The Chinese Lunar New Year began on January 23 and we were fortunate at Battersea Park School to celebrate it with a special performance. The team of performers was sent by the Confucius Institute and they came from Heilongjiang University for Chinese Medicine. The performance was mainly based on Chinese martial arts, traditional dance, folk dance and musical instruments. This was held in the Main Hall in front of an audience made of Year 7 and Year 8 students. Students loved the interaction with the performers and we were all captivated by the tai chi and kung fu demonstrations, live music and dance performances.
Xin nian yu kuai! (Happy New Year!)

Since October 2011, Ahab Hamza in Year 13 has been having sessions in the Learning Mentor department to start building his CV as a published poet. He has been learning how to edit and submit his poems to magazines, write good cover letters to sell his work, in addition to writing a wider variety of styles to maximise his chances of publication.

Over Christmas, he received the good news that his poem, Detonate, will be published in The Robin Hood Book, run by a small press called The Recusant. This week, he received more good news that another of his poems will appear in the Spring 2012 issue of Inclement magazine. His work will be appearing alongside well known poets in the UK. Therefore it is a huge achievement, especially for a poet starting his publishing career at the age of 18!