On Tuesday 27 June 2023, year 10 pupils from Calday Grange Grammar School, Cowley International College and Shevington High School visited Lancaster University. These schools are part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme where Chinese is taught as part of the curriculum and the pupils had been invited to learn more about studying languages at Lancaster University.

With a full day of activities planned, Derek Hird, Head of the Department of Languages and Cultures, lead the first session on Chinese poetry as an introduction to learning Chinese culture at university.

The pupils were then given a campus tour by student ambassadors so that they could see different elements of the campus, including the Confucius Institute.

Lancaster University Confucius Institute Teaching Lead, Jocelin Lingxia Zhou, lead a session on Chinese language to give the pupils an experience of what studying Chinese language is like at university.

Cyrille Rollet, Senior Teaching Associate in French, gave the pupils an informative presentation on studying languages at university.

After lunch, the pupils had the opportunity to speak to four students from the Department of Languages and Cultures: Aron O’Shea and Emily Cochrane who are studying Modern Languages (French, Spanish and Chinese), Martha Harwood who is studying French and Chinese and Kate Wyld who is studying Politics with Chinese. The pupils asked the students questions about their experience and advice about studying languages at university, the International Placement Year, student experience and job opportunities.

During the final session, the pupils watched the videos that each school had created using their Chinese language skills and voted for: the winner, the best use of Chinese, the most creative video and best teamwork.

The pupils had a fantastic day experiencing life at university and learning about studying languages and cultures at Lancaster University.