At Upton the Modern Foreign Language we study is Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin Chinese opens up a world of opportunity . As the most spoken language in the world, it can connect speakers with an exciting and dynamic culture. 

The British Council identifies the priority languages for the UK’s future prosperity, security and influence in the world. The report considers the outlook for the supply and demand for language competence in the years ahead and looks at the linguistic dimension of a variety of economic, geopolitical, cultural and educational factors, scoring languages against these. Mandarin is one of the languages that tops this list. Upton employ a dedicated Mandarin teacher who works with all classes and information about our Mandarin curriculum can be found here.

MFL Immersion Projects allow the opportunity for shared cultural experiences and appreciation of diversity. Upton School are proud to link with Broadstairs English Centre (BEC), who are  ranked inside the top 2% of all accredited English Centres by the British Council, to engage with this venture.

An immersion project involves groups of foreign primary-aged children coming to the school and taking part in lessons with our own pupils. Each visitor is assigned two Upton 'buddies' whose job is it to ensure that they know where to go and what to do. This is an excellent opportunity for our pupils to experience the qualities of leadership, responsibility  and of course our Core Value of Friendship.

During the visit, the foreign students share their culture and language with us and our pupils reciprocate. Across the last 12 months we have welcomed visitors from the Dino Elementary School of Prague, in the Czech Republic, for a one week visit and also 30 Chinese pupils from a school  in Beijing who were with us for a full four weeks!

Upton is home to children who speak many differing languages. Our core MFL is Mandarin but we also have a Language of the Term that children engage with which is linked to the languages our children speak.

In Year 6, our pupils have a long-standing link with Ecole Primaire George Sand in Wattignies, France. Each year pupils from each school correspond with each other via letter and then visit during the summer months. 

Please click  for more information about our visit from Dino Elementary School or to find out more about the Chinese visitors from Beijing or for more information about BEC