On Saturday 19th October 2024 the 21st IOE CI Annual Chinese Teaching Conference took place at the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society.
We would like to thank all delegates for attending this year’s conference themed “New Perspectives, New Horizons” – it was a wonderful day and a great opportunity to see so many of the Mandarin teaching community in person, sharing ideas, knowledge and best practice.
The conference was attended by delegates from all over the country, speakers from a range of Chinese education-related settings, workshop presenters from UK schools and the IOE’s Centre for Chinese Language Education, and prize-winning student performers. There were 15 workshops for delegates to choose from, three plenary sessions featuring academics and Chinese education experts from around the world, and three student performances.
The conference opened with the wonderful student speech ‘一个普通又不普通的中学生’ from Bhavana Chatti who studies at Becket Keys Church of England School.
The opening plenary featured speeches by Professor Li Wei, Director and Dean of the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, Minister-Counsellor Zhang Jin, Education Section, Chinese Embassy and Katharine Carruthers OBE, Director of the IOE Confucius Institute for Schools.
After attending very inspiring workshops, a peek at the exhibitor’s stands and a Chinese lunch, delegates enjoyed the humour-packed amusing student performance ‘中国达人秀’, performed by Fatoumata Doumbouya, Shasmeen Kuthubudeen, Sarah Awolesi and Emmah Safina Kamara from Kingsford Community School. They had the audience laughing and cheering throughout.
The afternoon plenary was chaired by Wei Jin (IOE). Wei led a discussion on the impact on students visiting China and the Chinese-speaking diaspora with Hannah Galbraith (The Learning Adventure), Charlotte Jarrett (Simon Langton School), Cameron Sheeran and Wendy Hale (Cowley International School), and Melissa Carr, Prakriti Shrestha and Saachi Prakash (Mayfield Grammar School). It was made clear to all how important it is for students to take lessons they have learned in the classroom and try out their Mandarin skills in an area of the world where spoken Chinese is the norm.
After hearing these inspiring anecdotes, delegates wandered off to take advantage of the opportunity to choose two further workshops to attend from a wide and varied range of topics. There was a tangible buzz in the air as delegates keenly arrived to learn from teachers’ experiences and expertise.
The IOE CI 2024 Excellence Awards Presentation followed the final workshop. A chance for our Chinese teaching community to celebrate colleagues’ success in teaching Chinese, their efforts and their talent. Congratulations to all of the Excellence Award winners: Kim Wang, Yan Hong, Elizabeth Yuemei Li, and Yanyan Zhang.
The conference programme closed with the final plenary, “The post-16 Chinese qualifications landscape” chaired by Michelle Tate (IOE). During the plenary, Michelle discussed the Chinese qualifications available in the UK to students post GCSE. Poppy Pan (Pearson) outlined changes to the Pearson Edexcel A level Chinese qualification, Phil Mahoney (St Birinus School and Didcot Sixth Form) shared details of what the IBDP qualification involves and how to implement the course, and Yi Zhang (Abingdon School) talked about how to make teaching HSK4 a real success.
After a very productive day, attendees were invited to join the drinks reception for the final opportunity to catch up with colleagues and the IOE team, to celebrate and reflect on a great day.
We look forward to seeing you at next year’s conference!