Pupils at the Berkhamsted school immersed themselves in the foods, languages and cultures of countries across the globe.

On Wednesday Italian flavour hit, it was to the Orient on Thursday with China and the fun was rounded off with England on Friday.

Each lunchtime cooking staff made speciality dishes from the different counties and the school was packed with decorations.

Registers were taken in the different tongues and the children competed in quizzes linked to the various places.

The celebrations were part of an international European day of languages last Friday where millions of people across 45 countries got involved in activities to celebrate linguistic diversity and the benefits of being able to speak another language.

Miss Wheelton, teaching and learning coordinator for modern foreign languages at Thomas Coram, said: "The aim of the week was to alert the children to the importance of language learning, to increase awareness and appreciation of all languages and to encourage lifelong learning."