Students from Oxford University have been taking time out from lectures to help GCSE students boost their grades.

Modern languages students visited five secondary schools in Oxford to offer support to Year 11 pupils ahead of their GCSE exams in French and German this summer.

The pilot project, which was run by the university and the Aim Higher national campaign to raise youngsters' attainment and aspirations, ran for four weeks from January 21 to February 15.

It proved so successful, it is continuing until the end of term at Gosford Hill School, in Oxford Road, Kidlington.

Year 11 pupils at the school believe the involvement of Oxford postgraduate student Bianca Summons, who is at Lady Margaret Hall doing a Masters in linguistics, has really helped them.

Miss Summons has been assisting pupils in a GCSE French class, taking small groups out of the main classroom and encouraging them to speak French.

This is not only to help them get through their exams, but also so they can travel on the continent more confidently.

One GCSE French student, Lauren Green, 15, said: "It's been good and really helpful. We've been getting top tips on things and are doing more role plays which really helps our spoken French."

Classmate George Brooks, 16, said: "It is much easier working in a small group. French was not necessarily something I had taken to, but I definitely feel more confident about it now and I'm certainly not as nervous about my exams as I had been."

Gosford Hill's head of modern languages, Sandy Yuen, said: "I think the students feel much more comfortable speaking in smaller groups and it makes a nice change for them to be speaking to someone younger who they can identify with more easily.

"It's also great for them to be working with someone successful from Oxford University. The students might have thought of the university as something unattainable, but I think this has given them something to aspire to. It's proven to be really useful."

Miss Summons, who is hoping to move to France later in the year to teach English as a foreign language, said: "I have really enjoyed getting involved and I hope I've helped the students.

"I've been coming in for an hour a week and it's all good experience and highly rewarding."

Thirteen other Oxford students, both undergraduates and postgraduates, have been helping out at Peers School in Littlemore, Cheney School in Headington, Oxford Community School in East Oxford and St Gregory the Great School in Cowley.