The Government plans to pour cash into primary schools to encourage more youngsters to take foreign language GCSEs. We asked kids at New Earswick Primary School: "Parlez-vous Francais?"

PROUDLY sporting on her sweater a "bon travail" sticker for good work, nine-year-old Jessica Waudby says she enjoys French lessons in school.

She is in a band of 30 lunchtime learners from Years 1 to 6 at New Earswick who don't mind giving up precious outdoor playtime to learn another language.

Jessica said: "When you come in there's always activities to do on the language and you can learn new words every week."

Her classmate, ten-year-old Laura Savoury, said: "I think it's good to have a second language so if a French person walks up to you, you might even know what they are saying."

Jordan Bottrill, also ten, said: "We'll be able to know what they're saying and they'll know what we're saying - and if we learn French it saves them a job of learning English."

The Government has announced plans to give primary schools across the country more than £110 million to help give youngsters a head start learning languages before they go on to secondary school..

Nearly half the money will help recruit a further 6,000 primary language teachers and teaching assistants and help train existing teachers and assistants.

But ministers hope it will help them meet their target of ensuring that every primary pupil can learn a language by 2010.

The pressures of fitting teaching other subjects into the school day means that in many primary schools, teaching foreign languages does not happen or is marginalised to lunchtime sessions.

In September, New Earswick is hoping to employ a teaching assistant who is fluent in French to teach youngsters the language for about three-quarters of an hour a week.

Currently the job falls to teaching assistant Kate Green, who admits French was not her favourite subject at school; but she said she had been overwhelmed by the children's enthusiasm for the subject.

Christopher Smallwood, ten, said he was trying to teach his mum and dad at home the French he had learned in school.

He said: "Doing French now is probably better than starting from scratch when we go to secondary school."

Jordan Deacon, nine, said their teacher took the register in French and the class could also count up to 30.

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, May 18, 2005