Delivering China to the Classroom

As the title credits roll at the start of BBC documentary, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, the narrator tells us of the "ruthless competition" students face in China. This is already a fairly well-known fact in the UK, emphasized here for one main reason – no one loves a competition more than British TV viewers.

The contest at the heart of this new three-part series is not between students though, but rather between the Chinese and British education systems. Five Chinese teachers spent a month at Bohunt School in Hampshire bringing "the unique Chinese style of teaching" to a class of 50 British students, all in preparation for an end of series head-to-head exam against their peers from the more traditional classes.