UCL IOE Confucius Institute’s National Network Coordinator, Xiaoming Zhu was recently invited to speak at a Chinese teacher training event organised by Newcastle University Confucius Institute. The event was held on 26th October and aimed to give Chinese teachers in the north of England an opportunity to learn some new ideas, improve their knowledge and skills in classroom teaching as well as networking.  Xiaoming’s talk gave a glimpse into Mandarin teaching in England and discussed the support and opportunities available to teachers including the Department for Education’s Mandarin Excellence Programme. She also shared resources on teaching Chinese language and culture, covering primary schools and secondary schools. Some of the resources Xiaoming talked about can be found here on our website.

The teachers responded very well by asking various questions and giving positive feedback on the information, resources and the opportunities on offer. The other two speakers on the day were Simone Haughey from Robin Hood Primary School and Wei Feng from Kingsford Community School. Both schools are IOE CI Confucius Classrooms. Simone presented some fun approaches in engaging students particularly the younger learners. Wei shared ideas on how to utilise activities in a creative way to motivate students in the Mandarin classroom. Nearly 30 teachers participated in the event from Manchester, Hull and London, as well as Newcastle. The IOE Confucius Institute is delighted to be able to support and to work in collaboration with Newcastle University Confucius Institute on CPD for local Chinese teachers.