FORTY A-level English literature students from a Worcester college today embarked on a four-day tour of First World War battlefield sites in Belgium and France.

The writing of famous authors such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon inspired the trip, which is the third year Worcester Sixth Form College has visited the sites.

Cemeteries near Ypres, the trenches of Passchendaele and the fields of the Somme are all on the itinerary, followed by poetry, story and letter reading, as well as creative writing.

"This is a tremendous chance for our students to see at first hand what they have been reading about in class," said course leader Janet Malone.

"It is a very special experience to go where these writers fought and suffered.

"It also brings to life the writings of women of the time, many of whom served as nurses close to the front line or struggled to keep things going at home."

The head of department at the Spetchley Road college, Paul Morris, said the inspirational trip would help improve results still further.

"We have had outstanding results in English Literature over the past few years, particularly on this paper," he said.

"I'm sure that this is due in large measure to our annual visit to the battlefields."

This year the students have been researching local connections, including family members who served in the war, and hope to find places that have links with Worcester.

Emphasis on fun in linguistic head start

THE Government-led "language revolution" has been taken on board by one Worcestershire school, which is giving its younger pupils a linguistic head start.

All pupils under 11 years old at Bredon School, near Upton-upon-Severn, are taught a minimum of half-an-hour of French and half-an-hour of Spanish each week.

The school's new head of languages, Leonie Kenyon, has been pleased with the progress.

"I try to conduct the lessons entirely in the foreign language - with lots of gesticulation," said Mrs Kenyon. "I'm already finding that children of that age learn very quickly."

The emphasis in the classes is on fun, with videos and lots of chances for children to speak and listen, she added.

And the youngsters had a chance to put their French and Spanish to use in Bredon School's Languages and Culture Week, which included a treasure hunt, quizzes, music and foods from around the world.

"We are very excited that we can now offer two languages for children as young as seven," said head of juniors Lorraine Pates.

"Fortunately, our Junior School is able to tap into all the resources that the senior school offers, including specialised language teaching."

n Year 10 pupil Emma Hall strikes a Spanish pose watched by Bredon School pupils.

Youngsters

wear jeans

YOUNGSTERS at a Worcester nursery dressed in denim as part of a campaign to help four national charities.

The children from Leapfrog Day Nursery, in Warndon, dressed down to support Jean for Genes day, a campaign to help those born with genetic disorders and birth defects.

Everyone at the Brindley Road nursery, including staff, brought in £1, on Friday, October 3, helping the centre do its bit for charity.

"Everyone enjoyed taking part and helping raise much-needed funds for a very important cause," said manager Vicky Thurston.

"It's great to be able to make a difference in such an enjoyable way."

Jeans for Genes raises funds for research into often life-threatening disorders affecting thousands of children, and helps fund valuable advice and support services for families.

One in every 33 people is born with a genetic disorder or birth defect and the nationwide scheme is hoping to raise £2.5m this year.

On the map

A WORCESTERSHIRE school has thought big in its latest campaign to attract students.

Kidderminster's Holy Trinity School, in Birmingham Road, has teamed up with bus operator First Wyvern to promote the school by taking advertising space on the back of their buses.

"We wanted to link with a local company to promote the school and First Wyvern buses provides us with the ideal platform as they quite literally will be putting Holy Trinity School on the map," said headmistress Yvonne Wilkinson.

"We are proud of our students' achievements and by linking with First Wyvern to promote the school we are saying we're here, come and see us."

The adverts, which started yesterday and will continue until the end of the year, will be seen in much of Worces-tershire and Birmingham.

It's been

a bumper harvest!

SCHOOLS across Worcestershire held their annual Harvest Festival services at the end of last week.

Pupils, staff and parents from the schools joined in the traditional event by bringing in cans and packets of food for distribution by Age Concern.

And Kidderminster's Holy Trinity School, in Birmingham Road, invited Derek Elton, president of the Worcestershire branch of Age Concern, as special guest at the service.

Girls and boys aged four and five years old led the celebrations with their performance of The Garden, which ended with the Harvest Samba being sung and danced by all lower school children.

Following the service, on Friday, October 3, students and staff helped members of Age Concern to load their "harvest" into the minibus.

n Left to right: four-year-old Jayden Watson and five-year-old Hakeem Hussain bring the crops in.