On 7th February 2017, the final of the 2016-2017 HSBC/British Council Mandarin Chinese Speaking Competition was held at the British Museum. This event was co-organized by HSBC and the British Council.
Fortismere School was represented by one Year 8 student (Hector Farr) and four Year 10 students (Maya Sutton-Patel, Lulu Betteridge, Oryna Goichuk, Esme Whelan). Their exceptional group performance of “Judge Bao and a Case” deservingly won the 1st prize. Their performance had an imaginative plot, excellent pronunciation and intonation, smooth stage performance as well as vivid traditional costumes and props. As a reward for winning this competition, the students will be awarded a week-long trip to Beijing in early April.
Before the competition, the students and accompanying teachers from Fortismere School were asked to meet Nick Gibb, British Minister for State of Schools.
The competition was reported by China Daily who stated that since 2003, more than 2500 young people have entered the speaking competition. This has helped to inspire hundreds of students to further their language studies.
Fortismere School is one of the biggest secondary schools in north London and currently has over 258 students learning Chinese. The Chinese classes are supported by the Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine (CITCM) at London South Bank University. In addition to supporting Fortismere with Mandarin learning, CITCM has helped to organise a variety of extracurricular activities, such as Chinese Kongfu, calligraphy, Chinese knot, and paper-cutting. CITCM is very pleased to be working with a school that pays such great attention to Mandarin learning.
CITCM would like to congratulate the students for winning this prestigious competition.