Pupils translate football anthem

Primary schools are encouraging pupils to learn languages

Children are to translate signs at a football stadium to improve their language skills.

Wolverhampton Wanderers' motto, "Out of the darkness, cometh the light", will be turned into French, Arabic, German, Chinese and Spanish.

Even no-smoking signs at Molineux Stadium will be translated, as part of a Wolverhampton University-run course

The children, aged 10 to 11, will also perform foreign versions of the England supporters' anthem Three Lions.

Wolves and lions

Wolves invited them to Molineux to photograph signs and directions.

Three Lions on a Shirt Arabic: Thalathat Usood Alal-Qamis Chinese: San Zhi Long fei Yang French:Trois Lions sur la chemise German: Drei Löwen auf dem Hemd Source: Eskola Education

It is hoped their translations will be available in the stadium in time for pre-season friendlies.

"Out of the darkness, cometh the light" translates into French as "Après l'obscurité vient la lumière".

The children will be displaying the signs and giving a performance of music they have learned, including Paul McCartney's We All Stand Together, the original video to which featured a chorus of frogs.

Foreign-language versions of Three Lions, written by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner - a lifelong fan of Wolves' arch-rivals West Bromwich Albion - will also be sung.

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Keith Munnings of Eskola Education, which runs the summer courses in partnership with the university, said that among the signs translated was "Thank you for not smoking", which in Arabic was "Shukran Ala Adam attadKh-een" and in Chinese "Jìn zhi xi yan".

He said parents and schools were keen for pupils to try learning a new language during the holidays.

"Primary schools in particular know they are expected to deliver more foreign language provision, in preparation for secondary school."

'Focal point'

Some 145 children are taking part, in five groups. Each focuses on one of the five language options for the two-week course.

They have already given performances at the university, including a French cafeteria scene and an Arabic birthday party.

Mr Munnings added: "The football team has always been a focal point of the community in the multicultural Black Country.

"The Paul McCartney song is ambitious but its words deliver a message which matches the underlying theme of the course - to bring together in a collective performance the differences between the various cultures.

"But the club motto, which guides the team out onto the pitch, is by far the hardest to translate."