SCEN January 2022 Update

Happy New Year 2022! 新年快乐 2022！

Welcome back to the new school term. We had all hoped that the start of 2022 would see signs of the end of the global pandemic and the start of a return to normality in schools and other educational institutions. Sadly, this is not the case and students, teachers, and parents face another challenging period of great uncertainty.

However, the last two years have taught teachers and students to be innovative in their practice with the result that quality education continues even in the most difficult of circumstances. Language teaching faces particular challenges, especially Mandarin, as it is still relatively new in the schools where it is taught. There is no embedded tradition in Scotland of learning and teaching Mandarin, and still the majority of our young people have no real opportunity to learn the language. This is something we aim to change.

SCEN is pleased to present strong recommendations as to the path ahead, based on the outcome to the hybrid roundtable event we held in Edinburgh in November. We hope our report will be widely circulated and read, and that the recommendations from the discussions are widely followed up. You will see that there are recommendations for SCEN as well which will form an integral part of our future work.

 THE FUTURE OF MANDARIN LEARNING AND TEACHING: BEYOND THE PANDEMIC - REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Click here for the report and recommendations on The Future of Mandarin Learning and Teaching which follow from the hybrid roundtable discussion held on 18 November in the Corn Exchange, Edinburgh and online. Senior stakeholders involved in Mandarin teaching took part in the event.  Discussion focused on three key areas:

-          Engaging with young people

-          Encouraging more schools to engage with Mandarin

-          Working together and sharing experience and best practice

In each of these areas participants put forward clear and concrete suggestions to take forward in school, local authority, and at national level.

China as a country continues to grow in importance across the world stage. It is vital that young people in Scotland have the opportunity to learn something of the Mandarin language and culture, and engage with the emerging generation of Chinese people.

We trust the paper will be widely circulated and discussed and will help support a new momentum across the country in the learning of Mandarin.

In the course of the discussion, all participants agreed to the importance of young people in Scotland learning Mandarin, and that young people themselves are the best ambassadors of Mandarin language learning.

 YOUTH VOICE IN SCEN

One of the main areas of recommendation in our report is the need to engage with young people. SCEN’s Youth Voice is a vital component in achieving this. We intend to develop this in 2022, building on the success of a Youth Summit event held in Grove Academy, Dundee in November, which was hosted and partly organised by young people in the school. In the Spring of 2022, we intend to organise an event in Edinburgh, and hope to bring together a number of schools. In the summer term we intend to organise a similar event in the west of Scotland.  At the same time, we intend to build up the number of SCEN ambassadors representing SCEN and its goals in schools. It is also our aim to work with e-Sgoil, and with the support of the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS), to bring young people associated with SCEN together online to discuss and encourage the next generation of potential learners of Mandarin.

For further information on Youth Voice within SCEN, and to become involved, contact Rosemary and Colin Mitchell at youthvoice@secn.info.

CHINESE TEACHING CLUB

We are finalising dates for the SCEN Chinese Teaching Club meetings for 2022 (probably continuing to meet online). In this we are encouraging discussion among teachers of Chinese across Scotland. A key area of discussion is about building up teaching materials for the Teaching Zone on the SCEN website. If you are interested in becoming involved in the work of the Teaching Club, and/or in sharing teaching materials, contact Megan Hammell, Online Communication and Administrative Officer for SCEN at admin@scen.info.

SCEN WEBSITE

Please have a look at the new SCEN Website if you have not already had a chance to do so. We are still looking to populate some of the pages, so any relevant articles, photographs, ideas are welcome, all to do with promoting the learning of Mandarin across Scotland. If you have any ideas, or relevant materials, please contact Megan Hammell at admin@scen.info

CROSS PARTY GROUP ON CHINA

Representatives of SCEN play an active part in the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on China which has just been reconstituted following parliamentary elections in 2021. The next meeting is scheduled online for Tuesday 18 January at 18.00. If you are interested in becoming involved, please contact Siyi Chen at crosspartygrouponchina@gmail.com.

THANKS TO JACK SIMPSON

Jack Simpson, a supporter of SCEN from its inception and, in recent years a Trustee, stepped down as a Trustee late last year due to the pressure of his current work for City of Edinburgh Council. As Headteacher of Leith Academy, Jack was instrumental in setting up one of the early Confucius Hub schools in Scotland, a Hub which continues to thrive. We have conveyed our thanks to Jack for all his work in taking forward the Mandarin agenda, and know that as a continuing member of the SCEN network he will have many future contributions to make. SCEN is always looking for committed people to work with us, and anyone interested in working for SCEN in whatever capacity should contact Megan Hammell at admin@scen.info.

SCEN is a Network of people committed to the promotion of the learning of Chinese language and culture in schools. If you are interested, please join us, and do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

Best wishes to all for 2022!

Simon Macaulay
Chair
SCEN