Advising, Supporting, Innovating - what ever your needs, we are here to help.
Come and see us at the Primary Language Show where we are presenting the new TDA backed Scheme of Work for KS2 Mandarin Chinese developed in association with CILT.
We have developed Bamboo Learning from 'just' teaching face to face to providing consulting on leadership in this area so important to national competitiveness and global social harmony. We are always leading. We search for new opportunities that help move the agenda of children building relationships with China that last into adulthood onwards and upwards. We value the views of every stakeholder from parents to EU commissioners to curriculum developers in the States to HanBan in China. And lets not forget about children and young people - their views count too. So please, if you have views to share or need advice just contact us. We always learn from listening to others and invariably can help you too whether you are new to Chinese or have a view on some aspect of Chinese pedagogy for Western children.
Current areas of interest include:
- understanding and developing how different instructional strategies for different ages work e.g. from inter-cultural inquiry based story telling for KS1 and 2 to the use of current affairs material for ASL learning within Diplomas drawing from MBA teaching
- researching next practice e.g. how ‘Knowledge about Language’ (KAL) and ‘Language Learning Strategies’ (LLS), both part of the National Languages Framework, operate in the classroom and connect learning Chinese to general literacy
- mapping different stakeholders and linking them towards a better strategy for teaching Chinese and learning about China as a child
- understanding and ensuring how all that we do reflects government strategy around competing with and collaborating with China on socio-economic- political issues, as well as learning to understand China as a market for British goods and services
- learning from different national country strategies towards children learning about China and learning Mandarin Chinese including the USA, Australia and Singapore
- assessing and developing a wide range of free and commercial resources that blend Western pedagogy with native quality learning and teaching of Mandarin Chinese and the culture it represents
- understanding how the comparative evolution of the Chinese culture and language versus the English language and British culture can inform how children learn
- working to develope how native Chinese teachers can work best with British teachers to learn from each other, sharing best practice and generating next practice
We are always looking to share our views and to learn from others so please contact us, we will return your contact in 24 hours Contact us
Why trust us?
Commissioned by the UK based TDA (Training and Development Agency for Schools) in partnership with CILT - the National Centre for Languages we are developing the curriculum / Scheme of Work for Mandarin Chinese for KS2 (ages 7-11). These policy makers selected us because of the pilot work we delivered to them. We were the first to win a Linked Up grant working with teachers in the area of Chinese. We are also working on an innovative proposal to drive Mandarin Chinese ASL within the Diploma through current affairs using pegdagogy inspired by MBA teaching. We are innovative through informed and considered thinking.
Inquiry based and motivational, we link to any area of the curriculum (KS1, KS2, KS3, KS4). Ever thought of Chinese and Science? Chinese and Philosophy? Chinese and Climate Change? Our linguistic knowledge of Chinese combined with our knowledge of China linked to our leading edge innovative pedagogy, creates amazing teaching and learning. We have resources we can adapt to your needs in terms of timing and budget. Our work empowers children to work out for themselves why Chinese and China are so very relevant to their future.
Contact us for free advice on teaching Mandarin Chinese to children.
We understand the technical areas of learning Mandarin Chinese. Name it and we are informed about it or are doing academic research in the area. From the downsides of pin-yin to alternative learning strategies for Chinese characters, to ways of perfecting pronunciation including tones, to how to create the best foundation around sentence patterning to ensure rapid confident progress thereafter - ask us for free advice. We like to share our views and hear your views on children learning Mandarin Chinese.
We have 3 websites that support our vision of more children learning Mandarin Chinese in ways that motivate the child /student and promote inter-cultural understanding.
The Chinese Staffroom provides free resources, articles, jobs and general advice. Whether you are an established teacher or wanting to understand more about Mandarin Chinese, you will gain from visiting this FREE website. Can you afford not to look?
Mandarama, our unique practice playground just for kids learning Mandarin Chinese provides a fun supplement to text books for your children learning Chinese. Accessed at home AND at school, the sound helps improve pronunciation, something text books lack. Value for money subscriptions for parents and schools. There are FREE games at the end of the guest tour. Go on, try them, they are free!
Our third website is this one, Bamboo Learning, that provides general information about our workshops, face to face lessons, consultancy to schools and policy makers, who we are and how we can defend our claim to be the experts - everything to do with us and our vision for children learning Mandarin Chinese.
