The Fourth Annual Conference of Association of Chinese Teachers in the UK, alongside the awards ceremony for the Fifth European Chinese Teaching Skills Competition, was held on 31st January in London.
Experts, scholars, frontline teachers and institutional representatives from the UK, Ireland and across Europe gathered to share teaching practices, academic insights and recent developments in Chinese language education.
The competition was divided into two categories, university/adult learners and primary/secondary education, further strengthening professional exchange across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. A total of 128 teachers from 36 institutions in the UK and Ireland took part in the preliminary round. After a selection process, 46 participants advanced to the semi-finals, with 24 finalists competing in the final round.
The competition combined in-person presentations with online live-streaming, broadening opportunities for observation, professional learning and experience-sharing among educators.
According to the organisers, the final round imposed higher requirements on lesson plans and teaching materials. All submissions were newly designed, challenging participants to demonstrate clear learning objectives, classroom organisation and creative teaching approaches within a limited time frame, reflecting the competition’s strong professional focus and academic rigour.
In the university/adult category, Wu Sihan from De Montfort University received the Creative Teaching Award. Li Yiran from the University of Edinburgh won first prize, followed by Zhao Zhisheng from De Montfort University in second place. Zheng Yi from the University of Hull and Shen Yinlu from the University of Nottingham were awarded third prize.
In the primary and secondary school category, Luo Liqiu from the London Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine received the Creative Teaching Award. Zhang Ruonan from Queen’s University Belfast won first prize, while Qu Tianying and Jiang Xin, both from the London Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine, received second and third prizes respectively.
Addressing the event, Zhou Wei, Minister Counsellor for Education at the Chinese Embassy in the UK, highlighted the continued growth of Chinese language education in Britain. She noted that the UK currently hosts 30 Confucius Institutes and 165 Confucius Classrooms, with more than ten institutes successfully renewing their agreements in 2025.
Chinese has increasingly entered primary and secondary school curricula and is gradually being incorporated into national examination systems. More than 100,000 school pupils across the UK now study Chinese on a weekly basis. Across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, over 120 schools and nearly 700 students participate annually in the “Chinese Bridge” competition series. In addition, more than 1,200 students and teachers involved in the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) have travelled to China to take part in summer camps, International Chinese Language Day activities and educational seminars.
Zhou emphasised that Chinese language education is increasingly integrating with professional and vocational education, contributing to broader China literacy among the UK’s Generation Z. She added that a diverse, resilient and multi-layered international Chinese education network is gradually taking shape, with further opportunities expected as UK-China relations continue to stabilise.
The academic exchange sessions featured keynote lectures by Yin Haijie, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, on the importance of imagination in education. Professor Joël Bellassen, former Inspector General for Chinese Language Education at the French Ministry of Education and former President of the European Association of Chinese Language Teachers, spoke on epistemological challenges in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
The conference also included an interactive “Annual Highlights” segment, showcasing outstanding learners such as Lily Branden from Ysgol Eirias in Wales, winner of the intermediate category at the UK regional round of the 18th Chinese Bridge Secondary School Competition and a UK representative at the global finals in China, as well as Atom Uniacke and Solo Uniacke, award winners at the global finals of the Chinese Bridge Primary School Chinese Show.
During the event, the UK Chinese Testing Committee presented awards recognising outstanding Chinese examination centres for 2025. London Mandarin School, Harris Federation, Glasgow Chinese School, Colchester County High School for Girls and Robin Hood Academy were named Best Examination Centres, while Jeannine Manuel School, Milton Keynes Chinese School, Orpington Chinese School and Reading Chinese School received Outstanding Centre awards.
Founded in 2019, the UK Chinese Language Teachers Association is a professional academic organisation centred on Chinese language teachers and is the first association in Europe dedicated to supporting local teachers in mainstream primary and secondary schools. Over the years, it has organised Chinese Bridge competitions, teacher training programmes, teaching skills competitions and academic seminars, using competition-led learning and professional exchange to enhance the quality of Chinese language education.
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