Student Success at British Council Chinese Speaking Competition

February 2008

Two girls from Grey Coat Hospital took part in this year’s UK National Chinese Speaking Competition. Parents will remember that a group from our school won first prize in last year competition. Congratulations this year go to Halimat Afolabi for winning second prize for her age group and Alice Clark-Edwards for making a strong showing in the same competition in a separate age group. Over 200 students from 50 different schools participated in the competition, making Halimat's and Alice's achievement even more impressive. Halimat's performance was 'very strong', according to Dr Valerie Pellatt, chair person of the panel of judges and a member of Edexcel Board of Examiners for Mandarin. Dominic Regester, from the British Council and the organiser of the whole competition said Alice's performance was 'very good'. Halimat's performance impressed all of the judges and the audience and was by far the most interesting of all of the competitors. She should be extremely proud of a very well-earned second place, narrowly losing out to only a seemingly native-speaking student and Alice should be very happy with an excellent performance following her being part of the winning team last year. Well done, Halimat and Alice, many congratulations from a very happy Mandarin teacher!