Pupils at an Aberdeen primary school have achieved remarkable levels of proficiency in French after their school adopted a programme that involves speaking nothing but French in some subjects from their first day in class.

From the age of five pupils at Walker Road Primary are taught by native French speakers. They work with general school staff to teach subjects such as drama and physical education.

According to an evaluation report published by the University of Stirling yesterday, the programme, first introduced in 2000, has produced an understanding of French greater than that found in most pupils in the upper years of secondary school.

Other benefits included a better grasp of English, an increased sense of confidence, and a more international outlook.

The report, carried out by Professor Richard Johnstone, and Robert McKinstry, of the Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research at the Stirling Institute of Education, examined primary six pupils who had been taught in French since starting school at the age of five.

Mr McKinstry said that he was impressed by the results. He said: “You have to accept there will be pupils of different abilities, but those who were the most able language learners had listening skills equivalent to pupils in third or fourth year of secondary school.”

“One pupil now at secondary school was put into a third-year class for French,” he added.

Mr McKinstry said that the school's adoption of the scheme could be a model for others.

“It has developed pupils' confidence; their self-esteem; ability to use English; given them another language, and an understanding of other societies,” he said.

“It would be a shame if it were not continued at the school, and it would be logical to consider extending it beyond Walker Road because the benefits seem to be very considerable.”

The initiative, known as early partial primary immersion, is the first of its kind in Britain. In other bilingual schools, such as Gaelic-medium schools, all lessons are taught in the second language.

From primary one onwards children receive some of their education through the medium of French and some through the medium of English.

This contrasts with the usual approach to teaching modern languages in the primary school whereby pupils receive a relatively small amount of foreign language tuition from primary six onwards, or occasionally earlier.

The scheme has two main advantages. Children have more time for learning and using French, as they start earlier and study other subjects in French. The experience is more intense because they are challenged not only to learn French but also to use it to acquire knowledge and skills in different areas of the curriculum.

A key feature of the project is that the school is situated in an area of recognised socio-economic deprivation, and the aims of the project were concerned not only with the development of proficiency in French but also with raising aspirations.

Mo Robertson, head teacher at Walker Road Primary, said she had already noticed that many pupils had become more outgoing, and claimed that there could be greater long-term gains.

She admitted that the initiative had presented diffiulties. “It has been great for the school, but there have been highs and lows - the recruitment of the French teachers proved to be a particular problem. But we pushed ahead and now we can see the pupils are more confident in their own language too.”

Maureen Watt, minister for schools and skills, said that the SNP Administration would now be studying the findings of the report.

“The Scottish government is focused on encouraging our young people to be self-confident, outward-looking Scots.

“These are qualities reflected in the children of Walker Road Primary who have developed their French language skills through this pilot, from which I am sure there will be valuable lessons that we can learn for language learning in Scottish education as a whole.”

Other countries that have adopted similar schemes include Canada, where early immersion in French has been developed since the mid-1960s, and Spain, which has a large-scale national project on early bilingual education.

In Scotland Gaelic-medium education at primary school is a form of immersion since many children do not have Gaelic as the language of their home.

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