YOUNGSTERS at a local nursery are being given the chance to learn a second language - at the same time as they learn their first!

Petite Ecole, based in Liverpool Road, Pewfall, is believed to be the only nursery in the North West to offer language training. And, according to principal Julie Mousley-Dean, babies as young as three months old can benefit.

Julie, a former schoolteacher, set up the nursery last July with the help of St Helens Chamber of Commerce, Trading and Enterprise. The bilingual training is based on using everyday situations, like saying good morning and goodbye, to the children using French as well as English.

She said: "European children learn other languages from a very young age - unlike here in the UK - and the younger the child, the easier they find it to learn. We teach them nursery rhymes, numbers and days of the week and they also learn various foods so they can use French at meal times."

All Petite Ecole's staff have language qualifications and the nursery is currently ahead of National Curriculum standards having already held a number of literacy periods, even though these will only be officially introduced into primary schools next year.

The school also holds Saturday language classes in Spanish, French and German, run by trained tutors and catering for four to 14-year-olds in the mornings and adults in the afternoons.

PICTURED: YOUNG charges at the Petite Ecole nursery get to grips with their French lessons. (Ref. 295/36).

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