A Dundee girl has proven herself “magnifique” after attaining a Standard Grade in French at the age of 13.
Eve Ireland, who is entering her second year at Grove Academy, has achieved a grade one credit level pass in the language after sitting an exam in the spring.
The Broughty Ferry resident received her results earlier this month after being allowed to sit the exam by her school, having spent three years living in France.
Despite having had the benefit of being immersed in the language, her mother Emma told The Courier that pre-exam nerves were the biggest hurdle.
“Eve is practically bilingual and I wanted to keep her French going when she started at Grove,” she explained.
“She’s learning German now but it would have been a shame to know so much French and not use it.
“In some respects the language was the easy part because she had never sat an exam before.
“But the school were great and Mr Edwards there gave up some of his own time to help which was fantastic.
“She’s just 13 years old so I’m very proud of her.”
Moving to Tayside in the autumn of 2009, Eve attended Forthill Primary School before starting at Grove Academy last summer.
Despite the distance between Dundee and Dordogne where they lived, she still regularly converses with school friends in France via the internet.
“We lived in Dordogne in a little village for three years and when she started school she didn’t know a word of French,” Emma added.
“However, by the end of her first week she was already chatting away with her friends.
“I think children seem to embrace these changes when they’re young.
“Now with Facebook and MSN she still speaking to her old friends in French and to someone else in English at the same time.”
As impressive as Eve’s achievement is she is still significantly older that Geetha Thaninathan from Maidstone who in 2003 passed a GCSE, the English equivalent of Standard Grades, in information technology at the age of six.
Dundee is no stranger to clever youngsters after Dundee-born Chantelle Coleman became the youngest person to be admitted into Mensa aged just four in 1996.