Which senior schools start Chinese in Year 7 - and how useful is it?

[pollyannagoestotown]

That's it really - I was impressed by Queen Margaret's explanation of why they had replaced french with Mandaring for Year 7 / 8 and someone else told me Brighton College started doing it some time ago. Apparently with good results on languages in general.

I am trying to find out which other senior schools also do this - particularly north of England / boarding.

If your child has done this - how did they find it - and did it knock on to how well they did at french GCSE when they retook that up later.

I think it is fairly standard. Some classes do it from year 7 in my DCs school, and all others have the option of starting in year 8.

Modern foreign language departments these days are likely to include Mandarin, Japanese, or Russian. Fewer and fewer include German.

It doesn't seem to be common in Yorkshire yet ..... although on googling I can see it is more common in London schools.

Its certainly common in West London private schools (eg I think both G&L and Latymer do Mandarin in year 7).Its usefulness long term may depend on the Chinese economy continuing to boom - I knew a few people who studied Japanese in the 1980s when Japan was doing well but no one seems to study it now.

my son is at an independent school in the South and he started Mandarin in Y7

I teach MFL secondary and don't know of any schools in the area (East Mids) where Mandarin is taught.

Was hearing on radio yesterday how it is incredibly difficult to master and the idea of teaching it at secondary has now been shelved by many schools.

All schools I know about round here (talking about 20-30) teach a combination of French, German and Spanish. Agree tho that German is becoming less common

Oh but I am talking state schools, re-reading OP I see you may mean independent, my knowledge there is rather limited.

My ds is at a local authority grammar in the North West. They choose 2 languages in y7. One from French, Spanish and German and one from Mandarin, Russian and Latin. They can then choose to drop one in y9. Ds has taken both at GCSE this year. He did Russian, not Mandarin.

Lots of state schools round here (SW London) offer it, it is fun, no harder than any other MFL, but it is a bit of a gimmick - you don't learn enough for it to be 'useful' or a passport to success in business, as it is marketed to gullible parents.

Altrincham Boys Grammar in Altrincham (Manchester) starts Mandarin in Year 8 but only for those that have done well in French/German/Spanish in Year 7.

I agree with PP: Mandarin as a MFL at a mainstream secondary school is a gimmick and, as such, pretty much a waste of time.

They all do French in Year 7 (unless they are struggling with English and then they concentrate solely on that). Those who are assessed as having an aptitude for languages (approx. 50%) then have the choice of Spanish and Mandarin after first half term.