CHILDREN at three Roman Catholic primary schools in Rossendale have said "bonjour" to a new languages teacher who will be giving them a double whammy of French lessons every week.

Youngsters will be making the most of their new language lessons to help them communicate with their foreign counterparts.

The initiative comes as their feeder school, All Saints' RC High School and Language College, in Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall, has been allocated funding from the government to teach French for a double period at St Joseph's, Stacksteads; St Mary's, Bacup; and St Anselm's, Whitworth. Year five pupils at the schools will receive lessons on Monday afternoons to give them the basic skills needed for when they move up to high school.

Jan Gibson, headteacher of St Joseph's, said although the initiative was in its infancy, it was so far, so good, for the lessons.

She said: "The lessons are for children aged nine and ten to get them ready for when they have to start learning languages when they go into year seven.

"This way it is not such a shock when they start high school, and they will have the basics behind them.

"All the children are loving the lessons because it is something different to what they usually do in class.

"The parents are very positive about it because their children are going home and teaching them how to speak French.

"The focus is not just on the language side, it is also on the writing aspect to give the children a wider knowledge of the language."

The school also has an interactive white board to help the children learn by projecting images from the internet onto the board.

Mrs Gibson added: "The children find the interactive white board extremely useful because they can associate with what is going on which, in turn, helps them to learn and remember things."