Pupils display their Mandarin knowledge in the 2020 Summer Showcase

The Mandarin Excellence Programme is a unique language programme which will see at least 5,000 pupils on track to achieve fluency in the language by 2020. Pupils on the Mandarin Excellence Programme (11-15 years old) all begin in Year 7 and study Mandarin for 8 hours per week (4 taught hours and 4 hours of self-study). It is delivered by UCL Institute of Education’s Confucius Institute for Schools (IOE CI).

With exams cancelled and schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mandarin pupils across England were asked to create two Summer Showcase projects of their choice to demonstrate their Mandarin speaking and writing skills and to bring their own individuality to their learning.

The pupils were asked to be resourceful with the language they have already learned and be creative and original or include some research in their projects.

This led to a wide range of submissions, with some pupils performing songs, some writing comics and stories, while others made and edited their own vlogs, animations and skits.

Despite a lockdown being in place, some entrants went on tours of China and the UK, albeit virtually. Others wrote essays about society, pretended to be estate agents, or taught Mandarin to their parents.

Katharine Carruthers, Director of the IOE Confucius Institute, said: “There is some wonderful work and it is so positive to see how much Mandarin learning has been going on at home and the level of motivation and creativity of the students.”

Teachers in Mandarin Excellence Programme schools have also been complimentary about the Summer Showcase.

Rebekah, a teacher in Hampshire said: “The students really enjoyed having the opportunity to get creative and it was a great chance for them to pause and reflect on all the amazing progress they have made in the past 10 months.”

The IOE Confucius Institute for Schools supports schools in starting and developing the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese and the study of China across other areas of the curriculum.

Links

• View work submitted for the 2020 Summer Showcase
• IOE Confucius Institute for Schools
• Mandarin Excellence Programme
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media