Beckton school’s language award at international conference
Kingsford community school head teacher Joan Deslandes received the award from Madam Liu Yandong, Education State Councillor for the People's Republic of China - Credit: Archant
Students at a secondary school have received an award at an international conference in China, for the teaching of Mandarin.
Kingsford Community School, in Kingsford Way, Beckton, was given the Hanban award for Best Confucius Classroom in the World 2012 at the seventh Global Confucius Institute Conference in Beijing.
It is the only one out of 535 Confucius Classrooms worldwide to win the status of best centre of Mandarin teaching for school learners.
The award was presented to headteacher Joan Deslandes who said: “The Confucius movement is like being part of an international family which touches every part of the world and works together to improve the life chances of young people everywhere.
“I am truly overjoyed that Kingsford’s Mandarin teaching programme is not only globally recognised but also confirmed as being the best in the world.”
The school was one of the first in the UK to introduce Mandarin to its curriculum in 2001.
In 2007 it was granted the status of a Confucius Classroom by Hanban, the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.
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Since then the school has worked with the Institute of Education in China and Hanban to develop its own Chinese learning programme.
Its Mandarin teaching was developed and supervised by Ms Linying Liu who devised resources lacking on a national scale.
