Graham has been a long-time campaigner for improved chinese teaching provisions in our schools. That's why in 2006 he established a pilot project - 'Broadening Horizons' - which, with the assistance of the Taiwanese Executive, would bring enthusiastic language teachers from Taiwan to state secondaries in his constituency at very little cost to schools involved.

Last year, five schools from Cornwall to Bristol piloted the scheme, with assistants delivering basic Mandarin lessons to pupils in particpating schools and feeder primaries and, in one instance, to the wider community too.

This year his Broadening Horizons scheme will nearly double in size, with nine secondary schools in the South West taking up the initiative and hosting a teaching assistant to sow the seeds for Mandarin teaching.

The participating schools for 2008-2009 are Hayle Community School (Cornwall), Penrice Community College (Cornwall), Pilton Community College (Devon), The Sir John Colfox (Dorset), Kingsmead Community School (Somerset), Huish Episcopi School (Somerset) and The Sir Bernard Lovell School (Oldham Common, Bristol),The John Bentley School (Wiltshire) and The Cotswold School (Gloucestershire).

You can find out more about the activities of these schools via:

Hayle Community School (Cornwall).

Penrice Community School (Cornwall).

Pilton Community College (Devon).

Kinsmead Community School (Somerset).

Huish Episcopi School (Somerset).

Sir John Colfox School (Dorset).

Sir Bernard Lovell School (Bristol).

The Cotswold School (Gloucestershire).

The John Bentley School (Wiltshire).

The Broadening Horizons Conference 2008

To tie-in with the arrival of the nine teaching assistants and a visit to the South West from EU Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban, Graham has arranged for a Conference to take place at the University of Exeter on the growing importance of teaching emerging world languages in our schools.