SAINTS star Anders Svensson helped kick off a Southampton school's future as a specialist language college.

The Swedish midfielder was guest of honour at the launch of Woolston School as Woolston Language College after it was recently awarded language school specialist status by the government.

Southampton businesses helped raise £50,000 to support the scheme, which will see an increase in the number of language courses on offer.

Among several new courses available will be Mandarin Chinese, as well as more usual tongues such as Spanish.

There will also be more government cash to fund more teachers and foreign exchanges.

Pupils at Woolston School in Portchester Road have already clocked up impressive language results, and staff hope becoming a specialist school will help raise standards even further.