A BOHUNT School student has won a trip to Beijing after winning the national final of the British Council and HSBC’s Mandarin Chinese Speaking Competition.

After impressing the judges with her language skills at one of two regional heats, held in London in December, 13-year-old Lila Marshman competed in the beginner category in the grand final at the British Museum on February 9.

This was the third year in a row that a Bohunt student had made the final.

The nationwide competition aims to encourage more interest in Chinese language and culture – which is vital to the UK’s future prosperity.

Not only is Mandarin Chinese already spoken by more than a billion people worldwide, but China is recognised as the world’s second largest economy and could potentially take the top spot from the United States by 2050.

The competition is aimed at students who are non-native speakers, who have started learning Mandarin Chinese recently. In the past 13 years, it has helped inspire hundreds of young people to further their Mandarin studies – some going on to graduate in Mandarin Chinese.

Lila, and the other winners from each category, will visit China, where they will have the opportunity to put their Mandarin to good use and experience Chinese culture first-hand.

Marcus Carter, an alumnus of Bohunt, gained a place on the trip two years ago through the competition.

Bohunt headteacher Neil Strowger said: “Lila is one of over 400 students at Bohunt who is learning Mandarin.

“Furthermore, many of them are learning it through an immersion method where a third of their timetable is delivered in Chinese. We are proud of Lila’s success, which is testimony to the students’ enjoyment of the subject, their hard work and the high quality of teaching they are receiving.

“Further recognition of our innovations with regards to language teaching can be found in our ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted report, which commented on the impact they were having across the whole school, not just in languages.”