Mandarin first for MVC
5th September 2016
Students at Melbourn are at the cutting edge of language learning.
The Year 7 intake will be learning Mandarin at the only school in Cambridgeshire to offer it as part of the curriculum.
“We are now offering two world languages to our Year 7 students, bucking the national trend for languages within the curriculum,” said Principal Simon Holmes. “We are increasingly part of a global society and by introducing Mandarin alongside Spanish, we aim to give MVC students every advantage we can.”
Melbourn already has a number of existing links with China, its language and culture. One of the governors, Prof Hans van de Ven, is a Chinese historian at Cambridge University and another, Katharine Carruthers, is a nationally and internationally-renowned expert on the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in schools.
She played a key role in helping the college recruit new Mandarin teacher Frank Fan, who will also be offering older and younger students the opportunity to learn the language.
There are plans to follow up Melbourn’s successful Year 5 Mandarin Day, which took place last term, by offering its partner primary schools Mr Fan’s services.
And students in Years 8-10 can sign up to learn not only the language but also some Chinese culture as part of Melbourn’s brand new enrichment programme which starts next week (w/c Sept 12).
The college’s timetable has been revamped with lessons now finishing at 3.00pm. Between 3.00 and 4.00pm students have the opportunity to sign up for a wide range of activities each day. As well as Chines, there is everything from sports, to singing, film club to computers, drama to pottery and dressmaking.
All the activities run by MVC staff are being offered free, with a small charge only where a specialist external provider is brought in. The college are also offering a minibus service home.
Mr Holmes said: “We have shortened the lunch break and by running activities after school instead it means we can offer higher quality activities of a better length rather than it all being squashed into lunch.
“Our long term vision is that every student will be taking part in some form of enrichment every single day.”
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