TALENTED Catherine Goodman is hoping to keep her cool when she competes in a national language skills competition next month.

The ten-year-old, from Red House School, in Norton, has reached the final of the Junior Language Challenge 2005.

In London next month, she will compete against the country's best when it comes to learning new languages - and could win her family a trip to Africa.

Thirty-four students from the school entered the first round of the contest, which involved them learning Portuguese using a CD-ROM.

The aim of the challenge was to give children under 11 the opportunity to discover the fun of learning languages, as well as acquiring new skills.

Organiser Eurotalk recorded the scores and four Red House students were among 30 from the region who made it to the semi-final.

Catherine was joined in the semi-final last month by fellow students Elizabeth Pearson, Abigail Hearmon and Cameron Grove, all nine, when the students had to learn Japanese.

Catherine won second place and will compete at a national level next month, when she will learn Chichewa, which is spoken in Malawi.

Carole Blyth, who is head of French, said: "I am very pleased that four of our students reached the semi-final.

"They worked very hard to reach this stage.

"I am delighted that Catherine has made it to he final, but more than anything, I hope this has given all students who entered the competition an opportunity to see how exciting and fun learning another language can be."

The winner of the final will travel with their family to Malawi to launch a new classroom, paid for by the competition entrants' fees.