IT is a school unique to the UK.

Not only is the Europa School in Culham, Oxfordshire’s first free school, it is the only school in the country following the European curriculum and working towards the European Baccalaureate.

The school, which will eventually replace the European School with which it shares its site, opened in September with six classes of pupils in reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Half of those classes split their time between learning in English and French, and the other half between English and German.

It is a model similar to that of its predecessor — but the key difference at the school, which has just finished its first full year, is that as a state-funded school, anyone can apply for a place and receive bilingual education free of charge.

Principal Peter Ashbourne said: “The biggest triumph so far is the happiness. We have seen very happy pupils and very happy parents and had a lot of very positive feedback. “The biggest challenge is probably getting everything up and running from the technology side.

“The other is simply working our path through being a European school and being a British school.”

While many of the pupils have bilingual parents and about half speak English as an additional language, for some the first French or German ever spoken will have been at the school. The school uses an ‘immersive’ learning experience, so all lessons are taken in the second language, and by the end of the school year — which finished on Friday, July 5 — during the French and German half of the week, children were listening to questions in the different languages and answering with barely a word of English spoken.

While the school follows the European curriculum, it will still need to be assessed against English criteria. That means Ofsted will be visiting early next term to judge the suitability of the school, and children will also be assessed against Key Stage 1 and 2 criteria.

The first group of 55 Year 2 children have been assessed by teachers as to what their Key Stage 1 levels are in reading, writing and maths, and those results will be sent to the Department for Education and will be included within Oxfordshire County Council’s results.

Mr Ashbourne said: “We are just about to send the results off and I would say they look good.

“We do recognise we want to stretch the most able a little bit more and we will, but they have done well.

“It is important to say from the literacy side they have done English tests on two and a half days a week, learning in English, and they have done extremely well, so the benefits of learning the second language are clear.”

There are currently 166 pupils in the school, with a capacity for its first year of 168. There were just under 100 applications for the 56 reception places for September, and it looks to be full for the next academic year. Mr Ashbourne said he had been impressed by the commitment of parents to help each other support their children through the bilingual education.

He said: “Those who have parents who do speak particularly good French and German have got together resources for other parents and made material that would support parents themselves in knowing a bit of the language.

“There was a lovely moment after about six weeks when a father came up to me at the end of the day and said ‘it’s working, my son is speaking German’.”

The school has a much lower than average proportion of children with special educational needs, roughly seven per cent, while only five to six per cent are eligible for free school meals — a key indicator of deprivation.

Mr Ashbourne said: “I hope parents of children with special educational needs would not be put off it and I know parents of such children who have chosen our school and are very happy with it.

“If it’s difficult for a child to learn in two languages it’s difficult for them to learn in one, so there is no more reason for them to turn away from the school. “We want to encourage families with children eligible for free school meals because we want to have a very varied intake.

“It’s not just about the variety of languages, it is a variety of ability and a variety of background and it just seems natural to us to try to reflect the diversity of the area we live in.”

The school has been based in six classrooms and will have ten from September. There are nine teachers, plus Mr Ashbourne, and a head of primary school, and for September 2013 there will be four more staff. In the European curriculum, Year 1 and 2 pupils study an English language programme, plus a similar programme in French or German, along with maths, discovery of the world, music, art and PE.

The current version of the national curriculum includes a statutory programme for history, geography, science, music and PE.

What the children think of it...

Isaiah Adjei, six, from Oxford, has a German-speaking father. He said: “I am enjoying it, my favourite bit was when I went on the school trip.

“My favourite time is playing. “I like German more because you get to play straight away in the mornings.”

Alicia Alcantara, six, from East Hendred, has a German mother and other German-speaking relatives. She said: “I normally know lots of German. “I like doing maths and learning about things in German. “It is easy for me but I think I speak it more confidently now.”

Natalie Pietruszewska, five, from Abingdon, is of Polish origin and is in the French group. She said: “I didn’t speak French before I came here, “I speak a little bit more now. “It is strange but I can answer lots of questions.”

Elizabeth Weller, four, from Oxford, said: “I spoke some German before but I like having my lessons in German. “I don’t find it hard because my mummy spoke German to me.

“I like the school, people are friendly and all the people in my class are friends.”

Hugh Barter, five, from Chilton, was new to German. He said: “Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s okay. “I speak quite a lot now. “I think it is better to go to a school where you speak both.

“I like both English and German lessons. It’s hard but it’s fun.”

Jens Matthiesen, six, from Didcot, has a German father. He said: “I like it here, I like doing maths.

“I think I have got a bit better at German. I have made good friends here.”

Joseph Weller, seven, from Abingdon, was new to German. He said: “I have found it quite interesting. “It was difficult to begin with and it is still quite difficult, but I probably prefer my German days.

“I like it because we have the opportunity to learn a new language. “I am getting confident and I feel proud of myself.”

...and what the teachers make of it too...

Eliza Majchrzak is originally Polish and teaches the Year 1 German stream class.

She said: “It is a fantastic school, absolutely unique.

“What I find a real strength of the school is the fact it is multilingual and multicultural. “Two-thirds of the children in my class are native German or from mixed families and a third are those who never spoke German before.

“I find the ones who didn’t speak before will now build simple sentences and they all come to me and speak in German because the rules in the class are speaking only in German.

“They all understand the instructions, even the ones who never spoke it before. They are definitely doing as well across subjects as those who did German before.”

Amelie Toubhantz teaches the Year 1 French English stream. She found out she was pregnant after accepting the job, and taught at the school for a term before going on maternity leave.

She loved the experience so much she returned before the end of the year. She is even considering moving to within the school’s catchment area so when her daughter Valentuie, who was born in February, is old enough, she can go to the Europa School. She said: “For me it was a challenge.

“It was important for me to work harder because I was pregnant to show them I was able to do it.

“As a teacher it is important for me that my daughter will have a French way of teaching and I want her to speak proper French.”