Shanghai — BBC Worldwide and Smart English, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Popular Holdings Limited, announced at the GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, that it has officially started the roll out of its learning centres in China with the first CBeebies-themed English language learning centre in Shanghai opening its doors in mid 2015.
The launch of the CBeebies learning centre is part of a collaboration agreement signed in late 2014 with Popular Holdings to license a selection of BBC Worldwide’s brands and intellectual property for use in English language learning centres as well as English language learning courses. The Shanghai centre will be followed by Beijing and other major provinces in mainland China and Hong Kong in the medium term.
The GREAT Festivals of Creativity aim to demonstrate that Britain is the most creative nation globally and that British companies are the best partners to do business with. The Festivals are unique partnerships between UK Government and the private sector, using creativity throughout all sectors as a theme to capture the innovative edge that British businesses bring to markets around the globe.
The learning centres are initially aimed at 3−6 year olds and will use some of CBeebies’ best known and most iconic characters and content to introduce new, fun and effective learning experiences to Chinese pupils.
Pre-school content from programmes such as Sarah & Duck, Numtums, Nina and The Neurons and many others, will feature as part of the curriculum being developed with Popular, to bring learning to life echoing the brand’s Lighting Up Little Learnersethos.
Tim Davie, Chief Executive of BBC Worldwide said, “The CBeebies Learning Centre in Shanghai, the first of its kind worldwide, is an example of how we’ve combined the best of British educational values with the reputation of the BBC and English learning overseas to create a product that provides a strong foundation for pre-schoolers to enter the school in China and will set the benchmark for the way children learn English in non-English speaking countries.”
“I am very excited that we will be able to bring these CBeebies values through the curriculum in our learning centres. We have worked with proven experts to deliver a product that is specially tailored for the Chinese market. I believe that the combination of our much loved characters and rich video content will offer children in China a unique learning experience,” added Pierre Cheung, VP & GM Greater China.
The CBeebies Learning Centre in Shanghai is just the first step in our partnership with BBC Worldwide to deliver quality education to pupils in China. We have plans to grow the curriculum, reaching more students in China and Hong Kong to give them a headstart in school. We are confident of its success,” said Ponch Poon, CEO, Popular Holdings, Greater China.
