Last updated at 14:07, Monday, 11 February 2013

CHILDREN have been celebrating Chinese New Year in preparation for the dawning of the year of the snake tomorrow.

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Newbarns Primary School has always marked the occasion, but this year’s celebrations have been extra special because Jing min Jia, a comenius teacher from China, has been based in the school.

Staff have also welcomed the support, knowledge and time of Jin-Nei Caine, senior teaching assistant, and members of the local Chinese community in providing a wide range of cross-curricular activities across the school all week.

Headteacher Jill Byrne said: “The whole school is buzzing with the enjoyment of learning something new and different.

“We feel so fortunate to be sharing in the Chinese New Year celebrations with members of the local community and thank them for helping our children to better understand, respect and value the customs, festivals and heritage of people from all over the world.”

Elsewhere, Gemma Pollock, key worker at Happy Tots Day Nursery in Barrow, said the youngsters had really entered into the spirit of the occasion.

She said: “We’ve been sampling some Chinese food, so we had lots of prawn crackers and noodles and other bits and bobs.

“We’ve also been making some dragons and doing a dragon dance which involved lots of stomping and rolling.

“We made lucky Chinese red wallets which the Chinese give for good luck at new year and we said ‘happy new year’ in Chinese.

“They all came dressed in red and they all participated, so it’s been good fun.”

At Yarlside Primary School, pupils from Years Two and Three invited their parents to come into school and enjoy a Chinese-themed meal yesterday.

Meals, including prawn crackers and fortune cookies provided by Happy Garden takeaway in Askam, were served for 190 people, including 37 parents.

Headteacher Janine Pierce said: “We always celebrate Chinese New Year because we do have some Chinese children in the school, so we feel it’s important to celebrate their culture and for the children to experience different festivals.

“Reception, in particular, have come dressed in the colours of the Chinese flag and then they’ve been doing some work around the Chinese New Year.”

First published at 13:26, Sunday, 10 February 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk