students, Chinese is more different and they are less familiar with it than European languages.

“Geographically speaking, China is also more difficult to access than other European countries.

“Therefore, providing the students some authentic Chinese culture and tradition is necessary and useful for Mandarin teaching: it will help the students to learn better and encourage them to learn more.”

Bohunt headteacher and Bohunt Education Trust (BET) chief executive officer Neil Strowger said: “Recognising the importance of and being committed to learning through other cultures is in Bohunt’s DNA. We are passionate about encouraging students to consider what it means to be part of an international community. Celebrating Chinese New Year is just one way to do that.

“Collaboration underpins everything we do at Bohunt and we are pleased to be known as leading the way in state school Mandarin and Chinese cultural teaching.”

BET is set to become the first English state school run academy trust to support a school in China.