LANGUAGES brainbox Robert Cole was exclaiming 'sacre bleu' as he scooped an A-grade French A-Level - aged just 14.

And the Marling School pupil, from Far Oakridge, had another reason to celebrate this week as he attained one of the top five marks in the country for his German GCSE - taken a year early.

Amazingly, the talented linguists' achievement in German was matched when he obtained a top five mark in the French GCSE he took last year at 13.

Proud mum Charlotte said: "I am absolutely delighted. I don't know where he gets it from - neither I or my husband are good with languages. "I have a smattering of French but to be honest I don't dare speak it in front of him.

"The only thing we can think of is that his grandfather on his father's side, Eric Cole, spoke five languages. Perhaps he gets it from him."

Young Robert's skill with languages has led him to take on a tough challenge this year as he plans to start learning Mandarin.

"Languages are definitely my best subject," he said.

"I just find that once you learn the grammar, which is normally quite boring, you can start to write things and just add words into sentences without having to learn whole phrases.

"It wasn't really hard work because I found it really enjoyable."

Mrs Cole praised Marling head Roger Lock, who has masterminded a campaign to get the brightest pupils taking exams early at the Stroud grammar school.