French without tears as nursery aims to make early start on key language skills

But at one school in Yorkshire children are being encouraged to excel at the subject – from the age of three.

French lessons have been introduced at Fulneck School’s Lambs’ Hill Nursery this year.

The move comes as the school looks to get its pupils comfortable with learning another language from a young age.

As a three-to-18 school, Fulneck hopes that lessons pupils learn in nursery will benefit them as they move to juniors and seniors.

The nursery manager Sue Hodgson, said: “We encourage the children to learn about other countries. A lot of them visit other countries on their holidays and come back showing a greater interest.

“We started by dressing the pupils in traditional French costume.

“We then moved on to colours, telling them what the colours of the French flag are in French and then we have been doing counting to 10 and playing counting games.

“They were so enthusiastic they have been asking us what colours different things are in French and parents have been telling us that their children have been talking in French at home. I think at this age their minds absorb everything.

“We hope that if we can get children interested in a foreign language at a young age they will continue with it throughout the school and by the time they get to GCSE they will be comfortable with it and able to speak French if not fluently then in a conversational way.”

Fulneck School’s principal Trevor Kernohan said the move would benefit pupils as they moved through the school. He added: “You get children from families where parents are from two different countries who grow up as bilingual because they are exposed to the languages from an early age.”

The school is also promoting Spanish as a modern language for senior school students ahead of the more traditional choices of French and German.

First years at Fulneck will study Spanish and then have the option of taking on a second language after this.

Mr Kernohan said: “Spanish is the second most spoken and understood language in the world behind English.”

He also said that the subject had strong pass rates at GCSE.