Young kids attend a London Chinese language school. Photo: CNSphoto

One of the first few Chinese-English immersion schools in Britain officially opened in south London, joining the continuing zeal there and beyond for learning Chinese.

Petts Wood Mandarin-English Preschool, which opened Friday at Bromley in southeastern suburb of London, is also the very first Chinese immersion preschool founded in partnership with a church in Britain, according to the school website.

After three years of planning and preparation, the school draws expertise on Chinese immersion learning from Europe, the US and China. It offers Chinese and English bilingual immersive education for children aged 2 to 5.

Xu Zhi, head teacher of Petts Wood, said the preschool offers up to 25 places and six children registered prior to the opening, with many families signed up for trial lessons in the next few weeks.

"I had the idea of establishing a bilingual preschool since three years ago when I realized that more and more British families want an earlier start for their children's Chinese learning," Xu, who has run a successful weekend Chinese school in Bromley since 2006, told the Xinhua News Agency.

Many high school students in Britain also learn Chinese at school for two or three hours each week, but that is not enough and also a bit late for language learning, she explained.

Rigorous scientific research has shown evidence that bilingual education not only benefits children from a language learning perspective, but also in cognitive and intellectual development.

The local community showed huge interests and support to the newly established preschool.

Bromley Councillor Kim Botting, who has visited China three times, is very optimistic about Britain-China education exchanges. While attending the opening ceremony Friday, Botting called the school a "wonderful and fantastic thing" for the community.

In November 2019, inspector from the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) said the office was very happy to issue registration certificate to the preschool.

In recent years Britain has seen a rise in interest in learning and teaching Chinese as a second language. In 2015 , Britain's Department for Education launched a new 10 million pound ($13.1 million) initiative to expand Chinese teaching in state schools across the country. Hundreds of pupils are taking part in the program, which aims to make at least 5,000 young people fluent in Chinese by 2020.

A Chinese-English nursery named Hatching Dragons was established in London in 2015, accepting babies from as young as 6 months to 5 years old. Two years later, the first bilingual English and Chinese primary school was opened at Kensington, London.