Students from two of Brentwood’s secondary school – the Anglo European School in Ingatestone and Becket Keys School – are preparing for what might be a record-breaking school trip, as they join two thousand young people heading off to China in July this year.
The Year 9 pupils are studying Mandarin as one of their modern foreign languages through the Mandarin Excellence Programme which the Anglo European School’s headteacher, Jody Gee, described to me as “one of the most successful projects the Department for Education has ever done”.
The Mandarin Excellence Programme is an intensive programme of teaching, enrichment and wide study, the pinnacle of which is w trip to China. This year the young people will be travelling to the historic city of Xi’an where they will stay in university accommodation, have Mandarin lessons in the morning and go out in the city to use the language they have learnt in the afternoon. I am told haggling in the markets is one of the lessons.
Xi’an is famous for the terracotta warriors which were unearthed in the 1970s. The schoolchildren will visit the site as part of the trip, although the students I met were also excited about the prospect of seeing pandas in the local zoo too.
I have no doubt these young people will have a trip which will change their lives. These are our future diplomats, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Business civil servants, as well as entrepreneurs and translators. The visit will enable them to meet other young people with the same concerns and worries about world events, and the same enthusiasm for music and popular culture.
It is very exciting our local schools are involved in the Mandarin Excellence Programme and are getting so much from it. I look forward to hearing from the students on their return from China to find out what they have learnt.
