STUDENTS at Terra Nova are reviving a dead language to communicate with counterparts across Europe.

The class of 12 Latin students have become the only UK school involved in an international postcard exchange, whereby messages are written in Latin and sent off to penpals in schools as far as Belgium and France.

The Epistulae project – ‘letter’ in Latin – is the brainchild of French teachers’ group Arrete Ton Char and involves more than 8,000 students in this, its inaugural year.

Terra Nova pupils sent off their postcards in December, and received responses last week.

Liz Syed, Latin teacher at the Jodrell Bank school, said: “One of the things people say is that Latin is a dead language. Our message is that it’s very much alive and thriving at Terra Nova.

“We use lots of modern teaching methods, and this postcard exchange is bringing it to life for the students. It’s keeping it useful and meaningful.

“It’s making them internationally aware and finding out about people from other countries, and seeing that it’s a proper language and can be used for communication.

“It also helps inform other subjects and professions, like science, medicine and law. Even the name of the school is Latin.

“Some of the students had only been learning Latin for three months or so before sending off their cards. They put a lot of effort in and worked really hard on them.”