Children make early start on China classes as schools launch lessons

In a bright new classroom on the second floor of a West London building, Christie counts to 10 confidently and then identifies parts of the body when prompted by her teacher.

Not bad for a 3-year-old, but Christie is carrying out the tasks in Mandarin rather than English.

She didn't speak a word of Chinese until eight weeks ago, when her parents enrolled her at Kensington Wade in London, the first prep school in the United Kingdom to offer English and Chinese education to pupils aged 3 to 11.