The Mandarin Excellence Programme – a world of opportunity

Mandarin Chinese opens up a world of opportunity – as the most spoken language in the world, it connects speakers with an exciting and dynamic culture as well as boosting career opportunities. Mandarin has been identified as one of the most important languages for the UK’s future prosperity, (along with Spanish, German, French and Arabic) so now marks the perfect time to help our students to be on track for fluency.

The Mandarin Excellence programme is a unique yet intensive language programme. We deliver this programme, with funding and support provided throughout by the UCL Institute of Education and the British Council. Students also get the opportunity to work with other local schools, schools in China and to spend two weeks in China in Year 9.

Once students have accepted a place at the Academy in March of each year, they will be invited to apply for a place on the programme. Those who apply will take an aptitude test to assess their suitability for the course. 

All students who take up a place on the programme receive four hours of teacher-taught classroom lessons each week. This will contribute towards a programme of eight hours of study per week, which consists of a combination of teacher taught classroom lessons, after-school teaching, self-study and intensive study courses (in China and the UK).

Students will be expected to be on track to complete their GCSE in Mandarin and possibly the International Baccalaureate in Mandarin.