Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.
——By Malala Yousafzi
2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
“In this AI age as ChatGPT is able to write articles for people, how do you manage to retain your imagination and creativity as a writer and continue to produce masterpieces?”
This was a question raised by Alex, a Junior High pupil from Huili, to Bali Rai, our guest speaker during literacy week. Indeed, in a world with the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) having an impact on the digital landscape in ways we have yet to imagine, what is the significance of human inspiration and imagination? How did Mr. Rai answer the question? What is the influence of our annual literacy week? Let us find out more with Ms Bronwen Duffield, our Head Librarian.
Bronwen Duffield
Head Librarian
Literacy Week is our annual celebration of all things related to literacy: reading, writing, oracy and more. It is a time for the school community to come together to participate in various activities. This year it is made all the more special because we are able to have our parents join us on campus once again.
Wellington College Hangzhou adopted the overall theme of Storytelling for this year. Each department then developed activities suited to their children’s stage of learning and embedded cross-curricular links. For example, our nursery pupils enjoyed a focus on eco-stories to combine their current learning around Earth Day with related stories and information books.
Guest speaker interactive sessions
Pupils were also able to engage with visiting storytellers and authors – some in person and some online. Our younger pupils enjoyed an in-person visit with Master Plaster, an engaging bilingual storyteller who combines magic tricks with stories.
Upper Primary enjoyed a session in the Grand Theatre with Rob Parkinson. Rob is able to play a wide range of instruments and led an engaging experience of musical stories, riddles and rhymes. Older pupils also enjoyed a presentation from Bali Rai, an author of over 80 books who specialises in writing shorter books for adolescents. A group of pupils who have studied his books in class also enjoyed a group Q&A session with Bali, where they asked him about his experiences as a writer, the inspiration for his writing and how his books fit into wider social contexts.
I think the guest writer answered my question with an incredible point. He said, "Every story needs a character," emphasising the value of inspiration and creativity of writers. I learned the significance of reserving creativity in writing and once again, our innate power.
We explored many issues with our guest Bali Rai, including whether AI writing is superior to human writing in modern society. We were inspired by Mr Rai and learned some writing skills. Events like this during Literacy Week are conducive to my future writing for exams.
Younger pupils had a wonderful experience sharing stories using puppet theatres. They spent time creating puppet characters, rehearsing their story and then performing for an audience.
Kazimierz Michalak
English and theme teacher
Upper Primary
Grade 5 pupils have loved being immersed in traditional stories from the rainforest that would have been passed on orally. This has included telling and performing stories with expression to make them exciting for the audience, and then going on to write their own stories.
Our Junior High pupils engaged in the theme My Story and undertook many activities focused on developing oracy, including a rap competition and presenting readings of their work. They also enjoyed the launch of First Chapter Fridays, an initiative to share introductions to different books each Friday as part of wider reading engagement.
Patty Sun
Head of Junior High Chinese
During the literacy week, our Grade 7 pupils participated in a special reading challenge. Grade 8 pupils created rap lyrics from the Classic of Poetry, or Shih-ching, interpreting the uniqueness of the ancient Chinese classic in a fashionable way. Grade 9 pupils had a heated debate on “whether social media exacerbates appearance anxiety”, demonstrating their concern about social phenomenon. Literacy week is an opportunity for pupils to exchange their ideas and express themselves.
Stephen Speers
Head of Secondary English
Junior High took Literacy Week as a special opportunity to celebrate our pupils’ bilingualism. Pupils participated in several activities in English and Chinese. The week’s festivities culminated in a special bilingual assembly, where pupils’ led the assembly and showcased their language talents through performances prepared in and outside of class. Performances showcased creativity and our pupils’ strong oracy skills. We are so proud of the high-quality work and talent our pupils displayed on stage in assembly.
I was first quite nervous to perform this song due to the complexity of the lyrics but with a month of practice, we were so happy with the result on stage!
During the week, our whole community were able to visit our book fair to explore thousands of books from classics to newly released titles. There were excited faces all around – pupils, parents and staff. The fair was run by Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore and gave readers a rare opportunity to browse English books for sale in Hangzhou.
I really like this book fair because there are many different types of books. The book I chose today is Outback. The animal pictures in this book can move, rendering it a unique book different from the books I usually read. Now, this is my favorite book.
I think literacy week is wonderful. The most books my son reads at home are picture books, but this book fair presented so many different books for him. It broadens their horizons and is a change for them to practice their English language skills.
Book character dress-up day
The week culminated in one of our favourite traditions: book character dress-up day. According to the online journal, Healthline, edited by a team of healthcare professionals, dress-up encourages creative thinking and communication skills. It also helps pupils practice language development and their social skills. The act of putting on and taking off costumes or outfits also has physical benefits. There are many opportunities to expand literacies by talking about the dress-up scenarios that children fashion. The campus came alive with a colourful array of costumes from traditional stories to modern classics. There were even some fun team costumes.
In Literacy Week, I thought the costume event was really fun and very colourful. I dressed up as Wednesday from The Addams Family because I loved her personality.
During Literacy Week, children could be found reading in all corners of the campus, picking up new books and walking around reading as if no one was watching. The purpose of Literacy Week was not just to let pupils participate in these activities, but to let them understand the fun of reading, to develop the habit of reading, to calm down in this era of AI and new media explosion, and to let their thoughts and imagination take off with the quintessence of mankind’s wisdom for thousands of years -- books.
Our pupils and teachers were fountains of creativity throughout the week, working independently and collaboratively to produce, participate and even perform in some amazing activities. The intrinsic learning value and holistic spirit of a Huili education was clearly evident this week. The impact of Literacy Week in school can be continued throughout the whole year to activate the power and magic of storytelling to build pupil’s confidence and skills so that they can thrive.
