British Council Scotland

Natasha Gent (centre left) Director of the Confucius Institute Scotland with Chinese Language Assistants © Sarah Montgomery British Council

Chinese Language Assistants programme is run by the British Council and brings teachers from China for a year to help teach Mandarin and Chinese culture in schools across the UK.

Learning and Teaching Scotland

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) provides advice, support, resources and staff development to the education community, creating a culture of innovation, ambition and excellence throughout Scottish education.

Confucius Classrooms

Confucius Classrooms are local hubs, based in a Scottish school or college, which help stimulate and support innovative teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture. They are developed in partnership as part of International Education in Scottish schools.

Confucius Institute for Scotland

The Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh is a national centre to promote educational, economic, and cultural ties between Scotland and China.

	From Beijing to Edinburgh – an international education

British Council Scotland has introduced a new induction day for the latest group of Chinese language assistants arriving to work in Scottish schools.

The induction course was designed to help assistants become more orientated with living and working in Scotland. The assistants, who come from all over China including Heilongjiang province in the north and Guangdong province in the south are all visiting Scotland for the first time.

They come to the UK to help with the teaching of Mandarin language and Chinese culture as well as to develop their own language skills. As native speakers with access to authentic materials from their home country they can offer pupils a first-hand insight into China across the curriculum as well as providing real-life language practice.

This year ten assistants have been posted to a variety of locations covering 17 Scottish Schools from Ayr to Forfar.

Induction Day

The induction day, hosted by British Council Scotland with the support of Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), the Confucius Institute for Scotland and St George’s School for Girls in Edinburgh, covered a range of Scotland-specific topics.

Assistants were given detailed information on the life of a language assistant including some of the vital day to day tasks of living and working in Scotland. Simply opening a bank account or seeking medical treatment can be difficult if you don’t know how.

The day also covered the work of LTS and the background of the Curriculum for Excellence. They were given information on the eight Confucius Classrooms hubs in Scotland that could provide support and resources for Mandarin teaching. Confucius Institute for Scotland also gave an interesting Chinese perspective on life in Scotland as well as outlining the teaching support they could offer.

The assistants were encouraged to start thinking about active learning and in particular how they could introduce cultural elements into their teaching.

Chinese morning exercises, tea making and Tai Chi were all suggested by assistants as ways to engage with their pupils. During a more light hearted exercise of matching famous Scottish faces to names, an amusing episode led to the mix up of Sean Connery and Kirsty Gallacher!

The induction finished with a reception of Chinese tea and millionaire’s shortbread where the assistants met some of their mentor teachers and local authority co-ordinators before heading off to their new homes for the next nine months.

For more information on foreign language assistants telephone +44 (0)131 525 5717 or email eduardo.lees@britishcouncil.org.