A project to teach French to four-year-olds will be launched in County Durham this week.

St Bede's RC School, in Lanchester, a specialist language college, is working with its partner primary schools to bring modern foreign languages to children from their earliest days at school.

More than 100 young children from 13 primary schools will be at St Bede's on Thursday to help launch the project which will see all reception children learning French from January and continuing throughout their primary school careers.

Headteacher Maureen Bates said: "St Bede's is acknowledged nationally as one of the leading schools for teaching modern foreign languages.

"We've been working for several years with our partner primary schools by providing a teacher either to teach French to year six pupils or to support schools that want to deliver French themselves. The success of that scheme has encouraged us to embark on this ambitious new project to introduce reception class children to French.

"The hope is that children from their earliest days will understand the importance of learning a foreign language."

The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) has acknowledged the good practice at St Bede's by setting up a partnership with the University of Durham to develop a course to equip primary teachers to teach French as well as other primary subjects.

Mrs Bates said: "This co-operation between a university, a secondary school and primary partners could be a model for future initiatives in other areas of the country. With the support of the TTA, we are one of the first schools in the country to appoint a primary modern foreign languages lead teacher.

"This teacher's wide-ranging responsibilities include training and supporting student teachers and primary colleagues in the classroom and contributing to primary developments in the region."

From January, all reception classes will learn French and will continue to do so until year six.