THE first group to study Chinese at Heathfields School have received outstanding GCSE results last week.

A class of 24 students took up Mandarin as their second language five years ago and 20 of them achieved A*s, with the remaining four getting As.

The new head teacher who will start on September 1, Anne Stevens said: "About the Chinese, she said "This is one of the many really outstanding features of Heathfield, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone there."

She campioned the work of their teacher, Shani Dovell, a native Chinese speaker, who has been working with the group from the beginning. She said: "Shani worked them hard but made them enjoy it as well. One of them came up to me on results day and said she was going to carry on with the subject at university."

Many of the class will go on to take the subject for AS and A-level in the coming years, which has proved so popular that it is now being run for year 6 pupils.

The school organises a trip to China every two years and last summer they visited schools in Beijing, where the girls were able to converse with students in Mandarin.