Confucius Institute, Oxford Brookes University

Learning Mandarin at DGS

Mandarin Chinese has been taught at Didcot Girls’ School since 2007 and is now firmly embedded in the curriculum, with classes offered from Year 7 all the way to Year 13. 

Since September 2017, we have participated in the government-funded Mandarin Excellence Programme. The programme has exceeded its target of seeing at least 5,000 pupils in England on track towards fluency in the language by 2020, and will continue to 2024.  Students who choose this route study an intensive 4 hours per week of Chinese (plus homework) and make rapid progress.

In addition, all students in KS3 study Mandarin on a rotation with the three other languages and can choose to pursue it further with a GCSE in Years 9-11 and a Pre-U (A-level equivalent) qualification in Years 12 and 13.  Studying Mandarin Chinese at University is an increasingly popular choice and leads to some very interesting and rewarding careers!

From September 2018, we will be formally working as a Linked Teaching School with the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University.  This will allow us access to many extra-curricular cultural events happening locally, as well as having access to a Foreign Language Assistant.

Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University (CIOBU) was established in September 2015 by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) in partnership with the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) in China. In April 2016, CIOBU officially opened its doors and began working toward promoting Chinese language and culture, offering China-themed activities and events and developing publications on Chinese language and culture in cooperation with presses worldwide. CIOBU provides regular courses in Chinese language and culture for all learners. For more information please visit the website.

Click here for information about the Mandarin Excellence Programme.