All CLAs are qualified teachers in China and return to their Chinese schools at the end of the year. This is an academic year exchange and the programme takes people directly out of the country and culture for a year so that they arrive not only with their country's culture embedded in their thinking and way of life but they return to China with new perspectives, ideas and understanding.

Chinese Language Assistants (CLAs) can work in a wide range of ways to bring the language alive in a classroom. Depending on the current provision of Mandarin in your school, they are able to:

• work with Chinese teachers in the classroom if Chinese is already formally taught at your school;
• work on their own with groups of pupils if they are introducing Mandarin Chinese to your school;
• work across the curriculum, contributing a Chinese perspective to enrich other subjects like art and design, technology, geography and history etc, or
• run lunchtime Chinese clubs where the focus is mainly on Chinese culture.

A CLA can be used to help set up/support existing international links with schools in China and develop joint curriculum projects.

The host school must pay the assistant’s allowance for a minimum of 9.5 months at rates set by the relevant government body each year. In 2011-2012 the salary for 12 teaching hours per week is £879 per month. Assistants working in the London area will receive London weighting allowance. Teachers from China should not have to pay UK income tax due to the Double Taxation Agreement.

The Chinese assistants’ travel and visa costs are paid for through the British Council.

Once you have been allocated an assistant, one school needs to be the ‘Host School’ for the CLA and co-ordinate the timetable and arrival arrangements with any partner schools. You will need to write an offer of appointment and a contract, a pro-forma for both is available on our 'Contacting your Assistant’ page.

The British Council provides a booklet on the administrative procedures for both schools and assistants which covers important issues such as registering with a doctor, completing income tax forms and opening a bank account. The link to the booklet will be sent along with your assistant’s dossier. See this year’s booklet here.

Each school must also appoint a mentor teacher who is the assistant’s main contact both prior to arrival and during their assistantship.