Written question asked by Lord Gove (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 October 2008. It was answered by Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Languages: Schools

Question: (2) which primary schools teach a foreign language other than French, Spanish or German.

Answer

The following table details the proportions of those primary schools who reported in autumn 2007 that they were teaching languages in class time teaching each particular language. The data were obtained from ongoing research commissioned by the Department, which estimated that 84 per cent. of primary schools were teaching languages in class time. The figures are based on a representative sample of maintained primary schools and the survey achieved a 69 per cent. response rate nationally. Percentages do not add up to 100 per cent. as some schools offer two or more languages.Other languages taught in small numbers of primary schools included: Latin, Russian, Polish, British Sign Language, Punjabi, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Swedish, Dutch, Esperanto, Welsh, Cornish, Danish, Estonian, Taiwanese, Modern Hebrew, Afrikaans, Somali, Maori and Finnish.

	Percentage of schools offering languages at KS2
French	89
Spanish	23
German	9
Italian	3
Other languages	3
Chinese	1
Japanese	1
Urdu	<1
Bengali	<1

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 480 c1127-9W;480 c1121-3W; 225832
Session: 2007-08
Subjects: Languages Primary education
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk

Languages: Schools

Secondary information

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