Between 2013 and 2019, thousands of primary school children in England benefited from the opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese and study Chinese culture as part of the “Mandarin Chinese for Primary Schools” initiative, delivered by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and funded by the HSBC Global Education Programme.
HSBC’s support for the Mandarin Chinese for Primary Schools project extended provision for Mandarin Chinese language learning into the primary sector at schools across the country and ensured that teachers and pupils benefited from developments in the most effective ways of teaching the subject.
Click here to read about and download the Primary Mandarin Programme of Study.
Teacher with primary school pupil
In total, around 180 primary schools joined the programme, working with a network of secondary schools who already taught Mandarin Chinese under the provision of the IOE CI. Participating schools were able to share resources and develop curricula with other teachers teaching Chinese in the primary sector.
By way of creating a legacy for the project, and ensuring that children in England will continue to benefit from its success, we launched the IOE CI Primary Mandarin Toolkit in August 2019. The toolkit brings together all of the resources that were created and shared during the project, as well as many others, and allows teachers to access them easily and for free.
Another successful outcome of the project was the upgrade of our Beginner’s Online Courses for qualified teachers to be able to start learning and then teaching Mandarin. The updated versions were launched in April 2019 and have since been used by primary school teachers across the country who participate in our 3-year Upskilling Course.
Participants at an Upskilling Course training event in June 2019
After six years of generous funding from HSBC, the work undertaken leaves a legacy for primary schools wishing to introduce and continue to teach Chinese language. With a combination of the Primary Toolkit, Beginner’s Online Courses and the Upskilling Course, we are confident that we can continue to develop the delivery of primary Mandarin teacher training, helping more and more children to study Chinese language and culture.
We are incredibly grateful for HSBC’s long-term commitment to the Mandarin Chinese for Primary Schools project, and are thankful for the incredible opportunity to help promote the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese to children across the whole of the country.
