PARENTS are being urged to encourage their children to take part in a six-month exchange so they can learn a foreign language fluently before they go to secondary school.

Darlington mother Penny Jones sent her eight-year-old son, Richard, to Germany last September and is about to say auf wiedersehen to his exchange friend, Sam Wirth.

The nine-year-old is returning to Ulm, in the south of Germany, after spending six-months living with an English family and attending Mowden Junior School, in Darlington.

Sam is fluent in English and Richard, now nine, speaks German as his second language.

Organiser ALLEF has been running exchanges for youngsters aged eight to 11 in France and Germany for 12 years, but there is a shortage of English host families.

Mrs Jones said: "ALLEF's first graduates are now finishing university and many of them have found that speaking a foreign language well has led to exciting opportunities.

"Many companies are keen to recruit graduates who are confident with another language, and who understand the outlook and culture of another country."

Her daughter, Heather, 15, who went France, already has GCSEs in French and German and is studying Mandarin and Russian.

For more information visit www.allef.org.uk or telephone Penny Jones on (01325) 359954.