Putonghua has advantages for UK's disadvantaged students

Learning Putonghua can change your life and provide opportunities for social advancement that may never have been possible before. At least this is what pupils at a school in one of London's most deprived areas have found thanks to a new HSBC-funded scholarship to allow top students to attend a private school as long as they continue their Putonghua lessons.

Kingsford Community School in the East End was the first state school in Britain, in 2001, to include Putonghua in the curriculum.

'I wanted all pupils to start from the same point with a language they did not encounter before,' said Joan Deslandes, head of Kingsford in the borough of Newham, which is ethnically the most diverse district in Britain. Pupils at the school speak about 50 languages.

The HSBC scholarship programme is a first for Britain. The bank, which has its world headquarters in Docklands, just a few miles from Kingsford, has agreed to provide two funded places for two years from September at Brighton College, a leading private boarding school on the south coast. This will allow the Kingsford candidates to pursue A-levels while continuing with Putonghua in a well resourced and supportive academic environment where pupils routinely have high aspirations.

The contrast between Kingsford and Brighton College, with pupils from professional backgrounds and wealthy overseas families, including a strong Hong Kong and mainland contingent, could not be more marked.