Sunday 14 February 2016

Giving a Monkey's about cultural diversity

春节快乐!

Happy Spring Festival everyone! Welcome to the Year of the Monkey!

Now, here at Ashford School, and particularly within the boarding community, we are very proud of our cultural diversity and so, we always look forward to the first new moon in February upon which we celebrate the Chinese New Year.

There are several traditions that have sprung up over the last few years in order to mark this event on the lunar calendar. The first is the Chinese meal in the refectory. Mandy and her team of helpers decked the room out in beautiful red and gold decorations and the kitchen staff, with oriental chef Li to the fore, surpassed themselves with a sumptuous array of dishes including stir-fried beef, vegetarian glass noodles and a fiery hot and sour soup. Despite the blustery weather, the festivities moved outside where Mr Vaughan delighted all with a spectacular fireworks display. Our thanks to all involved.

This hadn't been the only feast though. Not needing any excuse for a good cook-up, boarders in both ASIC and Alfred had had the hot pots bubbling away on Sunday night (see photos below). Nobody can say we aren't well fed in the boarding community here!

Before moving on to the other tradition of the New Year period it would be fitting to add that this particular weekend marked birthdays for four of our Chinese boarders: Charlotte, Riley, Ryan and Amanda; very auspicious timing indeed! After the meal at school, all four marked the occasion with cake, gifts, balloons and boisterous games down in ASIC (balloon volleyball anyone?!). Thanks to Miss Beroule for organising that one.

On the Friday morning our final New Year tradition took place with the annual Chinese New year assembly in front of the whole school. Mr Buchanan had already laid the groundwork for this on the Monday, discussing things not to do at Spring Festival time; including eating porridge, bad luck Mr K! Under the guidance of Mrs Barber, boarders Jonathan and Caroline gave a very polished performance, explaining the different Chinese Zodiac signs and what characteristics those signs represented. To help they enlisted the help of Mrs Rayner, Mrs Waite and Mr Stoddart - Monkey, Horse and Rooster respectfully - who gamely demonstrated that there is indeed some truth in oriental astrology - where'd that rubber chicken come from then Mr Stoddart? To finish Jonathan had the whole hall wising each other Happy New Year in Chinese, and all this before period 1 had even started!

Now the houses are all quiet, with all the boarders having headed off home, to guardians' houses and the like, for the half term. As we approach exam season, there will be much holiday work to do, but we hope all will take the chance to rest too - that's staff included please!

Just before we do sign off, a couple of congratulations are in order. Every year we at Ashford School welcome two beneficiaries of the coveted HMC scholarship, which allows a select few overseas students to study here, at much reduced rates, for a year. This year both our scholars, Yr 12s Tini and Zuka, come from Georgia and we are very happy to announce that, after a superb start, both have been offered a place to stay and complete their A-levels next year. Congratulations to both and good luck for your on-going studies!

Have a happy half term everyone and see you when we return.

NB: in order to keep further up-to-date with boarding life in Ashford School, we invite you to please follow our two boarding Twitter feeds:

 @AshfordBoarding and @AshfordIC - see you there!

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