SCEN September-October Update
LEARNING MANDARIN:
LET THE VOICE OF YOUNG PEOPLE BE HEARD!
SCEN is working with a number of schools on the organisation of local events to celebrate and promote the learning and teaching of Mandarin. The intention is to reach young people across Scotland who are learning, or who wish to learn, Mandarin. In this we will be supported by the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS) and we will make use of the platforms developed by E-sgoil to bring together young students in schools. Some schools are in direct contact with us. And we hope that individual schools and students who are interested in being part of SCEN Youth Voice will contact us with a view to establishing an online (and eventually, partially, face to face) network of young people operating within SCEN. If you want to find out more please contact Rosemary and Colin Mitchell at youthvoice@scen.info. We are looking to engage with older school students (S5/S6), but also students in S3/S4 to ensure some continuity of SCEN Youth Voice work in future years. Older students can contact us directly. Younger students should contact us via teachers. Rosemary and Colin will be happy to respond to any questions, enquiries etc. Already young people have been involved in the development of the new SCEN website. Now that we are increasingly able to meet face to face, we hope that in the current session we will be able to ensure that young people will be able to meet and that the voice of young people interested in Mandarin will increasingly be at the heart of SCEN work.
THE FUTURE OF MANDARIN LEARNING AND TEACHING: BEYOND THE PANDEMIC
SCEN Trustees met on 16 September and agreed the format of a seminar where we intend that all lead bodies involved in teaching Mandarin in Scotland will be represented. We intend that this will be one of the first face-to-face events of its type post-pandemic, and we are looking to firm up on a suitable venue and time, aiming for November. We are all too aware of the challenges facing Mandarin in schools at the moment, and of the need to persuade young people as they go through their time in school of the importance of some level of knowledge of Mandarin, and the importance of understanding China. All our futures depend on this. This will be our focus, and we intend, as a result of our seminar, to have practical proposals which we will share with the SCEN Network, and all key decision makers in Scotland.
We shall discuss this further at our meeting of the SCEN Advisory Council on 1 October.
CHINESE TEACHING CLUB
The next meeting of the Chinese Teaching Club is scheduled for Friday 12 November at 2pm. For the time being at least we will continue to hold these meetings online, not least recognising the wide geographic spread of Club members. If you are a teacher of Chinese and are interested in being part of our discussions, please contact the Club chair Jean Wang at CTC_Chair@scen.info or Megan Hammell, the SCEN Online Communications and Administrative Officer at admin@scen.info.
NEW SCEN WEBSITE AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
Our new SCEN website, launched in August has been very well received. If you have not yet had a chance to look at it, please do check out its new features and pages. We are working to create and share regular news articles, photographs & videos, and more, so we ask if you have anything you would like us to promote or share, please contact Megan at admin@scen.info. Please also see the bottom of this email for links to our social media.
CHALLENGING TIMES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING
These are challenging times for language learning in schools. The government’s 1 +2 languages policy gave a real impetus to language learning in Scotland a decade ago, but no one could have foreseen the impact that a global pandemic, and other events, would have on all our lives. There is much to build on, especially new ways of working online etc, but many real challenges lie ahead for languages in schools. Mandarin is not exempt from this, and as the importance of China grows: economically, culturally, politically, it is all the more importance that young Scots learn about China in the 21st century, and have the opportunity to learn something of the Mandarin language.
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
SCEN Advisory Council: Friday, 1 October at 14.00 (Online)
The SCEN Advisory Council will meet online to discuss our progress, upcoming events, and more.
Chinese Teaching Club: Friday, 12 November at 15.00 (Online)
If you are a teacher of Mandarin not already signed up to the CTC, and would like to take part in the meeting please contact us on admin@scen.info.
For further information on SCEN activity please do not hesitate to contact us at admin@scen.info.
