Teacher Training Review 2017-2018

In this last academic year the UCL IOE CI team have once again delivered a varied programme of teacher training from standalone workshops to year-long courses and, of course, our Annual Chinese Teaching Conference, in its 15^th year. Content, as always, was created in consultation and collaboration with our teaching community, and Head Teachers from our Confucius Classrooms and Mandarin Excellence Programme schools.

One day events this year in London and Manchester included those on the “Teaching and Learning of Characters”, ”Introducing Chinese to your school”, ”Speaking and Listening for KS4”, ”Lesson Planning with Technology”,  “Creating Games and Activities for Primary and Secondary” and (support for) “The Pre U Culture Paper”. As always each session was well attended, with teachers enjoying the input from members of the CI team, colleagues at the IOE, and teachers in schools across England. These events always offer the opportunity for participants to share their own experiences, and provide a value space to discuss new ideas.

We ran our fourth Schools and Universities Day, with almost 200 participants attending, including 24 different universities- this was no mean feat given that the event (due to room availability) was held during a time when some schools were still on holiday. It was great to see some pupils were so committed that they attended (with their parents) during their holiday time! As in previous years, the feedback was great from all participants, some valuable relationships were forged between schools and universities, and many students went away enthused about the possibilities that Chinese presented for their future studies.

This year we also developed and delivered a year-long programme for primary teachers, incorporating face to face and online training in language, culture and delivery at KS1 &2. Throughout the year teachers received input from specialists, culminating in the opportunity to join our annual Experience China course, delivered in Shanghai by East China Normal University. Many of the Experience China participants this year came from our work with primary teachers, and also from our work with PGCE students across the country who are not Mandarin specialists. We offer those trainee MFL teachers the opportunity to also participate in online and face to face training, and the interest is high every year, with ten different universities joining this year.

Specific teacher training was also delivered to our Hanban teachers who support our Confucius Classrooms, as well as to the British Council Chinese Language Assistants. Both groups received input in the UK and China, and school visits were an integral part of this work, with members of the CI team visiting many schools.

The CI team also provided specific training and school visits for teachers involved with the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) throughout the year, which included travelling to three cities in China this year, to deliver tailored teacher training for the six universities responsible for delivering the Year 8 Intensive Learning trips. This training was delivered in collaboration with members of the IOE PGCE MFL team, whose input was invaluable. Another fun event that the whole team was involved in was a mass Chinese lesson at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, bringing together the hub MEP schools as part of the annual Sino-British People to People Dialogue. Additionally, as part of the MEP this year we have produced a series of teacher training films, which have already been used in training both in the UK and China, and will soon be freely accessible for anyone to use for their own CPD.

Finally, in addition to supporting multiple school-based events, we hosted our 15^th Annual Chinese Teaching Conference in June, which was as popular as ever, providing participants with a host of plenaries and teacher-led workshops across two days. With our next conference dates already set for 2019 (Friday 14^th and Saturday 15^th June), we hope you are already thinking of workshops you can deliver, and look forward to seeing you there!

With thanks to the many teachers, trainers and schools who supported our teacher training this year, including (but not limited to):

Cara Bleiman, Harris Federation

Melissa Carr, Dartford Grammar School

Dr Colin Christie, UCL IOE

Caroline Conlon, UCL IOE

Luke Hambleton, Seven Kings School

Ashley Hern, Manchester Grammar School for Boys

Annabel Hurley, Oundle School

Ru Lan, Manchester Grammar School for Boys

Newton Leng, St Catharine’s College 

Yadi Luo, St Mary Magdalene Academy

John Tucker, Manchester Grammar School for Boys

Kim Wang, Queen Mary’s Grammar School

Rebecca Wilson, UCL IOE

Jane Woo, Christ’s College Finchley

Kou You, Rosendale Primary School

And not forgetting the many Hanban teachers who helped with specific training, including:

Cui Yuzheng

Fang Jiaqi

Fang Wei

Gao Xinyue

Han Mengjiao

Wang Yan