I would like my children, ages 11 and 8 to learn Mandarin when we move to Brisbane. Could anyone please tell me if there are any such schools that teaches Mandarin, preferably Christian schools in or around Brisbane, even as far south as the Gold Coast area.

Also what are the better suburbs to live in with children? Thanks for any feedback.

Doubt if you'll find many mainstream schools that teaches Mandarin as part of the curriculum. Most parents who want their kids to learn a special language send them to classes on Saturday mornings. This is quite common and a lot of languages are supported (here in Sydney, anyway).

Checkout Holy Spirit School http://www.bne.catholic.edu.au/pub/p...p?schoolid=203 in Brisbane. Apparantly they do Mandarin classes

We have Indonesian around here, but not heard of one that does Mandarin yet.

I'll try to keep my ear to the ground though, we do have a couple of Chinese Churches in the area, so who knows

Lots of schools offer Japanese, French and German lessons, but few do Chinese/Mandarin.

You may find some information from some of the links in Queensland Studies Authority site under LOTE (language other than English).

Or [http://www.learningplace.com.au/defa...d=209]Learning Place[/URL] may also be helpful.

Or you can check the AISQ site and click on the schools individually and find out if they offer Chinese as part of their LOTE curriculum.

A couple of boys' schools that offer Chinese/Mandarin classes are:
Anglican Church Grammar School

Brisbane Grammar School

I haven't yet searched through all the schools but am sure there are co-ed or girls schools that offer Chinese classes.

Cheers,
Mrs JTL