CHILDREN at Swindon’s Holy Cross Catholic Primary School welcomed the Year of the Monkey in style with a special day dedicated to all things Chinese.

Monday saw the start of the Chinese New Year and on Friday six classes from the school, on Upham Road, held a dedicated China Day.

As well as eating Chinese food, the children learned about Chinese culture, made oriental art as well as the highlight of the day, a dragon dancing workshop.

China Day was just the latest in a series of regular international days at the school.

Deputy Head, Robin Christian, said: “We try to have five or six international days every year here.

“We consider the wider environment very important to our children here because we draw children from very many backgrounds.

“Many of our children have relatives distributed around various parts of the globe, so for the past six years we’ve picked out a country every term and because it’s Chinese New Year we thought we’d have a focus on China.”

The international feel of the school is clear just walking along the corridors, as well as the diverse mix of pupils there are flags on the walls and signs translated into many languages, particularly French which is a focus of the school.

Mr Christian added: “The main thing is the recognition that Swindon is not the only part of the universe that exists.

“We try to ensure that children have a grasp of the wider world and of different cultures, cuisines and histories.

“We consider this idea of internationalism to be one of the strengths of the school.”

In recent years Holy Cross has hosted days dedicated to Mexico, Australia, Zimbabwe, Poland, Italy, India and the United States among others.

Year Five pupil Aiofe Barrone said: “This morning we did a dragon dancing workshop which was really good fun.

“The dragon was quite heavy, especially trying to hold the head up. But we didn’t fall over.”

Her classmate Chelsea Adu-Poku added: “When you’re in the belly of the dragon it’s quite hard because three people have to fit in there.”

Jarred Ballesteros, who said his favourite international day at the school was Filipino Day, said: “We were making dragons as well as dancing with them, just small ones though.

“They told us all about the different places in China too.”

Jarred’s classmate Conrad Skoczek added: “I enjoyed learning about how to do some Chinese art and draw some of the letters.”

Year Five pupil Olivia Christian was dressed for the occasion in a bright blue traditional Chinese dress, she said: “When we have international days we always get to try different types of food from the country.”

On the menu on Friday was a selection of Chinese noodles, a broccoli and pepper stir fry and some tasty looking Hong Kong pancakes.

Opinions among the children were mixed on their favourite international cuisine with Indian coming out on top with Polish following a close second.