TEACHERS at an Oxford school where pupils learn Mandarin have welcomed plans by one of the country's biggest exam boards to introduce a new GCSE in Chinese.

Pupils at the independent secondary girls' school Oxford High School, in North Oxford, begin to learn Mandarin, as well as French, as soon as they start at the age of 11.

Deputy headteacher Dr Peter Secker said youngsters were jumping at the chance to study Chinese, and most opted to continue with it to exam level.

He said: "It's a challenging subject, but the students appear to be engaging with it and enjoying it.

"We want our students to have the opportunity, if they wish to in due course, to take the GCSE and further if and when appropriate.

"The reason we chose Mandarin and French is because we wanted to make sure we were teaching students the language and culture of two very different countries.

"In the past, Mandarin has been thought of as a hard GCSE for a non-native speaker and we have written to all the exam boards and contacted them about this.

"We want there to be future developments so we will see how we go from there."

Year Seven students were full of praise for the language.

Eleanor McKelvey said: "I love Mandarin. I love learning about the culture and it's really new to me. It's so different."

Mina Doherty said: "Mandarin is a growing language.

"I think that it is a useful language to learn.

"I'm enjoying it and I think more children should learn Mandarin."

Exam board AQA said it would be offering a GCSE in Chinese from September 2009.

The Edexcel exam board offers a GCSE in Mandarin, although this exam is considered to be very hard for non-native speakers.

Oxford Community School, in Glanville Road, already put a handful of native Chinese speakers in for the Edexcel GCSE.