A PIONEERING school – which has put Mandarin classes on its daily timetable – has employed its first full-time Chinese teacher.

Staff at the St Paul’s Primary School in Withington have welcomed their very first Chinese teacher – Zhang Zie – to their team.

The St Paul’s Road primary school has become a leading light in language education – after becoming one of the first primary schools in Britain to offer regular Chinese lessons to its pupils.

It is also the first school in the country to have been awarded Confucius Classroom status from the Chinese government – who now provide the school with extra funds for educational materials and books, so that it can act as a resource for other schools in the area.

Leaders of St Paul’s Primary have now used some of their extra funding to employ Miss Zhang – who has adopted the English name Jessica – to teach their five to seven-year-old pupils at the school.

Headteacher Don Berry said: “We are very excited by the work that Zhang Zie has begun with our pupils. We are delighted to have her at the school.

“Miss Zhang is teaching our Key Stage One pupils and we are using a method by which she gives them short bursts of Chinese lessons throughout the day, so that we maintain the children’s attention and interest and don’t overwhelm them. We think that learning Chinese will put our children in a very strong position for their future education and careers.”

Miss Zhang – who is originally from Anhui in China – has joined the Withington school after completing a masters in teaching English as a foreign language at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. She also holds a degree from a University in China and has previously taught in Hungary.

Miss Zhang, 24, said: “I really love this job and I am very excited to be working with all of the lovely children here.

“I think that the children are enjoying their classes and it has been great to do activities with them as part of the Chinese New Year, as well as their normal classes.

“I use songs to help the children learn Chinese, because they are young and they like something a bit different.I want to make the classes interesting and fun so that they will enjoy learning the language.”

The school introduced Mandarin classes back in 2007 and is now a teaching hub that promotes the language, with close links to the University of Manchester and local secondary schools.