PUPILS from Katharine Lady Berkeley's School in Wotton-under-Edge have been successful in a national Japanese speech contest for secondary schools.

Rebecca Comber, Sarah Chatwin, Hilary Dixon, Heather Nicholls and Kimberley Maceke are all studying Japanese as part of their year eight modern foreign languages curriculum.

For the contest they had to write an individual piece in Japanese entitled My Dream and then send a recording of each of them speaking it to the Nihongo Centre in London.

The speeches had to be between two and three minutes long and the pupils could choose their own interpretation of the title.

As a result of the panel screening the recordings, Rebecca Comber has been selected as a finalist and Kimberley Maceke as first reserve.

The final will be held at the Japanese Embassy in central London on June 26. "This is the first time the school has entered the competition, and to have a finalist is extremely satisfying," said Michelle Tate, teacher of Japanese at the school.