UK's first bilingual Mandarin nursery school expands

Children play at the Hatching Dragons English/Mandarin nursery school in London. [File Photo: youth.cn]

The UK's first bilingual English/Mandarin nursery school has expanded due to high demand.

Hatching Dragons, which launched in 2015, was the first nursery school in the UK to give children the chance to learn at a young age in both English and Mandarin.

It has recently launched its second school, in Richmond (West London). The first is located at the Barbican in Central London.

Apparently, Hatching Dragons has proved to be so popular that there are now plans for a third school in Canary Wharf (in East London) and a fourth in the heart of Central London in Westminster.

The study of Mandarin is growing in popularity in British schools.

A few months ago, we reported that The British government had launched a Mandarin Excellence Programme.

The scheme, which is being run in partnership with the British Council, will see some 5,000 secondary school children study the language by 2020.

They'll spend on average eight hours a week learning Mandarin, lead by expert teachers, alongside their existing studies.

It's expected that the Mandarin Excellence Programme will also enable children to have greater opportunities to travel to China.