Private school in language and culture deal with China

Brighton College has become the first private school in Britain to go into partnership with the Chinese government to promote the teaching of Mandarin and Chinese culture.

The school has already made the teaching of Mandarin compulsory for all three, four and five-year-olds in its preparatory wing from September.

As a result of an agreement signed with Hanban, the Chinese government department responsible for developing cultural and educational links abroad, it will ead the way in expanding the teaching of Mandarin throughout the British private education system. It will be the first "Confucius centre" in the private sector.

Hanban will supply from its own resources teachers of Mandarin from across China to teach in Brighton and any partner schools it links up with. There will also be a series of joint summer schools and exchange visits with Tsinghua University High School, one of the most prestigious schools in Asia.

Hanban will also provide money for a language centre at Brighton - which will have the latest multimedia and online resources for the teaching of Mandarin and Chinese culture. It has signed an agreement with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to set up similar Confucius centres in state schools. Five have been established so far. Richard Cairns, head at Brighton College, said officials at Hanban recognised that - despite the dramatic reduction in language study in the state sector - the subject was flourishing in the independent sector.

"It made sense for them to look at those institutions which provide the majority of high-achieving modern linguists in the UK," he said. "In China, everybody pays school fees of one sort or another and they can't understand why people here are so hung up about fee-paying schools."

Hanban aims to establish more Confucius centres in UK private schools and has invited 10 heads to meet Education Ministry officials in Beijing early next year.