More Mandarin at schools please, says industry

Management consultants the Hay Group report that, while UK companies expect sales to China to be worth £200 billion a year by 2009, business leaders worry that limited linguistic and cultural knowledge will hold Britain back.

The SQA is currently exploring ways to expand Mandarin study in Scottish schools, with a possible start date of August 2007, depending on demand. Mandarin-teaching Scottish schools like Hillhead High in Glasgow and Edinburgh's St George's at present rely on English awards.

Inbox Education offers consultancy and resourcing services in and about China. (25th July 2006)

SQA unveil unique internet safety qualification

Next term the SQA will introduce what is believed to be the first internet safety qualification in the world.

Pupils in pilot schools will learn about the dangers of chat-rooms, cyber bullying, cyber vandalism and online crime (including fraud and, perhaps most pertinently, intellectual property theft). They will be able to earn an Intermediate 1 qualification.

An SQA survey earlier this year found that over 90% of teachers worried about internet safety and in-school illegal downloading; 40% expressed an interest in offering the proposed course.

Appropriately the course, which was developed together with Strathclyde Police, Microsoft and child protection agencies, will be the first the SQA have offered entirely online, in the form of a multiple choice test and practical exercise.

"The unit will offer a mixture of theory and practice and will give pupils the opportunity to discuss online dangers and also practice ways of reducing them," SQA qualifications manager Bobby Elliot told the Herald. (24th July 2006)

English pupils want more employment education pre-GCSE, survey finds

A survey of over 1800 Year 10 students has suggested that employers in England could do more to educate GCSE students about workplace opportunities, report the BBC.

The survey, conducted by recruitment communications firm TMP Worldwide, showed that more than half of this age group had not attended employer presentations - presumably because schools consider this premature for students of 14 and 15.

The pupils themselves expressed a high degree of interest, the survey found. (24th July 2006)

Britain and China deepen school-level educational ties

The UK-China Meeting on Learning and Teaching in Beijing yesterday concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding.

Under the memorandum, up to 500 British secondary school pupils will be invited to summer schools in China; meanwhile an estimated 100 head teachers and education officials will also visit the country each year, to explore ways they might introduce Chinese studies at their schools, and the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK (35 last year) will be increased by 20 percent.

China will also promote an annual competition in British schools, linked to major events like the Olympics.

Zhao Guocheng, deputy director-general of the Office of Chinese Language Council International (the Hanban), was quoted in China Daily saying that he believed China could benefit from Britain's experience in EFL teaching and language testing.

The newspaper also quote Lid King, national directors for languages at the DFES on his first visit to the Middle Kingdom.

"French, German and Spanish are still the top three popular second languages in Britain, but Chinese is gaining popularity slowly because of its culture, history and rapid economic growth," King said. (20th July 2006)

Pilot Programme for Mandarin Teachers from New York State

The China Institute in New York City has sent a group of 16 educators to Shanghai, to participate in the pilot Mandarin teaching programme at East China Normal University reports Xinhua.

The course which started this Monday will last 6 weeks and earn the participants 12 postgraduate academic credits, enabling them to teach Mandarin in the New York State public schools system.

The course is organized by the China Institute's Confucius Institute. Most of the participants already speak Mandarin to a high level and are currently working teachers. (13th July 2006)

Inbox campaign - fighting the flu in schools

Parents of primary and nursery school children in Scotland are to be advised on good hand and respiratory hygiene, to combat a possible future outbreak of pandemic flu.

The newly announced joint initiative by NHS Scotland and the Executive advises frequent hand washing and the use and disposal of tissues when sneezing.

Inbox has campaigned for more awareness of respiratory hygiene issues in schools; earlier this year Inbox's Fraser Newham wrote about the topic for the London Times and for Herald Society, arguing that Edinburgh and London must do more to educate parents and teachers.

The issue featured as a Times editorial on the same day, and all at Inbox warmly welcome this latest move.

Inbox Education's "Personal Awareness" Unit - part of our PSE cluster at Access 3 - addresses health hygiene issues among secondary pupils.

Fraser's hand hygiene articles can be viewed here. (11th July 2006)

First Confucius Institute Conference held in Beijing

The first Confucius Institute Conference was held in Beijing yesterday, attracting around 400 delegates from 38 countries and regions, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government plans to have set up 100 Confucius Institutes worldwide by 2010, to support Chinese language learning and the study of Chinese culture overseas.

Since 2004, a total of 80 Confucius Institutes have already been launched, in 36 countries and regions; meanwhile a further 99 institutes from 38 countries have applied to set up Confucius Institutes.

Chinese statistics suggest that 30 million people are currently learning Mandarin as a second language worldwide - and government estimates suggest that by 2010 the figure will have reached 100 million. (7th July 2006)

Foreign Teachers Attracted to Scotland

According to the Scotsman, around 500 foreigners (a category where they include teachers from England) registered with the GTC for Scotland in the first four months of 2006.

Of the overseas arrivals, 31 came from Australia, 28 from Poland, 15 from Ghana, 8 from Zimbabwe, 7 from India, 4 from Russia, 2 from Namibia, and 1 each from Albania and the Bahamas.

The Executive hopes to increase teacher numbers to 53,000 by next year. 1,500 foreign teachers came to Scotland in 2005, again including England. (5th July 2006)

More attention in history teaching to Empire's 'controverisal legacy'

In England the QCA has unveiled plans to promote the teaching of British Imperial History at KS3.

Under the draft guidelines pupils studying the 1750-1900 programme will also address "the nature of empires including the British Empire and its impact on different people".

Two years ago Ofsted inspectors said schools in England paid insufficient attention to imperial history, and that pupils should have a greater understanding of empire's "controversial legacy".

A QCA spokesman told the BBC these were still draft proposals. (3rd July 2006)