GCSE Chinese Mandarin
exam board: edexcel
A two-year course building confident, accurate Mandarin across listening, speaking, reading and writing — exploring the everyday life and culture of the Chinese-speaking world through five themes, and providing a firm foundation for A Level.
We use an active-learning, immersive approach that builds language through real contexts and authentic materials. The course is structured around five themes — identity and culture; local area, holiday and travel; school; future aspirations, study and work; and the international and global dimension — each studied in the context of both the UK and Chinese-speaking countries. Students learn to refer to past, present and future events, to express and justify opinions, and to read and write in Chinese characters (simplified or traditional), with translation both into and out of Chinese developed throughout.
Year 10
| Theme | topic knowledge & skills | |
|---|---|---|
| Theme 1Identity & Culture |
Who Am I? Me, my family and friends. Work explores relationships, life when I was younger, what my friends and family are like and what makes a good friend, interests, socialising with friends and family, and the people we look up to as role models. |
Daily & Cultural Life Everyday life and culture. Work explores customs, food and drink and shopping, social media and technology and their pros and cons, then cultural life: celebrations and festivals, reading, music, sport, film and television. |
| Theme 2Local Area, Holiday & Travel |
Holidays & Travel
Getting away. Work explores holiday preferences, experiences and destinations, then the practical language of travel: transport and accommodation, asking for help and dealing with problems, directions, eating out and shopping. |
Town, Region & Country
Where we live. Work explores the weather, places to see and things to do in our own local area and in towns, regions and countries across the Chinese-speaking world. |
| Theme 3School |
What School Is Like
School life here and in China. Work compares school types and a typical school day, subjects, rules and pressures, and how success is celebrated. |
School Activities
Beyond the classroom. Work explores school trips, events and exchanges, giving students the chance to narrate past experiences and describe future plans. |
Year 11
| Theme | topic knowledge & skills | |
|---|---|---|
| Theme 4Future Aspirations, Study & Work |
Languages & Ambitions Looking ahead. Work explores using languages beyond the classroom — forming relationships, travel and employment — and students’ ambitions for further study, volunteering and training. |
Work
The world of work. Work explores jobs, careers and professions, and the language needed to describe and discuss working life in the UK and in Chinese-speaking countries. |
| Theme 5International & Global Dimension | Bringing the World Together
A connected world. Work explores international sports and music events, and the campaigns and good causes that bring people together across borders. |
Environmental Issues
Caring for the planet. Work explores what it means to be ‘green’ and the challenge of access to natural resources, comparing attitudes and action in the UK and China. |
| Spring & Summer | Revision & Exams
The final stretch. Revision is active: the five themes revisited, vocabulary and grammar consolidated, translation and writing technique sharpened, past papers practised, and speaking — role play, picture-based task and conversation — rehearsed ahead of the oral exam in April/May. |
All candidates sit four externally assessed papers, each worth 25%, at the end of Year 11. Students are entered for either Foundation or Higher tier across all papers. No dictionaries are permitted in any paper.
Paper 1: Listening
Understanding spoken Chinese in a range of public and social settings, with multiple-response and short-answer questions set in English. Includes 5 minutes’ reading time.
Paper 3: Reading
Comprehension of written Chinese — adverts, emails, letters, articles and literary texts — plus translation of a short passage from Chinese into English.
Paper 2: Speaking
Internally conducted, externally assessed
Three tasks after 12 minutes’ preparation: a role play (10), a picture-based task (24) and a conversation on two themes (36), one of which the student chooses in advance.
Paper 4: Writing
Open-response writing tasks in Chinese of increasing length, in formal and informal registers, plus translation from English into Chinese. Simplified or traditional characters may be used.