CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

STARTING CHINESE STARTING CHINESE IN YOUR SCHOOLIN YOUR SCHOOL

‘A Headteacher’s Perspective’‘A Headteacher’s Perspective’

STARTING CHINESE STARTING CHINESE IN YOUR SCHOOLIN YOUR SCHOOL

‘A Headteacher’s Perspective’‘A Headteacher’s Perspective’

As a Headteacher, I believe passionately that today’s students will only As a Headteacher, I believe passionately that today’s students will only

become tomorrow’s generation of creative academics and entrepreneurs become tomorrow’s generation of creative academics and entrepreneurs

if they are given time and space to learn about the world outside the if they are given time and space to learn about the world outside the

school gate. school gate.

It is clear to me that our most urgent priority in achieving this goal is for It is clear to me that our most urgent priority in achieving this goal is for

all students to understand more about China and Chinese culture, and all students to understand more about China and Chinese culture, and

for a healthy number of these students to learn Mandarin Chinese to for a healthy number of these students to learn Mandarin Chinese to

GCSE level or beyond. GCSE level or beyond.

China is a country with a great history, and a future that has enormous China is a country with a great history, and a future that has enormous

potential. We will fail our students if we do not open their eyes to this potential. We will fail our students if we do not open their eyes to this

and enable many of them to leave school with some knowledge of and enable many of them to leave school with some knowledge of

ChinaChina..

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

HOW WE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE HOW WE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE TEACHING OF MANDARINTEACHING OF MANDARIN

Mandarin was first introduced into Calday over 10 years ago as an extension activity at our on-site Wirral Able Child centre for gifted and talented children

We did try other languages first such as Japanese but the one that captured the imagination of our pupils was Mandarin

We decided to include Mandarin as part of our main curriculum alongside five other languages

We now have over 200 pupils learning Mandarin

We quickly established a link with Hangzhou Foreign Language School in South East China which has been invaluable

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

STUDENTS CHOOSING CHINESE AS A LANGUAGE OPTION

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Year (1998 - 2007)

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TEACHERS OF CHINESETEACHERS OF CHINESE

We currently have two teachers of Chinese and three teaching assistants who are great fun, with a wicked sense of humour and penchant for Karaoke!

A native speaker on the staff is invaluable

It is important to try and establish links with a school in China as this helps to enhance the teaching of Mandarin by use of a teacher exchange programme

It is not always easy at first for teachers of Chinese to fit in with the western ways of teaching so they may need guidance

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

OUR INVOLVEMENT AS A CONFUCIUS OUR INVOLVEMENT AS A CONFUCIUS

CLASSROOMCLASSROOM

Ten Headteachers with different experiences of Mandarin were forming a Steering group to promote Mandarin which co-incided with the SSAT persuading Hanban, the Chinese equivalent of the British Council, to give them ‘Confucius Institute’ status

There are now five ‘Confucius Classrooms’ around the Country

Our aim is to make Mandarin as mainstream as French and Spanish

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

HOW WE HAVE HELPED TO BRING HOW WE HAVE HELPED TO BRING MANDARIN INTO OTHER SCHOOLSMANDARIN INTO OTHER SCHOOLS

INCLUDING PRIMARIES INCLUDING PRIMARIES

Learning Mandarin needs a different approach to learning a European Language - students find it challenging but rewarding.

We firmly believe that children learn languages best when they start young so we have supported a number of primary schools in introducing Mandarin.

We found that there were few teaching resources for primary schools so we have recently published our first book called “MaoMao and the Bamboo”

We have also adopted a number of ‘spoke’ schools to spread Mandarin across the North West

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past

For any assistance relating to the teaching of Chinese please contact us as follows:-

Calday Grange Grammar School Grammar School Lane

West Kirby Wirral

CH48 8GG

Tel: 0151 6252727 Fax: 0151 6259581

Email: theschool@calday.wirral.sch.ukWebsite: www.calday.wirral.sch.uk

MaoMao website: www.maomaopanda.co.uk

CALDAY GRANGE GRAMMAR SCHOOLBuilding for the future – upon the strengths of the past