English A Second Language In More Than One In Nine Schools

English A Second Language In More Than One In Nine Schools: In more than one in nine English schools, English is spoken only as a second language by the majority of children. In more than 200 schools, at least 9 in 10 students do not have English as their first language, whilst in 1,755 schools across England more than half of pupils speak another language before English.

Data obtained from The Daily Telegraph from the Department of Education suggests that the number of children speaking English as a second language in school has risen by more than a fifth over the last half decade, and now stands at 1.1 million pupils across England. This increase has led to drastic measures in some schools – including the necessity for interpreters to be called in to attend parents evening and other events.

Among English schools, the institution with the highest percentage of children who do not speak English as their first language has been named as Sacred Heart Primary in Sandwell, in the West Midlands. In this school only 1% of pupils speak English as their first language, whilst 99% have a different mother tongue. Of the ten schools with the highest proportion of pupils not speaking English as their first language, all but two are located outside London – whilst nine out of the ten are rated either good or outstanding by Ofsted. The top ten schools by percentage of the pupil population not speaking English as a first language are listed below.

These figures come in the wake of caps on Bulgarian and Romanian migrations being lifted in January, and additional figures suggest that the pupil population in England will exceed eight million by 2022 – for the first time since the 1980s. The rise will be fuelled, say commentators, by a higher birth rate and migrants entering the country.

English A Second Language In More Than One In Nine Schools

English A Second Language In More Than One In Nine Schools

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