A report published this week by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) shows that the number of primary schools teaching another language is rising steadily. The report showed that 92% of English primary schools are offering children aged 7 to 11 (KS2) the opportunity to learn a language during class time, compared to 84% the previous year.

The report shows that French is still the most commonly taught language in primary schools (90% of schools which teach languages) followed by Spanish (25%) and German (10%).

According to the new research, the majority of schools teaching languages felt that they would be ready to meet the government’s requirement for statutory language teaching in KS2 by 2011. However, it is possible that up to a quarter of all schools may not be ready to meet this target.

Therese Comfort, Head of Primary Languages at CILT said: ‘Although there is still much to be done, we are really encouraged by the amount of energy that primary schools across England are putting into creating language provision and making language learning an enjoyable and valuable experience for children.

We hope that projects such as our Primary Languages website and the annual CILT Primary Languages Show in Liverpool – which is growing year on year – will provide valuable support to schools that are just starting out with languages.’

Download the full report from the DCSF website