A BOLTON high school has been hailed as a success in any language thanks to its groundbreaking work in helping pupils become fluent in foreign tongues.

Little Lever School has become so successful that it has been singled out for praise by Education Secretary David Blunkett in the Commons.

In 1999, the Church Street school was presented with speciality Language College status by the Government -- at that stage children were offered tuition in the usual French and German as well as some further afield languages such as Japanese.

Since the award of the status the list of languages has continued to grow and now encompasses everything from Italian, Cantonese, Russian, Urdu and Spanish as well as running short courses in other languages.

The high school's success has become particularly big in Japan -- so much so that the Japanese Government has funded full-time teacher Tsukasa Yamanaka for a year.

As well as teaching all Year 7 pupils, Mr Yamanaka also runs evening classes for parents -- as is the case with many of the other languages taught at the school.

The school also played host recently to a delegation of Japanese visitors who dressed in national costume, talked about their culture and presented the school with a traditional kimono.

The school has also built up a strong relationship with schools in and around Moscow and pupils are currently swapping artwork with a Russian school.

The school was assisted in gaining its Language College status by Bolton North-east MP Dr Brian Iddon who has been delighted with its success.

This week, Dr Iddon asked Mr Blunkett to join him in congratulating the school during a Commons debate.

Dr Iddon said: "An international dimension has been spread across the whole curriculum of the school and out into the wider community."

"I very much wish to congratulate the school," said Mr Blunkett. "I congratulate the Japanese government on their excellent initiative in funding the first year of the post and I hope we can develop that with other embassies and countries."

Little Lever head Ann Behan said she was both "delighted and surprised" by the school's mention in the House.

"We fought long and hard to get Language College status and we are very pleased it is paying off for us," she said. "The status means that we not only have to teach the languages but all about the culture of the country as well.

"We usually decide to teach a language if we have pupils from the country studying here and we have benefited from Mr Yamanaka's presence and hope this will continue into the future."