SCHOOL NEWS: Mandarin lessons as Neroche pupils go international

PUPILS at Neroche Primary School near Ilminster have been putting their new information technology network to the test by linking up with a classroom more than 5,000 miles away in China.

The school’s Year Six class used its IT system to join up with a classroom in Beijing with the children from Neroche, based at Broadway, having joined an international scheme to take part in a number of lessons to learn how to speak Chinese and to find out more about China over the coming weeks.

Year Six class teacher Kate Humphries said: “With our updated school network, this was too good an opportunity to miss for our children.

“Watching the amazement on the children’s faces as they were being taught on our big screen by a teacher from China was inspirational.”

One pupil, Philip, said: “It’s good to learn different languages, the world is a big place!”

In addition to learning Chinese, Neroche Primary School has developed a link through  Ilminster’s Twinning Committee to work with Ilminster’s twin towns primary school in Riec-Sur-Belon in France.

Neroche children have been exchanging letters with their twin French school to help the children accelerate their knowledge of French.

Headteacher Connel Boyle said: “The world for our primary school children will be a completely different place by the time these children become adults.

“The world is becoming incredibly smaller, our country is becoming more diverse, so to give our children the opportunities to learn foreign languages and appreciate different cultures is a vital part of our curriculum offer to our children.”

PHOTO – TOP: Children at Neroche Primary School in Broadway, near Ilminster, link up with pupils in China.

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