Mandarin Common Entrance Certificates for Year 6

Mandarin teaching at Hazlegrove has come a long way since it was introduced in autumn 2012, first as a club option and then later that year as a post Academic Scholarship crash course. Keen to expand our language offering, the school had been considering for some time introducing a third language and deliberating as to which language would give the children the best educational experience - to give the children an opportunity to do something they may not get the chance to do again.

With their knowledge of French, it was thought the children would find it easy to pick up popular languages such as Spanish and so encouraged by the initial ventures with Mandarin the decision was made to put this into the curriculum for Year 5 in 2013 and subsequently for Years 5 and 6, with the idea of taking the Common Entrance Level 1 examination at the end of the two year course.

“We hoped Mandarin might by its nature be attractive to children who had not found the Romance languages quite so easy, and that they would pick up very new ideas from the different culture to which they would be introduced. The character writing, for example, really appeals to artistic children” says Mrs Mahony, Head of Languages.

The Level 1 Mandarin exam involves all four strands of language – reading, writing, speaking and listening. This of course includes reading and writing the characters. The examination itself is taken online which was also a first for Hazlegrove.

The success of this two year course has been evident, not just by the children gaining their CE Level 1 qualification, but also judging by the number of children who are planning to continue their learning with private lessons or planning to take it up at Senior School.

Very well done, Hazlegrove Year 6, on your Mandarin Common Entrance success!