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Annual British Students’ Study Visit to China (Summer/Autumn Camps)
In partnership with the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), IOE Confucius Institute for Schools has organised annual English students’ study visits to China since 2007. The annual programme grows year on year and has gained a widely-recognised reputation for offering invaluable opportunities for secondary school students to learn Chinese and about China through an intensive two-week course. To date, a total of over 3,200 students and accompanying teachers from 105 schools have benefited from this programme. Students and accompanying teachers pay for their international airfares, visas and programme management/administration cost; while all in China cost including accommodation and food, transport and travel, language lessons and necessary tourism are generously funded by CLEC.
This programme is also known as Hanyu Qiao (Chinese Bridge) Summer Camps, and usually takes place in July for two weeks. Due to the Summer Olympics in Beijing and London, we organized Autumn Camps in 2008 and 2012.
The China programme:
All participants spend around 14 days in China, splitting their time between Beijing and one other province/city.
During the two week visit, participants spend approximately 3 days visiting places of historical and cultural interest in Beijing, such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall as well as visiting CLEC Headquarters. They also fly from Beijing to their host cities where they spend the majority of their time in host institutions. In previous years students and teachers have visited Chongqing, Henan, Hunan, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Sichuan and Zhejiang.
During their time in the provinces/cities, participants will take part in:
- at least 20 hours of Chinese tuition
- traditional Chinese cultural activities
- visits to local historical and cultural places of interest
- activities with local Chinese students
- home visits
- a language test
To read the sample programmes in the previous year click the links below. Please bear in mind that these are sample programmes and the students may not do all the activities/ visits listed in them.
Example Beijing programme (PDF)
Example province programme (PDF)
Blogs from schools on the 2019 China Study Camps:
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
Blogs from schools on the 2018 China Study Camps:
St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys
To read blogs from previous student camps click here.
Students and teachers have provided very positive feedback after the visits:
2016 Camps
‘The students really benefited from an excellently organised programme with a good balance of language learning and cultural visits and activities.’ – Dawn Hull (teacher at Stephen Perse Foundation)
‘Once again we had an engaging and interactive lesson with teacher Li. We now know how to tell the time and we are now apparently mandarin pros having nailed our initials and finals.’ Clara (student from St George’s Schools, Harpenden)
2015
‘This was the trip of a lifetime, and I’m so glad I had the chance to go on this trip as China isn’t somewhere I’d be able to go with my own family.’ Eloise (Year 9 student from Upton Hall School)
‘A truly awe inspiring experience. We saw and did so much. Living in the school for 10 days enabled us to begin to get underneath what China is about.’ Judith Underwood (teacher at Chelmsford County High School for Girls)
2014
‘Our students came back extremely positive about the whole experience. We are hoping, as a school and as a department, that it will have an impact on our intake for Mandarin at A-Level, having had a first-hand experience of the language.’ Jerome Garnier (teacher at Cleeve School)
Contact details:
If you are interested in finding out any future visits, please contact us at chinesenetworks@ucl.ac.uk.
To read about the sample risk assessment in the previous year click the link below.
