For most 12-year-olds, formal exams and qualifications still seem a lifetime away.

But Sheffield’s Will Keogh already has, not one, but two language international GCSEs graded at the highest level, after spending nearly a year adventuring in Europe.

Will, who is home-schooled, has achieved level 9s - the highest grade attainable - in both French and German in the qualification.

His exceptional passes came after an unorthodox mode of language learning. While most young people learning languages might visit the country once or twice for a short school trip, Will instead was enrolled in an exchange programme which saw him spend six months at a time in both Germany and France living with a host family.

Will Keogh from Sheffield has passed iGCSEs in French and German, by the age of 12, at the highest level possible. He has spent a year abroad alone, first in Germany, then in France, in order to fully immerse himself in the language learning.

placeholder image — Will Keogh from Sheffield has passed iGCSEs in French and German, by the age of 12, at the highest level possible. He has spent a year abroad alone, first in Germany, then in France, in order to fully immerse himself in the language learning.

Will’s mother Bron Keogh said: “We heard about the exchange company, Allef, when Will was about two.

“When he was about eight-and-a-half, we contacted the company, set up a visit from Germany and went from there.”

Will’s first exchange was to a host family in Berlin. For six months he was expected to fully immerse himself in German life and culture, and to keep speaking English to a bare minimum, only having one short phone conversation a week with his parents.

He said: “It was a very different experience, I live in the suburbs of Sheffield and Berlin is a big city.

“I enjoyed their public transport - that was really good. And lots of the food as well!”

On returning from his first exchange, Will then spent the next six months studying for the iGCSE exam syllabus.

He said: “My reading was okay, but writing was the hard bit. We studied for half a year, non stop, to try to get a good grade. And after that, I felt ready, and took the iGCSE in November 2024.”

He enjoyed the process so much that he decided to repeat the exchange experience, spending six months in France last year near Marseille.

“It was extremely hard for the first two weeks of the exchanges,” remembered Will. “I only spoke a little German and no French. But it was a bit like teaching a baby to speak. You point at things, and then you’re told what they are.”

Mrs Keogh explained that the long exchange was harder for her and Will’s father Nicky than it was for their son.

She said: “I think it’s tougher for the parents. Will got really caught up in what he was doing and was integrated into the family, and his school, and his friends. He didn’t forget about us but he was having a great time.

“But we were really confident, we’d visited the family and knew they were good people and he was going to be safe, cared and nurtured by them.”

Will’s aptitude for languages was noticed by his father at a pre-school class, but it was not until he was older that he took to learning in earnest.

Will explained: “I definitely grew up thinking about learning languages, and my dad was very supportive as he loves learning them, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

“I took a liking to German.”

The next steps for Will, who also enjoys coding and reading, are to keep up with his studies in the hopes that one day he might attend university in Germany.