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16 April 2026

Tag: french

A third of state schools allow pupils to opt out of languages in year 9

Over a third of state schools now allow pupils to opt out of studying a language in year 9, a new report has revealed. In fact, 34.5 per cent of state schools are not teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) to entire groups of students at that level, up from 29 per cent in 2017 and […]

Urgent action needed to save MFL from ‘extinction’, claims expert

GCSE entries to modern foreign languages continued to fall this year, in a dropoff that could even see some subjects becoming “extinct” in schools, according to one expert. Overall, MFL entries were down by 7.3 per cent this year at around 300,000 in total, while the drop in the population of 16-year-olds in England sat […]

Nick Gibb is wrong about modern foreign languages

Boosting foreign language GCSE entries is not the way to improve our country’s language skills – but there is a better way, insists David Harbourne The Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, wants 90% of 16-year-olds to take a foreign language GCSE. In a recent House of Commons debate on the EBacc, he said this is necessary […]

Further Maths A level sees 2.5 percentage point boost to A* grades

The number of pupils achieving an A* in Further Maths has jumped by 2.5 percentage points – the largest increase of any A level subject, figures show. Provisional figures published this morning by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) show 29 per cent of the almost 15,000 entrants received the top grade this morning. That […]